Upstream

Citing safety concerns, the owner of the Conowingo Hydroelectric Station has expanded the boating no-trespassing zone upstream and downstream on the Susquehanna River. But to help offset that loss, the utility has opened two facilities that had been closed in response to last year's Sept. 11 attacks. Exelon Generation opened the old Conowingo boat ramp upstream from the dam on the Cecil County side and the Lower Boat Launch downstream near the main entrance to the dam at Shure's Landing on the Harford County side.

What sold Clarence Carvell on his land in southern Howard County was the pretty little pond. Now it looks ugly and dead. The fish are no more, the herons flew away and the water is muddy brown, clogged by sediment carried by the stream that feeds it. "It just keeps getting worse," the Fulton resident said. To Carvell, it is obvious that the subdivision upstream is the source of the sediment that ruined his homestead. As he is finding, however, it is usually difficult for aggrieved homeowners to prove that someone else should be held accountable for runoff damage to their land.

BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas - Until a few months ago, the Rio Grande gushed into the Gulf of Mexico here, but now the river's mouth is parched - instead of a ribbon of blue, a 500-foot sandbar marks the U.S.-Mexico border. That and a small sign, some strategically placed driftwood and a piece of drooping orange fence. An eight-year drought and voracious invaders - hundreds of thousands of thirsty migrants to booming border towns and exotic, water-hungry weeds - have consumed the great river's flow and helped bring it to this pathetic end after a journey of 1,900 miles from the Colorado mountains.

UNICORN LAKE - The fish with bright bluish-green stripes down their backs stream through the rushing water in droves, headed for an aluminum tube at the base of the dam that created this Queen Anne's County lake. They pause a few seconds in the calm pools at the top, then dart out into the lake, answering nature's imperative to reproduce. This is the largest spawning run of blueback herring since the tube was built in 1998 to help fish get past the dam, says Sid Compton, who manages a state-run fish hatchery here.

WILSON MILL -- The cold waters of Deer Creek just below this old mill dam in Harford County are stirring with life being spawned by migrating fish. Midstream, where water bubbles over and around the rocks at a furious rate, schools of alewife herring and hickory shad are holding themselves against the current, waiting for nature to tell them to move on. Every so often, the calmer pools and eddies explode with the splashes of spawning. What these fish don't know -- and what state Department of Natural Resources officials hope they will soon figure out -- is there is a way around this dam, which has stood here for more than 200 years.

The need for a bypass dominated a meeting last night of Manchester town officials and Carroll County commissioners. The wide-ranging session also included discussion of economic development, water and sewer resources, and neighborhood revitalization. "We're a little community up here swimming upstream," said Councilman Joe Jordan. "We've got growth to the north in another state altogether. We can't do much about that, I feel like I spend a lot of time in a reactive mode." "We've all been hoping for a long time for a bypass on Main Street," said Steven C. Horn, county planning director.

In the midst of Maryland's worst drought in 70 years, Del. C. Richard D'Amato is probably one of the few people worried about floods.But D'Amato, who took the lead last spring in pushing the state and county to clean up debris carried downstream by Susquehanna River flooding to local beaches, is continuing in the dry season to push for federal help tackling the recurrent problem."

In the midst of Maryland's worst drought in 70 years, State Del. C. Richard D'Amato is probably one of the few people worried about floods.But D'Amato, who took the lead last spring in pushing the state and county to clean up debris carried downstream by Susquehanna River flooding to local beaches, is continuing in the dry season to push for federal help tackling the recurrent problem."

SHELLTOWN -- The stench of thousands and thousands of decaying fish wasn't exactly sweet for Charles Poukish and other state scientists out patrolling a remote tributary of the Pocomoke River yesterday, but they were nonetheless relieved.After discovering a half-million or more dead menhaden this week -- the largest fish kill in the bay in 10 years -- state officials say they're happy to have found no evidence of Pfiesteria piscicida, the deadly microbe that attacked fish and sickened watermen in 1997, forcing the closure of the Pocomoke and two other state waterways.

Dennis and Margaret Caughy's picturesque suburban rancher sits so close to the banks of Plumtree Branch they must cross a wooden footbridge to get to their parking pad along Brookmede Road in Ellicott City.Set among the large lawns and well-kept homes of Valley Mede, a U.S. 40 development west of Chatham Mall built more than 30 years ago, the Caughys' house is in a flood plain.The young couple was pleasantly surprised last year when, as they contemplated a move to Texas, Howard County officials approached them with an offer to buy their house under a state/local program that removes dwellings from flood plains.