Pocomoke River

SHELLTOWN -- State officials reopened yesterday a 4.5-mile stretch of the Pocomoke River on the lower Eastern Shore for fishing, crabbing and other recreational uses."

The lawsuit may be over, but the bitter legal battle continues. Lawyers for poultry producer Perdue and an Eastern Shore farmer are asking a federal judge to award them more than $3 million in attorneys' fees and expenses from the Waterkeeper Alliance, the New York-based environmental group that failed to prove they were polluting a Chesapeake Bay tributary. Pointing to written comments by the deciding judge that were critical of the plaintiffs' motives and the strength of their case, the successful defendants contend they're justified in seeking reimbursement for a case they argued should never have gotten that far. "It's only fair," said Julie DeYoung, spokeswoman for the Salisbury-based company.

As state health officials deal with what they suspect is a reappearance of a toxic microorganism that has killed and disfigured thousands of fish in the Pocomoke River, anglers miles to the north are reporting fish with strikingly similar sores.On the Chester River on Sunday, a man caught 15 rockfish bearing gaping sores.In a phone call this week to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, he also mentioned recent medical problems that match some of those experienced by Shelltown-area watermen who became sick after contact with the Pocomoke River.

As large-scale poultry farmers are required to do, Alan Hudson of Berlin filed a plan last year with Maryland environmental regulators spelling out how he intended to prevent manure from his flocks from fouling the Chesapeake Bay. Hudson had hired a consultant to write the plan, but before submitting it he made the consultant remove recommendations that he take steps to prevent manure blown out of his chicken houses by ventilation fans from reaching...

SHELLTOWN -- For the first time in four days, the state yesterday received no reports of fish kills on the lower Pocomoke River, where thousands of fish have died in the past week."

The tide of devastation caused by the Pocomoke River fish kills has washed ashore in the Baltimore area, where seafood wholesalers and retailers said sales of fresh fish have dropped sharply because of public distrust."

Take away the boardwalk fries, the crowded streets, the saltwater taffy, the "I'm With Stupid" T-shirts, and what do you have? Pocomoke River State Park. Granted, there are some other trade-offs involved in swapping Ocean City for the greater Pocomoke City metropolitan area. But if you didn't get around to planning the specifics of a late-summer camping vacation (that is, lodging) until now and would still like to fish and hike, with a day trip or two to mingle with the boardwalk hordes, then the state park 25 miles south of Ocean City could be the answer.

The morning sun filtered through the forest canopy like a stage light, drawing our attention to another bend in the river. We were making our way slowly upstream from Porters Crossing in a shallow channel at times not much wider than our canoes. Except for a woodpecker off in the distance, the only sound to be heard was the whoosh of paddles breaking the water.Were we experiencing the river much differently than the Pocomoke Indians who lived here three centuries ago? Probably not, although they were likely on the river searching for food.

Pocomoke City will host its 16th annual Cypress Festival along the Pocomoke River in Cypress Park, Friday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.Free entertainment will be provided by cloggers, fiddlers, bagpipers, square dancers and country and rock bands. Handcrafted items and food will be on sale. The annual Pocomoke River Canoe Challenge will feature participants paddling the 12 smiles between Snow Hill and Cypress Park, where an awards ceremony will be held on Saturday afternoon.

In response to fish-lesion concerns along the Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation will survey Maryland recreational and commercial anglers about their catches beginning this week.Watermen began pulling in fish bearing deep, gaping lesions last fall in the Pocomoke River near Shelltown in Maryland's lower Eastern Shore.Concern deepened when the Maryland Watermen's Association found that an unusually high amount -- 20 percent to 30 percent -- of fish caught in the Pocomoke River this spring had those lesions.

Last week, a federal judge in Baltimore issued a verdict in a lawsuit filed by an environmental group against an Eastern Shore farming family and Perdue. After nearly three years of litigation, Judge William Nickerson ruled that the evidence presented by the Waterkeeper Alliance did not demonstrate conclusively that contaminated water samples taken from the Pocomoke River could be traced to an adjacent poultry farm in Berlin owned by Alan and Kristin Hudson. The outcome was recognized by many as a victory for farmers and the poultry industry and as a setback for environmental groups interested in improving the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

From the first day of practice in the stifling heat of August, the players for Marriotts Ridge faced almost unprecedented expectations. The Mustangs entered the season as the three-time defending Class 2A state champions and this year's team had the challenge of trying to join Pocomoke, River Hill and Wilde Lake as the only boys soccer programs in state history to win four consecutive titles. Marriotts Ridge responded in a most remarkable way by finishing the season undefeated and winning another state championship Saturday night with a 4-0 victory over Queen Anne's at UMBC Stadium.

