Patuxent River

Reader Megan Frohlich has shared an image of the confirmed waterspout that formed on the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland on Tuesday. The image backs up what radar showed yesterday afternoon -- that blue skies surrounded the small, isolated storm that produced the twister. According to a report posted by the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., fire or rescue officials spotted the waterspout (which is the same as a tornado but over water) at 5:55 p.m. It was moving west across the Patuxent toward Maryland Route 231's Benedict Bridge.

Millions of gallons of raw sewage were overflowing into the Little Patuxent River in Howard County late Monday and early Tuesday morning after two separate electrical feeds were cut off at the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant, according to county officials. Officials were not sure when the overflow would be stopped. The plant, about a half-mile east of the intersection of Route 1 and Route 32 at 8900 Greenwood Place in Savage, serves the central part of Howard County. Power was knocked out to the first 32,000-volt electrical feeder amid high winds and rain in the region because of superstorm Sandy about 8:30 or 9 p.m., and to the second at 11 p.m., said Stephen Gerwin, the county's utilities bureau chief.

A 15-year-old boy died Tuesday afternoon after he drowned in the Patuxent River in Lothian, officials said. The teen's name will not be released until Wednesday, pending family notification, said Steve Thompson, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. The teen dived into the river near Route 408, near Wayson's Trailer Park just before 4 p.m., Thompson said. Fire officials conducted a search for about an hour and a half, using boats, divers and a helicopter, Thompson said.

Reader Megan Frohlich has shared an image of the confirmed waterspout that formed on the Patuxent River in Southern Maryland on Tuesday. The image backs up what radar showed yesterday afternoon -- that blue skies surrounded the small, isolated storm that produced the twister. According to a report posted by the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., fire or rescue officials spotted the waterspout (which is the same as a tornado but over water) at 5:55 p.m. It was moving west across the Patuxent toward Maryland Route 231's Benedict Bridge.

Patuxent River Appreciation Days Saturday and next Sunday pay tribute to Maryland's largest river contained within the state's boundaries. The event is an effort to make the public aware of the river's economic importance as well as its scenic beauty and historic and recreational value. The Appreciation Days, held annually for 15 years, will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the grounds of the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons.Organizations like the Sierra Club, America's Clean Water Foundation and the Southern Maryland Audubon Society will be on hand to discuss environ-mental issues.

Patuxent River Appreciation Days focus attention on Maryland's largest intrastate river and its impact on the local culture, history and economic growth. This year's 14th annual event takes place Saturday and next Sunday on the grounds of the Calvert Marine Museum, on Route 2 in Solomons.Attractions will include boat rides, entertainment, arts and crafts vendors, children's boat building, Southern Maryland food, environmental demonstrations, seafood cooking demonstrations with a parade at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The effort to restore Chesapeake Bay still has a long way to go, but Maryland officials say they already see signs of recovery in the rivers that feed the ailing estuary.New data from long-term monitoring indicate that the Patuxent River, one of the Chesapeake's major tributaries, is getting cleaner, according to scientists with the Maryland Department of the Environment.In the past five years, there has been a dramatic drop in the river's levels of phosphorus, one of two nutrients blamed for choking off bay grasses and fish.

A year after a Glen Burnie man jumped from a popular rock formation and drowned in the Little Patuxent River near Savage, Howard County police are beefing up patrols against swimming and drinking in the area's alcohol-free park.County fire and rescue services say one or two people drown each year at the rapids below the area known as Savage Rocks, usually after disregarding the signs that prohibit drinking and swimming."We have started a high visibility effort to prevent the drinking, the swimming and the jumping off the rocks . . . to try to prevent any more serious things from happening," said Sgt. Steve Keller, a spokesman for the Howard County Police Department.

HOLLYWOOD - Government officials have launched a $2.7 million restoration project on the Patuxent River in areas harmed by a devastating April 2000 pipeline oil spill. The 140,000-gallon spill fouled more than 80 acres of wetlands and shoreline. Potomac Electric Power Co. and Support Terminal Services, the company that ran the ruptured 52-mile pipeline for the utility, agreed to split the costs of the restoration.

The body of a middle-aged woman was pulled from a tributary of the Patuxent River yesterday afternoon in Davidsonville, and the incident has been turned over to Anne Arundel County detectives. County firefighters responded to the first block of Trails End Road about 1 p.m. after a 911 call reporting a body floating in the swift-running tributary behind homes there, said Capt. Harry Steiner, an Anne Arundel County Fire Department spokesman. Steiner said firefighters at first were unable to locate the body, but that members of the county's swift-water rescue team recovered the body a short time later.

