Stream

A 600-unit apartment complex in Pikesville demonstrated how eagerly residents of Baltimore County's apartment and condominium complexes have responded to the expansion of single-stream recycling to their households. On Monday, the scheduled collection day at St. Charles at Old Court Apartments, all 10 recycling containers, which each hold two cubic yards, were full. County officials used the complex as a backdrop as they promoted the success of the expanded recycling program, which began six weeks ago and is among the first in the state to serve multifamily dwellings.

A broken sewer line has caused a sewage overflow in Herring Run Stream in Northeast Baltimore Wednesday, according to Department of Public Works officials. Crews said the sewer line break occurred Tuesday morning, near Belair Road and Parkside Drive in the Belair-Edison neighborhood. The leak was reported by a resident. DPW officials are reporting the leak rate at 5 to 8 gallons per minute and the total overflow is approaching 10,000 gallons total. Officials urge residents to avoid contact with city-wide streams.

After 25 years working often literally in Maryland's trenches trying to help restore waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay, 53-year-old John L. McCoy came back to Columbia for a very special job. "I've come home," said the beefy, crew-cut and mustached new Columbia Association watershed manager. Five years short of a full state pension, McCoy, of Clarksville, resigned his Department of Natural Resources job to return to Columbia, where he had worked part-time for CA as a college student.

Ermis Sfakiyanudis is chief executive of Annapolis-based eTelemetry Inc., which makes computer gear that helps companies monitor and thwart employees' Internet use while they're on the clock. He's also a huge soccer fan and the son of Greek immigrants who spent 90 minutes in the office last week streaming the Greece-Nigeria World Cup match on ESPN.com. The irony isn't lost on him. "Three games a day, 90 minutes each, minimum. … It becomes a real time-suck," Sfakiyanudis said.

An 8-year-old boy who drowned in an Abingdon stream near his home Friday night has been identified. Justin Hayes Wilson was playing with a 7-year-old friend about 7:30 p.m., skimming stones on a stream located deep in the woods behind a housing development in the 1300 block of Harford Town Drive, when he slipped and fell into the water. His friend tried several times to reach him, but couldn't and ran home to get help, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said. The child's parents called 911. Members of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, the Abingdon Volunteer Fire Company, the APG Fire Department and the Kingsville Volunteer Fire Company responded to the call.

An 8-year-old boy drowned in an Abingdon stream near his home Friday night, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said. Justin Hayes Wilson was playing with a 7-year-old friend about 7:30 p.m., skimming stones on a stream located about a half-mile behind a housing development in the 1300 block of Harford Town Drive, when he slipped and fell into the water. His friend tried several times to reach him, but couldn't and ran home to get help, police said. The child's parents called 911. Members of the Harford County Sheriff's Office, the Abingdon Volunteer Fire Company, the APG Fire Department and the Kingsville Volunteer Fire Company responded to the call.

On a bridge behind a strip mall on Liberty Road just west of Baltimore, a group of state biologists trekked out in the morning drizzle Monday to gauge the health of the Chesapeake Bay. From the bridge over the Gwynns Falls, they lowered a device about 2 feet into the brown-green water to take the temperature and measure the dissolved oxygen. Then they lowered a bottle with a small crane to collect a water sample, checking for sediment, nutrients and solids. The effort, made at 54 sites each month across the state since 1986, shows the short- and long-term health of Maryland's streams, the Inner Harbor and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay. The results not only help guide those who regulate pollution, but help the biologists show how the way people live and work affects the water quality nearby and downstream.