A federal judge has denied a bid by Perdue Farms and an Eastern Shore chicken grower to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of polluting a Chesapeake Bay tributary, clearing the way for trial on the potentially pioneering legal case. Judge William M. Nickerson of the U.S. District Court in Baltimore ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit brought this year by the Waterkeeper Alliance could go forward, though he struck two environmental groups as plaintiffs on a technicality. The Waterkeeper Alliance, the Assateague Coastal Trust and Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips filed suit in March alleging that harmful levels of bacteria and nutrient pollution were flowing from a drainage ditch on a Worcester County farm into a branch of the Pocomoke River.

I was gratified to see in today's paper that the Assateague Coast Keeper and Waterkeeper Alliance had filed a lawsuit against Perdue for polluting the Chesapeake Bay via the Pocomoke River (" Perdue, Md. chicken farm sued," Mar. 3). I was, however, shocked to read that this lawsuit is "the first to target Maryland's chicken industry for water pollution." Is this correct? No other environmental group, like the long-established Chesapeake Bay Foundation, or state agencies, Maryland Department of Natural Resources or the attorney general, have ever taken on these giant polluters like Perdue or Tyson?

Environmental groups filed suit in federal court Tuesday accusing an Eastern Shore chicken farm and poultry giant Perdue Farms with polluting waters that flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The Assateague Coastkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance contend that harmful levels of bacteria and nutrient pollution are flowing from a drainage ditch on the farm into a branch of the Pocomoke River, a bay tributary. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, comes two months after the environmental groups formally warned Hudson Farms in Berlin and Perdue that it would sue them for water pollution violations after spotting an uncovered pile of what the groups said appeared to be chicken manure draining into the ditch.

Take away the boardwalk fries, the crowded streets, the saltwater taffy, the "I'm With Stupid" T-shirts, and what do you have? Pocomoke River State Park. Granted, there are some other trade-offs involved in swapping Ocean City for the greater Pocomoke City metropolitan area. But if you didn't get around to planning the specifics of a late-summer camping vacation (that is, lodging) until now and would still like to fish and hike, with a day trip or two to mingle with the boardwalk hordes, then the state park 25 miles south of Ocean City could be the answer.

Eastern Shore watermen got more bad news about water quality yesterday, as high bacteria levels forced state officials to expand an area of Pocomoke Sound that is off limits to the harvesting of oysters and clams.The restriction, effective Sept. 1, closely follows the state's unrelated six-day closure of the lower Pocomoke River this month, when thousands of fish were killed, in part, because of a microorganism called Pfiesteria piscicida in the water.In yesterday's action, the Department of the Environment ordered a halt to shellfish harvesting in the Pocomoke Sound after routine water sampling showed unsafe levels of fecal coliform -- contamination that state officials blamed on wildlife and other natural sources.

THE PECULIAR conditions of the lower Pocomoke River that seemed to explain its susceptibility to an elusive fish-eating microorganism may not be so peculiar after all.Biologists began yesterday to monitor several other Chesapeake Bay tributaries for signs of Pfiesteria piscicida, after closing a second waterway (in Somerset County) to recreation and fishing because of potential health problems tied to the organism's suspected role in fish morbidity there.While scientists and state officials insist that there is no widespread problem in the bay, they are finally extending their search for the cause of fish sores, human ailments and fish kills in waters outside the lower Pocomoke.

Adventure should be shared. What would Lewis be without Clark? Mason minus Dixon? Hillary sans Norgay? Even that adventure stud Indiana Jones didn't go solo, although Harrison Ford once played Han Solo. But I digress. So when it came time to compete in the Maryland Park Service's new Park Quest contest, I expected to be at the helm of Team Spartacus, with three trusty friends by my side. Wishful thinking. Commitments - prior, last-minute and fabricated - reduced the hearty team to me. With apologies to Kirk Douglas, I was Spartacus.

An unexpected result of this summer's drought was an explosion of toxic algae linked to at least 15 fish kills in the Chesapeake Bay since July, according to a University of Maryland scientist. The microscopic organism, called karlodinium, is a peculiar bean-shaped predator with two whip-like arms. It thrives in the salinity that results when there is little rainfall and more ocean water enters the bay, said Allen Place, a biochemist at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.