Water Levels

Man tries to rob store, hits clerk before fleeing A man tried to rob a Hampstead store yesterday afternoon, claiming he had a gun and punching a clerk before he ran off without cash, Maryland State Police reported. Police said the man entered the Family Dollar Store in the 2300 block of Hanover Pike about 3 p.m. He pushed an object against the cashier's back, said he had a gun and told the cashier not to turn around. The cashier began to turn and the would-be robber hit her in the face, police said.

Anne Arundel County officials have instituted voluntary restrictions on indoor water usage on the Mayo Peninsula after recent heavy rainfall overwhelmed the area's sewage treatment plant. About 10,000 gallons of partially treated sewage have overflowed from the Mayo Wastewater Treatment Plant, prompting the county Health Department to close Bear Neck and Whitemarsh creeks. Health officials also warned yesterday of higher bacteria levels throughout all of the county's creeks and other waterways, caused by increased storm runoff from a five-day series of storms that ended Wednesday.

Bound by a water contract between Harford County and Baltimore, customers on the county's water system remain under water-use restrictions despite Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s recent lifting of the drought emergency order for Central Maryland. Residents who receive a water bill from any other water system in Harford should contact their supplier about water restrictions in their area. Those on private water systems and wells are no longer affected by the restrictions. Below-normal water levels in the Baltimore reservoir system are responsible for keeping the restrictions in place here and in sections of Baltimore, Anne Arundel and Howard counties served by the city.

In a doomed effort to barricade their land against steadily rising seas, Marylanders are robbing future generations of life-giving marshes and bay-shore beaches, according to a top Environmental Protection Agency expert on climate change.The Chesapeake Bay shoreline is becoming so coated in concrete that the state is fast losing the marshes it needs to keep bay waters clean and full of fish, wrote James G. Titus, the EPA's project manager for sea level rise. Three hundred miles' worth of Maryland's bay shore have been encased in sea walls in the past 20 years.

The construction of hundreds of houses in Anne Arundel County and other areas of Central Maryland could be delayed until next year because of drought conditions that have affected ground water levels. In Anne Arundel County, where the dry weather has left wells at record-low levels, health officials said yesterday that they have canceled the spring "wet season" testing required for planned houses that are to be served by septic systems. The decision means that 200 planned houses apparently will not be built until after testing resumes early next year, said Kerry Topovski, a program manager who oversees sanitary engineering for the Health Department.

CHANGSHA, China -- The flood crest came and went. So far, giant Dongting Lake has held steady against the mighty Yangtze, which crashed into it yesterday as the river hurtled on its annual path of destruction. Yet no one dared to let his guard down as fresh rains began pounding still perilously swollen waterways today. "This is no time to catch our breath," He Liang, an official at the anti-flood command center here in the capital of Hunan province, said yesterday. "Water levels remain above the danger zone.

Plummeting ground water levels, associated with the prolonged drought, are causing wells throughout Carroll County to fail in alarming numbers, statistics that could reach 10 times the normal rate. The number of failures could reach 100 this month, compared with 10 in August 2001, county health officials said yesterday. Before discussing the issue with the county commissioners, Edwin F. Singer, assistant director of Carroll's environmental health bureau, had prepared graphs showing the rising spiral in residential well failures throughout the area.

In Baltimore City Planning Commission OKs proposal to convert apartments The Planning Commission approved yesterday a proposed $17 million conversion of the Northway apartments at 3700 N. Charles St. into upscale housing for senior citizens despite protests from a half-dozen of the nearly 200 residents who would be displaced by the project. Morningside Developments Inc.'s proposal requires that all residents of the 85-unit building vacate their units. At the request of planning commissioners, Morningside representatives promised to give residents 90 days' notice.

Rain over the past two weeks seems to have washed away a potential problem with the trout population in the Lower Savage River, Robert Bachman said Thursday.The drought in Garrett County had created problems with the water levels in the Savage River Reservoir and, you may recall, some fishermen in Western Maryland had worried that reduced flows in the lower river would endanger its trout.Bachman said that water levels in the reservoir are still lower than normal, but that water lost to controversial white-water trials in the river had been replaced by the rains.

About two inches of rain are expected to fall on the soaked Baltimore region Tuesday morning, and sustained winds could topple more trees as Sandy plods north, forecasters said. Although the brunt of the massive storm pelted the area overnight, the slow-moving system will continue to dump rain throughout the morning, said Kevin Witt, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "It's going to stay on the wet and windy side the rest of the day," Witt said. Water levels in eastern Baltimore County are expected to rise four feet above normal levels due to a storm surge, county officials said.