Drainage

The Maryland Stadium Authority voted Tuesday to approve a $350,000 project to improve the dugout and tunnel drainage in Oriole Park. In August 2009, during a game between the Orioles and Cleveland Indians, a lengthy rain delay resulted in nearly a foot of water pooling in the Orioles' and Indians' dugouts. Over an inch of rain fell in 20 minutes, according to Orioles officials, and that resulted in both dugouts flooding to the top step. Umpires considered suspending the game until workers were eventually able to unclog the circular drains.

The answer to the new stormwater fees and requirements is porous asphalt ("Churches seek break on city stormwater fee," June 12). When such asphalt is used, rainwater drains through the top layer and eventually runs back into the soil underneath the asphalt. This eliminates the need for drainage structures and drainage areas and stops runoff into ecologically sensitive or protected waterways. Moreover, it costs less overall than traditional paving options, is better for the environment and should be exempt from the high fees imposed by local governments.

A toddler was being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital last night after being found trapped in a drainage area in the basement of her Joppa home yesterday, fire officials in Harford County said.The child, who is about 15 months old and whose name was not released, was found by her father about 8 p.m. in a sump pump drain, according to Chief James B. Lyons III of the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company.The home is in the 1500 block of Clayton Road.Fire officials did not know last night how the child ended up in the water.

It was an opportunity no kid could pass up: a rare permission to spray-paint school property - with grown-ups watching, no less. Students at Bryant Woods Elementary weren't creating graffiti. Instead, they stenciled "DON'T DUMP, CHESAPEAKE BAY DRAINAGE" in green lettering on a white background atop a storm drain - part of the school's efforts to educate Howard County residents about ways to protect the Chesapeake Bay, the nation's largest estuary. Bryant Woods' entire student body, as well as teachers, administrators and guests, gathered at one of the schools concrete-and-metal drains last week and cheered as a group of fifth-graders kicked off the Columbia school's Storm Drain Stenciling Project.

Michael and Denise Warshauer keep a dozen sandbags in front of their garage, knowing that thunderstorms can wash away their yard and flood their North Laurel home."

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:FUTURE EDITORS, REPORTERS:If mention is ever made again of Dolan's Bar, please know that the Dolan family .. Joe Dolan's son, Brian and his daughter, Margaret Sherwood ... say an anecdote that appeared in my column on Dec. 1, 1999 was false. Specifically, the story about Joe Dolan attending his wife's funeral disguised as a woman. That, they say is pure myth. The Dolans ask that we not repeat this in the future. They did not want me to publish a correction or apology in my column.

"Perfect greenness," a phrase coined by one writer in recalling her first look at a major-league baseball stadium, would normally describe the playing field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. So why does the place now look like a construction zone? Because it is. Heavy equipment rumbled around the stadium yesterday, stripping grass from the outfield and excavating mounds of clay from the infield. Forced to action by a malady that was drowning large sections of turf, the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority are replacing the field for the first time in the stadium's nine-season history.

About 50 North Laurel Park residents voiced their concerns last night to a developer who plans to build more than 60 new homes in a community they say is already too crowded.The problems, residents say, are too many children and not enough space in area schools, heavy traffic, and inadequate storm water drainage."The traffic pattern is going to be awful," said Chris Maynard, who lives on Baltimore Avenue with a proposed construction site behind his house.Speed bumps have been added to Baltimore Avenue to slow cars passing through the residential neighborhood, but the people expressed fears that more homes will add to the traffic volume on the two-lane through street and increase the danger to their children.

IT MAY BE a cliche, but "pay now or pay later" describes Howard County's options for repairing and replacing aging storm water pipes and drains.The work has to be done before a system failure causes even more expense. Yet the county's elected officials in the past have succumbed to public pressure instead to invest extra money in schools and public safety.County Executive Charles I. Ecker, whose eight-year tenure ends Dec. 7, says one of his few regrets is not having established a long-range plan to pay for improvements in the storm water drainage system.

Since it was sliced into a thousand tiny lots in 1898, North Laurel Park has been a case study in unplanned growth -- a dense patchwork of homes connected by narrow streets without sidewalks, proper drainage or apparent forethought.Almost a century later, Howard County officials have developed a plan that may finally upgrade the infrastructure in this southernmost corner of the county to modern standards -- and perhaps ease the flooding that regularly sweeps through the community.Under the plan, developers building the newest sections of North Laurel Park could opt to ask the county to build their developments' infrastructure according to current standards.

