Conowingo Dam

Last week when Herbert Sachs, Maryland's representative on the Susquehanna River Basin Commission, said the problem of silt build-up behind Conowingo Dam had been discussed for years, but nothing had been done about it, he was spot on. The inaction over well in excess of a decade means the reality of a substantial ecological disaster is looming large. The kind of disaster risked by leaving the mess of sediment behind Conowingo Dam isn't the sort of thing that would cost human lives, but it is the kind of thing that is bound to change life along the Chesapeake Bay. It's also the kind of disaster we've experienced before.

Four members of Harford County's Darlington Volunteer Fire Company were conducting training exercises in the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam on Sunday when their V-hull watercraft hit a rock, causing two men to be thrown into the water. Two more were thrown onto the deck of the craft. Harford County Fire Department spokesman Rich Gardiner said other members of the fire company's tactical rescue team conducting operations nearby rescued all four men, who were taken to shore and then to a local hospital.

The Maryland State Highway Administration has postponed the planned closure of Route 1 at Conowingo Dam until Monday, Nov. 14, the agency said Wednesday, citing weather concerns. The SHA had planned to close part of Route 1 at Conowingo Dam all day Thursday in order to resurface and repair highway damage at the intersection of Routes 1 and Route 222 (Rock Spring Road) caused by a fuel tanker truck accident and spill Oct. 26. The same work will now be done Monday because inclement weather was forecast for Thursday, SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar said.

One of two Pennsylvania men involved in an early Monday morning crash on the Harford County side of Conowingo Dam has died, Maryland State Police confirmed Monday afternoon. Anila Vadala, 28, of the 4000 block of Locust Street in Philadelphia, died following the two-vehicle accident, which occurred around 5:45 a.m. Monday on Route 1 near the dam, according to State Police. The accident involved a pickup truck and Honda, according to Sgt. Comer, duty officer at the Maryland State Police Barrack, which is investigating the crash.

Divers and rescue personnel searched in the waters around Conowingo Dam Wednesday night for a 56-year-old Havre de Grace man who was reported missing and may have jumped from the dam, Maryland State Police said. As of Thursday afternoon, however, there was no confirmation that anyone had jumped from the dam, nor had anything been found. Around 7:20 p.m Wednesday, a dive team and other rescue personnel were dispatched to the dam for a report of a possible suicide A monitored Harford County emergency radio broadcast advised rescue personnel that an abandoned vehicle, with a suicide note inside, had been found near the dam. Rescue personnel called from both Harford and Cecil counties were instructed to meet in the "fisherman's wharf" area.

Motorists who travel on the Route 1 bridge across the Susquehanna River in northern Harford County can expect temporary delays Tuesday and Wednesday. Crews from the Conowingo Hydroelectric Generating Station will move crest gates from the dam to the upper parking lot at the Conowingo Visitor Center for regular maintenance and repairs. Moving the large gates will temporarily delay traffic in both directions on Route 1 from Route 222 to Shures Landing Road, just south of Conowingo Dam on the Harford County side.

On a hot summer day, it's hard to see how the Conowingo Dam could hurt the Chesapeake Bay. Anglers line the shore below the 94-foot high impoundment, casting out into the gently roiling Susquehanna River for rockfish breaking the water. Yet unseen, on the other side of the dam, millions upon millions of tons of sediment and nutrient pollution are slowly building up that could wreak havoc on the bay if they get through. "It's an invisible problem," said Michael Helfrich, the Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, as he watches the fishermen.

Personnel from the Conowingo Hydroelectric Station will move crest gates Thursday from the upper parking lot at the Conowingo Visitor Center to the Conowingo Dam after the completion of regular maintenance and repairs. To move these large crest gates, it will be necessary to temporarily delay traffic on Route 1 in both directions from Route 222 to Shures Landing Road, just south of Conowingo on the Harford County side. The temporary delays are expected to occur any time between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11. The delays on the highway will last from 15 to 20 minutes at a time.

The Susquehanna River and its big dams have been in the news lately. A handful of Maryland county officials would like you to believe the dams are the primary ill of the Chesapeake Bay. They claim that because sediment reservoirs behind the Conowingo Dam are at capacity, instead of trapping pollutants during storms, the dam now allows two pollutants - phosphorus and sediment - to flow downstream at alarming rates. They argue that years of restoration progress have been erased and that current bay restoration efforts do not address these issues.

Two bodies were recovered Wednesday from the Susquehanna River near the Conowingo Dam, a Maryland State Police spokesman said. Spokesman Gregory M. Shipley said police were investigating the remains of a man and a woman found several miles apart, but "beyond that, we have no connection" between the two deaths. Neither person had been identified Wednesday evening, and police continue to investigate the cause and manner of death. The bodies were taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for autopsies scheduled for Thursday.