As a young man in the 1960s, Bernie Fowler recalls he could wade chest deep into the Patuxent River and still see his toes as he netted crabs.  But the clarity of his beloved river plummeted over the years, along with the vitality of the rest of the Cheaspeake Bay. In 1988, frustrated with what seemed to him then as the slow pace of efforts to restore the river, Fowler, a state senator representing Calvert County, staged a wade-in to demonstrate graphically...

Laurel City Council member Michael Leszcz was elected chair of the Patuxent River Commission Jan. 11, and Howard County Council Chair Mary Kay Sigaty was elected as the PRC vice chair. Leszcz was first appointed to the PRC in 2005 by Gov. Robert Ehrlich; he was reappointed in 2007 by Gov.Martin O'Malley. He represent Laurel and other municipalities that are adjacent to the Patuxent River Watershed. The PRC is a 34-member, interjurisdictional group created by the General Assembly in 1980 to address Patuxent River watershed issues.

When they first detected traces of an 800-year-old wigwam on a bluff over the Patuxent River last year, archaeologists celebrated what they said was the oldest human structure yet found in Maryland. Now, deeper excavation at the site — the front lawn of a modest rental house — is yielding details of much earlier settlement, extending its history back to at least 3,000 years ago. "As far as I know, it's older than anything in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, perhaps the oldest structures in the Chesapeake region," said Ann Arundel County archaeologist Al Luckenbach, leader of the dig. And that's just the age that's been established by carbon-14 dating.

Anne Arundel County Police have identified a 15-year-old boy who drowned Tuesday afternoon while swimming in the Patuxent River in Lothian. Witnesses told police that Edward Daniel Knudsen Jr. was trying to swim across a portion of the river near Wayson's Mobile Trailer Park when he got caught in a current. Two people jumped in the water but were not able to rescue him. Officers were called to the scene about 3:50 p.m., and a county Fire Department dive team recovered Knudsen's body about 5:30 p.m., police said.

A 15-year-old boy died Tuesday afternoon after he drowned in the Patuxent River in Lothian, officials said. The teen's name will not be released until Wednesday, pending family notification, said Steve Thompson, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. The teen dived into the river near Route 408, near Wayson's Trailer Park just before 4 p.m., Thompson said. Fire officials conducted a search for about an hour and a half, using boats, divers and a helicopter, Thompson said.

The latest round of state budget cuts is taking a couple of bites out of Maryland's efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay, trimming plans to tackle polluted runoff from city and suburban streets and curtailing monitoring of the bay's health. State officials are cutting $2 million from the Bay Trust Fund, a special pot of money lawmakers had agreed on three years ago to earmark for curbing polluted runoff - a growing and particularly difficult problem for the bay. Originally meant to accelerate the pace of bay cleanup, the fund has been shrinking since its inception.

CURRENT volunteer news and needs:Patuxent River Discovery Day. On May 4th, volunteers in seveMaryland counties bordering the Patuxent river will help stage 63 celebrations in 30 different parks and nature centers. Get a brochure of the events in Room 1101, 301 West Preston St., Baltimore, 21201 or call 225-4500 (or call 627-2270 in Upper Marlboro). On May 5th, help in tree planting, stream bank stabilization and trash clean-up on the Patuxent. Call (301) 627-6074.Volunteers Move Maryland is a display trailer staffed by the Governor's Office on Volunteerism and designed to encourage people to volunteer in their community.

The County Council unanimously approved in 1984 a controversial plan to regulate development in the Patuxent River watershed. The council, recognizing the strong opposition from developers, the county executive and farmers, amended the bill with a resolution calling for "additional consideration, public review and local approval." The Patuxent River Policy Plan was a 10-point land management strategy that concentrated on preventing pollution carried by runoff from reaching the Patuxent River.

Anne Arundel County archaeologists have uncovered an Algonquian Indian camp on a bluff above a lush bend in the Patuxent River, a find that includes the oldest human structure ever detected in Maryland. Artifacts show that the campsite - in a location favored by native people for hundreds of years for its bounty of fish, shellfish and game - was in use two centuries and more before Christopher Columbus set sail from Europe. The dig has uncovered traces of oval Algonquian wigwams; rare tools of stone, bone and antler; fragments of a highly decorated pot; an intact paint pot; and a broken gorget, a dark stone polished and drilled for use as personal decoration.