Delaware River

PHILADELPHIA - Here's what most people see when they visit Market Square Memorial Park in Marcus Hook, a tiny patch of green squeezed between two huge refineries: Jumbo tankers and cargo vessels plying the Delaware River. Washed-up plastic bottles. And lots and lots of marine debris - thick mooring rope, rusted cable, driftwood. But when John McNally, an unemployed electrician and amateur marine archaeologist from nearby Wallingford, looks out at the river, he sees something altogether different: Marauding pirates.

There's a new exhibit waiting to greet summer visitors at Delaware's Cape Henlopen State Park. And it's big. It's a 16-inch gun barrel that once roared from the deck of the battleship Missouri during World War II, and it now rests — 120 tons, 68 feet long — at the Battery 519 Museum at Fort Miles, which is part of Cape Henlopen State Park. The gun — officially known as Barrel 371 — arrived at Fort Miles last month. It is similar to the two 16-inch Army guns that defended the coast and the Delaware Bay from German U-boats.

PHILADELPHIA - Clean-water advocates have ranked the Delaware River as the waterway receiving one of the largest amounts of toxic chemical discharges in the nation."

Two weeks ago today, the people of Harford and Cecil counties had a rude awaking, or at least were subjected to a rude odor upon waking up. An unfortunate series of events converged to bring the unsavory scent wafting into the area. The usually prevailing west-to-east breezes were operating in the other direction thanks to a late winter weather system. Several miles to the east, and a bit north, on the New Jersey side of the Delaware River across from Philadelphia International Airport, there was a major spill of petrochemicals from a tank at the Paulsboro Refining Company.

NEWARK, Del. - Like a mutant blob in a bad horror movie, an oil slick first thought to be relatively small has grown bigger and more menacing over the past week, oozing its way down both banks of the Delaware River. When the Greek tanker Athos I began leaking heavy Venezuelan crude oil into the river the night of Nov. 26, it appeared to be a manageable spill confined to a riverside terminal - 30,000 gallons, according to estimates. But authorities now are warning that it could be as much as 473,000 gallons, a gooey mess that has stained 70 miles of shoreline across three states.

PHILADELPHIA - Unlike the waterfronts in historic East Coast cities that developed their harbors as attractions for residents and tourists, Philadelphia's bleak eastern edge is experienced by most people as a blur as they rocket by on Interstate 95. Because the highway parallels the Delaware River, it has served as a psychological and, to a point, physical barrier to redevelopment of the city's Colonial gateway. Now, with construction of a $75 million apartment building - the first high-rise residential development actually on the river in the city's more than 300-year history - the wall may be beginning to disappear.

TRENTON, N.J. -- The second major flood of the Delaware River in six months has left more than 1,000 residents in New Jersey's capital temporarily homeless, exhausted and demanding answers. In meetings yesterday with city officials at an American Red Cross shelter here, evacuees repeatedly asked, "Why?" They wanted to know why a waterway that seemed so tame for so long has overflowed its banks twice since September. No river was affected more by the weekend downpours than the bulging vein of the Delaware that cuts through prime real estate in Trenton, where the Delaware's 25-foot flood crest sent people scurrying Saturday night.

An important Baltimore shipping artery has been blocked after an accident at the eastern mouth of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The Bay Titan, a 115-foot-long coastal tugboat, capsized Friday while turning into the canal from the Delaware River. The vessel is expected to block the 450-foot-wide channel until it can be removed with a crane. A member of its crew is missing and feared dead. The 19-mile sea-level canal, which links the upper Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River, cuts 300 miles from a trip between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

The recent death of Capt. Paul J. Esbensen, 76, of Stevensville, who was a highly respected wreck investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board and a well-known port figure, recalled his role investigating the loss of the SS Poet more than two decades ago. He had spent 15 years as senior marine investigator for the NTSB before retiring in 1996. During his tenure with the NTSB, he investigated 25 major maritime accidents, including the Poet and the loss of the Pride of Baltimore.

Philadelphia's RiverBlues Festival returns to Penn's LandingIt will be a blues weekend in Philadelphia as the 5th annual RiverBlues Festival returns to Penn's Landing Saturday and next Sunday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.Considered the biggest and best of its kind on the East Coast, the festival headlines more than a dozen top bands. There will be blues workshops, jam sessions, a photography exhibit of legendary blues musicians and a blues cruise down the Delaware River Friday and Saturday from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Call (215)

For Asa Erickson, the Maryland Transportation Authority's proposal last week to charge a $1.50-a-month fee for an E-ZPass account is reason enough to drop the service. And he believes he's going to have a lot of company. "I'm not going to pay that fee," the 32-year-old northern Baltimore County resident said. "They're going to have a huge number of people dropping their accounts." Perhaps. But Maryland motorists are going to face two trends in the coming years: Toll roads are becoming more common, and toll booths are going extinct.

