Baltimore Harbor

Capt. Ralph Avery Kirchner Jr., a retired Baltimore tugboat captain and docking pilot who was a World War II veteran, died Sunday of Parkinson's disease at Hospice of Queen Anne's in Centreville. The former longtime Arnold resident, who moved to Kent Island 20 years ago, was 84. The son of a tugboat captain and docking pilot and a homemaker, Captain Kirchner, who was descended from a long line of mariners, was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. As a youngster, he often accompanied his father, captain of the tug Point Breeze, to work.

Baltimore's harbor may be a mess, but those who attended a daylong conference on its problems Saturday came away encouraged that it doesn't have to stay that way. The meeting — sponsored by the Waterfront Partnership, a nonprofit group representing Inner Harbor businesses and institutions — was equal parts science class, how-to workshop and pep rally. It was punctuated with appearances by local politicians and Alexandra Cousteau, a clean-water advocate and granddaughter of undersea adventurer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

The trash littering Baltimore's harbor might not seem like art to many. But for local artist Eileen Wold, it's an obvious sign of the damaged health of the waterways that define this region. The Inner Harbor and Middle Branch of the Patapsco River — debris and all — are featured subjects of a new multimedia exhibition by Wold that opened this week at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. The aim of "Empty Waters," she explained, is to get people to think hard about their role in degrading the Chesapeake Bay, and especially the harbor.

Ray Bahr ought to be taking it easy. He's 75 and retired after a successful career as a cardiologist. Instead, the Canton resident finds himself prowling alleys in East Baltimore on the lookout for illegally dumped trash and goading city officials to clean up mini-landfills in back of abandoned houses. Now, the physician — who once helped launch a national movement to treat chest pain before it can lead to fatal attacks — has another sick patient, another crusade. He wants to help heal the watery heart of Baltimore — its harbor — and in the process perhaps bring a fractured city a little closer together.

A year after agreeing to pool their efforts, Baltimore's clean-water activists are unveiling Thursday a new environmental group they hope will bring added influence to the effort to restore the harbor and the degraded rivers and streams that feed into it. Blue Water Baltimore , the merged offspring of five watershed groups, is launching its new identity with a $1.2 million project to repave alleys and street corners to prevent pollution from...

The state has made a rare binding pledge to offset whatever pollution it may cause by depositing the muck it dredges from Baltimore harbor in a cove south of downtown. Bowing to concerns raised by environmentalists, the state Department of the Environment is requiring the Maryland Port Administration to limit or make up for the nitrogen and phosphorus expected to drain back into the Patapsco River from the dredged material to be placed in Masonville Cove. The port administration has spent $153 million to clean up trash and debris in the cove area and build an environmental education center there.

Three giant steel beams twisted and fused together during the collapse of the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The rubble, which arrived Tuesday, will be reborn as Maryland's 9/11 memorial, to be erected at Baltimore's World Trade Center in time for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Gov. Martin O'Malley called it "a sacred and holy relic," and his voice faltered as he said he would do his part to ensure that the state never forgets the 43 Marylanders who died when airplanes smashed into the towers and the Pentagon in Virginia.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor was once ringed by wetlands, but over time they gave way to development until only one was left. Now there are two. Volunteers in kayaks, a small boat and a canoe towed a "floating wetland island" from Fells Point — where it took form — to the waters alongside Baltimore's World Trade Center on Sunday. Tourists stopped to gawk and snap photographs as the environmentally friendly flotilla made its slow way along the harbor, the cargo more eye-catching in its greenery than anything else in the crowded waterway.

This month, tens of thousands of Baltimore citizens and visitors helped celebrate the 30th anniversary of Harborplace. Our world-famous waterfront has become a source of pride for residents and a recreational asset that connects people with our industrial heritage, our rich array of city neighborhoods, and of course with the water itself. Baltimore benefits from the harbor's ability to draw regional, national and international tourists, supporting one of the largest sectors of the city's economy.