Conowingo Dam

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.

Now it's official: A report released today (8/30) finds the Conowingo Dam is losing its ability to prevent pollution from reaching the Chesapeake Bay. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the reservoirs behind Conowingo and other dams on the lower Susquehanna River are nearly full of sediment and are increasingly failing to trap it as it washes down river.  The 94-foot-high hydroelectric structure at Conowingo is just the last and largest of...

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.

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.

Boaters using the Susquehanna River at the Conowingo Dam may face tough going, as the river's flow has dropped to an all-time low for this time of year.Philadelphia Electric Co., which operates the dam between northern Harford and Cecil counties, issued an advisory yesterday saying that the low river flow might limit boating on the creeks and marinas that serve the dam.Water at the marinas and in thecreeks might not be deep enough for people trying to get some vessels into the river, said Bill Jones, spokesman for the electric company.

Access to the Susquehanna River and a significant portion of the Conowingo Dam fishing area will limited for the next two to five months as Colonial Pipeline Co. repairs a pipeline that runs under the river just downstream of the dam, according to a company spokesman. Shures Landing Road and its parking lot already have been closed to house equipment for the project and to serve as a workspace for repairs. Work on the pipeline is scheduled to begin June 16. Company officials say they will accommodate recreational activities if possible.

Non-boating anglers can get in on some warm-water fishing action at the base of Conowingo Dam, a mile-long, 130-foot-high hydroelectric dam that forms Conowingo Lake.Relatively warm water drawn from beneath the lake's surface surges through nearly a dozen massive hydroelectric turbines, creating a superb tailrace fishery for a variety of fresh, brackish and at least one saltwater species -- striped bass (rockfish).Situated approximately 15 miles north of Bel Air on U.S. Route 1, Conowingo Dam is the largest impoundment on the Susquehanna River.

CONOWINGO -- Hidden inside the massive Conowingo Dam, in a location as secret as any good fishing hole, officers from the Maryland Natural Resources Police scan a catwalk decorated with weekend fishermen.Using binoculars and high-powered scopes, the search is on for poachers who aspire to hook a striped bass -- rockfish -- in the gushing, nutrient-rich waters of the Susquehanna River below.Earlier this month, "Operation Fish Hook" started at the dam -- a police effort to halt rockfish poachers who catch the fish with illegal bait and often sell them for up to $6 a pound.

The number of shad migrating up the Susquehanna River in Maryland has fallen by almost half over the past year, part of a worrisome decline up and down the East Coast, scientists say. The drop means that counts of American shad at Conowingo Dam have fallen by more than 90 percent over the past seven years. That is a stark reversal from the 1990s, when the construction of fish lifts at dams - and bans on shad fishing - spurred a revival of what has been called "the founding fish" because of its dominance as a food in Colonial times.