The body of a Harford County man who had been missing since early last month was recovered Tuesday from the Susquehanna River below Conowingo Dam, Maryland State Police said. The man has been identified as Scott R. Hammer, 57, of Havre de Grace. His body has been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death, according to a news release from State Police. Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Maryland Natural Resources Police officers were contacted by workers at Conowingo Dam, who reported seeing a body lying on a rock in the river after the water level was lowered, State Police said.

Divers and rescue personnel searched in the waters around Conowingo Dam Wednesday night for a 56-year-old Havre de Grace man who was reported missing and may have jumped from the dam, Maryland State Police said. As of Thursday afternoon, however, there was no confirmation that anyone had jumped from the dam, nor had anything been found. Around 7:20 p.m Wednesday, a dive team and other rescue personnel were dispatched to the dam for a report of a possible suicide A monitored Harford County emergency radio broadcast advised rescue personnel that an abandoned vehicle, with a suicide note inside, had been found near the dam. Rescue personnel called from both Harford and Cecil counties were instructed to meet in the "fisherman's wharf" area.

This letter was sent to the head of the Maryland Department of Environment and a similar one was sent to the head of the Department of Natural Resources. A copy was provided for publication. In August, the U.S. Geological Survey published a report titled "Flux of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Sediment from the Susquehanna River Basin to the Chesapeake Bay during Tropical Storm Lee, September 2011, as an Indicator of the Effects of Reservoir Sedimentation on Water Quality.

Restoring the Chesapeake Bay to better health, or at least slowing the pace of pollution into it, is neither easy nor inexpensive. Yet it's worth pursuing and ultimately is a smart investment, so important is the estuary's future to Maryland's economy and quality of life. But as useful and broadly popular as that effort may be, there are always bound to be some who will oppose it, if only because it requires some degree of personal sacrifice. Over the years, there have been farmers, developers, manufacturers and various others who pollute the Chesapeake Bay who have balked at the cost and inconvenience of changing their ways.

The Susquehanna River and its big dams have been in the news lately. A handful of Maryland county officials would like you to believe the dams are the primary ill of the Chesapeake Bay. They claim that because sediment reservoirs behind the Conowingo Dam are at capacity, instead of trapping pollutants during storms, the dam now allows two pollutants - phosphorus and sediment - to flow downstream at alarming rates. They argue that years of restoration progress have been erased and that current bay restoration efforts do not address these issues.

Why does the Chesapeake Bay Foundation refuse to take seriously the threat posed by the Conowingo Dam's inability to hold back Susquehanna River pollution? With respect to the effect of Susquehanna River pollutants, the bay foundation has taken an inexplicable U-turn in its long-held doctrine regarding pollutants and the Chesapeake. In August, the U.S. Geological Survey reported last year's Tropical Storm Lee contributed 39 percent of the sediment, 22 percent of the phosphorus and 5 percent of the nitrogen flowing through the Conowingo Dam over the entire previous decade.

A Baltimore man remained in critical condition at Christiana Hospital in Delaware Tuesday morning after he was injured in a motorcycle accident Sunday afternoon at the Conowingo Dam. Maryland State Police have identified the injured motorcyclist as Franklin Melbourne Thomas, 45, of Baltimore, Lt. Charles Moore, commander of the Bel Air Barrack, said Tuesday. State police said Thomas was driving a 2006 Harley Davidson motorcycle south on Route 1 around 4 p.m. As he was getting off the dam and coming around the corner up the hill on the Harford County side, he went out of his lane, TFC Richard Decker, the investigating officer for Maryland State Police, said Sunday evening.

This letter was sent to the head of the Maryland Department of Environment and a similar one was sent to the head of the Department of Natural Resources. A copy was provided for publication. In August, the U.S. Geological Survey published a report titled "Flux of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Sediment from the Susquehanna River Basin to the Chesapeake Bay during Tropical Storm Lee, September 2011, as an Indicator of the Effects of Reservoir Sedimentation on Water Quality.

Nearly 15 percent of homes and businesses in central and southern Harford County still did not have power early Wednesday morning, as residents dealt with the after-effects of Superstorm Sandy. Serious traffic problems at the intersection of Fulford and South Main streets in Bel Air were still an issue as of late Wednesday afternoon, said Bel Air Town Administrator Chris Schlehr. A telephone pole was also leaning over Hickory Avenue near the parking garage, causing the street to be blocked between Courtland Street and Pennsylvania Avenue since early Tuesday.

The lone occupant in any of the cottages along Broad Creek in northern Harford County refused to leave Monday evening, when county volunteers went door to door to urge any residents to evacuate because of rising waters from Hurricane Sandy, the county government reported shortly before 7 p.m. Monday. "Members of the Harford County Tactical Rescue Team and Darlington Volunteer Fire Company, with support from National Guard resources, are currently going door-to-door at the cottages along Broad Creek in proximity to Flintville Road, and asking the inhabitants to evacuate the residences if they have not already done so," the county said in a news release issued Monday evening.