Drainage

Slogans from History: Queen City of the Patapsco Drainage Basin! (J. Goodspeed) ... Mobtown! (anon., 19th cent.) Baltimore - Home of the Lacrosse Hall of Fame and National Museum of Dentistry! Baltimore: Black and White and Crabby All Over! Middle Maryland (Mid-Md.)! ... Lord of cities! ... Birdland! ... Seattle East! ... The Sunbelt! Better a city without a slogan than a slogan without a city.

A two-mile portion of Route 450 near Crofton will be closed for about two weeks, starting as early as Saturday, to perform drainage work that will reduce the threat of flooding, state highway officials said. Crews will replace metal pipes with concrete pipes along Route 450, between Route 424 and Huntwood Drive. The work is part of a $2.2 million drainage project that started in October and is expected to be completed in January. Local and residential traffic will have access through the area, state officials said.

Pipe system should improve Westminster park drainagePipes snaking across the Westminster playground should improve drainage for the tot lot and ball fields, Westminster city officials hope.Wood chips placed on the tot lot "created a well," said Carol Donovan, city recreation director. Water also puddled on the ball fields.To alleviate the problem, the city awarded a $22,480 contract to Bosley Inc. to install a drainage line that will connect with the storm drain system at the end of Broadway.

Two South Carroll High School students are working to help keep the Chesapeake Bay clean by protecting a wetlands area behind the school in Winfield.Ilisa Pyatt and Brian Booz led a group of students Friday in constructing two projects designed to decrease erosion around a stream that runs through a wooded area in South Carroll.Brian's project was the construction of a drainage system designed to displace the spring water that fills a trail near the stream. Sediment from the trail runs into the stream and to the bay. His drainage system included a 4-inch drainage pipe, gravel, wood chips and trenches built to expand the spring to accommodate the drainage.

TO GIVE READERS THE most thorough comprehension of the Chesapeake Bay, I practice the Great Blue Heron method of reporting.That means progging and prying, as the bird does, into every cranny of the shoreline, alert to every minnow, unblinking eyes never far from water and muck.But it also means sometimes soaring so high that the intricate schemes of land and water coalesce into something whole and connected -- a watershed.The latter had me up recently in a small plane, flying the upper reaches of Eastern Shore rivers in Maryland and Delaware with biologist Nick Carter.

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.

A 22-year-old Brooklyn Park woman was raped Tuesday by a man who forced her into a drainage area in Hammonds Park, county police said.The woman was treated for minor cuts at North Arundel Hospital and released.The woman told police she was walking along Hammonds Lane near Washington Avenue about 11: 30 p.m. when she was approached from behind by a man.The stranger forced the woman into the park near what police describe as a drainage area, threatened her and assaulted her, police said.The man left, and the woman was unable to describe her attacker, police said.

Sykesville and the state will share the cost of building two playground areas in the town's Millard Cooper Park. The state Office of Intergovernmental Relations awarded Sykesville a $44,000 grant last week. The grant requires a town match. Plans call for construction next spring of two playground pads connected by a pathway. The project covers about 1 acre in the tree-lined park along Route 32 at Cooper Drive. One play area will be for toddlers and the other will have more complex equipment for older children.

Glaucoma is an eye disease that can cause blindness. If caught early, however, it can usually be controlled. But because glaucoma often has no symptoms, it's important to see your eye doctor for regular exams.The disease usually begins when pressure builds up in the eye that can damage the optic nerve. If the nerve is damaged, it cannot send messages to the brain. There are two main kinds of glaucoma:* Open-angle glaucoma is the most common kind, occurring slowly as people age. The drainage area in the eye becomes clogged.

Several new homebuyers, including Steve Alexander of Bel Air and Karen L. Battenfeld and Mark E. Locklear of Joppa, have been aggravated by water runoff problems on their lots. Their complaints include standing or pooling water, damage to grass, soil erosion and damp basements. All these problems may have been caused by improper site grading, which allows water to accumulate, seep into basements or create gullies.The homebuilders have been unable or unwilling to address the water problems satisfactorily.