For the third time since July, city public works crews have found a hole in a 120-year-old drainage culvert beneath East Monument Street near Johns Hopkins Hospital - another setback in a months-long effort to fix and reopen the road. The small hole opened early Thursday morning about 125 feet from where a much larger hole in the culvert caused a sinkhole to open July 25, officials said. Heavy rains caused that sinkhole to reopen and expand Aug. 26. The 10-foot-wide tunnel receives storm water from smaller drainage pipes from a large part of the city and carries it to the Baltimore Harbor.

In the latest example of Baltimore's aging infrastructure's causing damage to city streets, a large sinkhole opened on East Monument Street near Johns Hopkins Hospital on Wednesday afternoon - causing a stretch of the road to be closed and nearby businesses to be evacuated. The hole, estimated to be about 2 feet wide, 6 feet long and 20 feet deep, closed East Monument about 1 p.m. between North Patterson Park Avenue and North Montford Avenue, while a strong smell of gas forced businesses to close and brought Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. repair crews to the scene.

State officials announced Friday that they had fined an Eastern Shore farm couple $4,000 for improperly piling sewage sludge near a drainage ditch. But the Department of the Environment declared it had closed its investigation of the Hudson farm in Berlin with no further action because its inspectors could not say the farm was responsible for pollution found in the ditches draining its land. State inspectors had detected high levels of bacteria and nutrients in the ditches, which ultimately drain into the Pocomoke River.

The Maryland Stadium Authority voted Tuesday to approve a $350,000 project to improve the dugout and tunnel drainage in Oriole Park. In August 2009, during a game between the Orioles and Cleveland Indians, a lengthy rain delay resulted in nearly a foot of water pooling in the Orioles' and Indians' dugouts. Over an inch of rain fell in 20 minutes, according to Orioles officials, and that resulted in both dugouts flooding to the top step. Umpires considered suspending the game until workers were eventually able to unclog the circular drains.

Glaucoma, a disease of the optic nerve that, left untreated, can cause blindness, occurs in approximately 1 percent to 2 percent of the population over the age of 40, says Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of Sinai Hospital's Department of Ophthalmology based at the Krieger Eye Institute. However, in some populations, such as among African-Americans, the disease occurs more frequently; and in some age groups, it can occur in 6 percent to 10 percent of the population. But the disease often goes undiscovered - and untreated.

This spring, get your head into the gutter and think about your home's drainage system. April's showers can bring May's foundation problems if your home's gutters and downspouts aren't working properly to redirect water away from your house. "Gutters and downspouts serve as a home's rainwater management system," says architect Craig Newick, owner of Newick Architects in New Haven, Conn. "The goal is to get the rain off the roof and onto the ground without splashing onto the building's walls or into the basement."

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. tries to keep his passion for golf private, but there are times when his activities on the links spill into public view. Those glimpses show that the governor's hobby can lead to financial benefits - for him and his partners on the course. Recently released campaign finance documents show fresh details about Ehrlich's June 2005 fundraiser at the Elkridge Club, an exclusive country club that straddles the city-county line in northern Baltimore and which at the time had never admitted a black member.

THE TRAIL of commuters from northern Baltimore County into Harford County's sprawl often winds along Paper Mill Road, a nearly six-mile stretch of two-lane that at times becomes so clogged with traffic it's also known as a "roller coaster ride from hell."If you've ever taken Paper Mill, you certainly will remember its sharp bends, rusty, rustic, narrow bridge and traffic jams that sometimes make the drive a white-knuckle experience."For 18 years, I've been traveling this route," explained Scott B., a commuter from Forest Hill.

A drainage problem with the new synthetic track at Santa Anita could jeopardize its thoroughbred racing programs if the Arcadia, Calif., area is hit with predicted heavy rainfall in the coming days. "It's designed to be an all-weather track. At this point, it's anything but," Mike Willman, director of publicity at Santa Anita, said yesterday. "If we get the heavy rain that is forecast, there is a very strong possibility we will have to cancel racing at some point." The new track, installed last summer at a cost of $11 million, was designed to ensure safety for horses and jockeys.

Spirea `Pink Parasols' (Spirea fritschiana) This improved spirea has more to offer than its extra-large pink "umbrellas" of flowers in early summer. At only 2 to 3 feet in height and a generous 4 to 5 feet wide, it can be grouped for a tall groundcover or used singly as a specimen plant. Its neat blue-green foliage turns vivid orange and red in fall. Put this plant in just about any soil type, give it full sun, and it will reward you with a low-maintenance shrub that is also deer-resistant.