Maryland's premier trout stream, Gunpowder Falls, is under attack from an algae strain feared worldwide for its ability to coat the bottom of rivers and lakes and smother the habitat and food supply of fish. Heavy, with the consistency of a wool coat, Didymosphenia geminata is a recent invader of East Coast waterways. It begins as microscopic organism that travels from stream to stream on boats, fishing gear and the bottoms of felt boots and waders. The algae is not hazardous to humans, but could have a "profound" effect on fish and the quality of freshwater streams and recreation, upsetting the delicate balance of nature, said Jonathan McKnight, coordinator of the Department of Natural Resources invasive species team.

An identification system intended to cover 750,000 port workers, including 20,000 in Baltimore, that was supposed to be put in place in 2003 is now slated to make its debut in the fall at the port of Wilmington in Delaware. The Transportation Security Administration was supposed to implement the program at 10 ports by July, but an official said this week that the agency will miss another deadline. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, has been scorned by terrorism experts who consider harbors a weak link in homeland security, by ports that continue to pay for their own gate security, and by lawmakers who approved millions of dollars for the program after the 2001 terrorist attacks only to see it languish.

The recent death of Capt. Paul J. Esbensen, 76, of Stevensville, who was a highly respected wreck investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board and a well-known port figure, recalled his role investigating the loss of the SS Poet more than two decades ago. He had spent 15 years as senior marine investigator for the NTSB before retiring in 1996. During his tenure with the NTSB, he investigated 25 major maritime accidents, including the Poet and the loss of the Pride of Baltimore.

In Brief: Nature Snakeheads found in Delaware River "Frankenfish" are swimming in the Delaware River. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission officials have confirmed what they long suspected: Northern snakeheads - aggressive, predatory fish imported from Asia - are in the river and probably growing in number. "This is certainly not a shocking discovery," said agency spokesman Dan Tredinnick, noting that snakeheads showed up in Meadow Lake at Philadelphia's FDR Park in July 2004. Snakeheads were first found in a Crofton, Md., pond in 2002.

TRENTON, N.J. -- The second major flood of the Delaware River in six months has left more than 1,000 residents in New Jersey's capital temporarily homeless, exhausted and demanding answers. In meetings yesterday with city officials at an American Red Cross shelter here, evacuees repeatedly asked, "Why?" They wanted to know why a waterway that seemed so tame for so long has overflowed its banks twice since September. No river was affected more by the weekend downpours than the bulging vein of the Delaware that cuts through prime real estate in Trenton, where the Delaware's 25-foot flood crest sent people scurrying Saturday night.

The body of a tugboat crew member who had been missing since the boat sank May 11 was recovered yesterday, Coast Guard officials said. Steve Pollert, 45, of Suffolk, Va., was believed trapped inside the tugboat when it capsized while towing a sugar barge around a bend at the mouth of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal near Delaware City, Del. Five crew members survived the accident. Coast Guard and Delaware State Police officials said yesterday that the body was discovered on board about 11 a.m. in a hallway near the mate's quarter on the second level of the boat.

`Christmas at Longwood Gardens' The sight of 750 fountains rocketing skyward greets visitors to "Christmas at Longwood Gardens," near Kennett Square, Pa. The fountains dance to holiday music each half hour, beginning at 11 a.m., and continuously from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily through Jan. 6. After dark, starry snowflakes up to 6 feet wide and icicles up to 5 feet long sparkle in surrounding trees. And thousands of poinsettias, towering trees, fragrant flowers and exotic plants fill 4 acres of gardens inside the gardens' conservatory.

NEWARK, Del. - Like a mutant blob in a bad horror movie, an oil slick first thought to be relatively small has grown bigger and more menacing over the past week, oozing its way down both banks of the Delaware River. When the Greek tanker Athos I began leaking heavy Venezuelan crude oil into the river the night of Nov. 26, it appeared to be a manageable spill confined to a riverside terminal - 30,000 gallons, according to estimates. But authorities now are warning that it could be as much as 473,000 gallons, a gooey mess that has stained 70 miles of shoreline across three states.

NATIONAL Oil spill fouls Delaware River A tanker spilled 30,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River yesterday, creating a 20-mile-long slick between Philadelphia and southern New Jersey that threatened birds and fish. The tanker, registered in Cyprus, was carrying 325,000 barrels of oil from Venezuela. [Page 3a Two hunters mourned in Wis. Mourners remembered a father and son in rural Rice Lake, Wis., yesterday - two of six hunters killed in a confrontation with another hunter last week.