Water Pollution

On days like yesterday and Sunday when heavy rains saturate the region, it's possible to witness the polluting of Maryland's suffering waterways. From the rivulets of clay running off construction sites in Towson to the bobbing plastic cups in the Inner Harbor, the impact is obvious enough. This may be why a recent opinion survey sponsored by the Herring Run Watershed Association and others found the public is concerned about the harmful effects of urban storm water. Runoff from the streets can be as damaging to the environment as anything that leaves a local sewage treatment plant.

Man gets probation for melee on airliner A 35-year-old Arizona man was sentenced yesterday to three years' probation for punching two America West crew members aboard a flight from Phoenix to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in March, according to federal prosecutors. Bryan Leon Spann also was ordered to undergo a substance-abuse evaluation, complete an anger-management program, write a letter to the two flight attendants and donate $1,500 to the Air Charity Network, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said.

Public can create a cleaner harbor The sight of a harbor littered with thousands of dead, floating fish prompts visions of a great curse or an apocalypse ("Algae bloom worries experts," June 10). And indeed, much of the vitality of our city depends on the harbor, as is evidenced by the growth of neighborhoods bordering the water and the flocks of tourists who visit those areas. So why is our harbor in such bad shape? Is a harbor covered with trash and dead fish the best we can do? The trash filter at Harris Creek in Canton collects more than three tons of trash a month.

PEACH BOTTOM, Pa. -- Every spring, Scott Brinton pumps about a million gallons of hog manure onto farm fields overlooking the Susquehanna River - the largest source of water for the Chesapeake Bay. Brinton feeds 3,000 pigs in a metal building a few miles north of the Maryland line, and their waste fertilizes his 375 acres of corn and soybeans. He is frustrated that two Pennsylvania environmental groups sent him a letter threatening to sue if he didn't apply for a permit that would require him do more to prevent runoff into the river.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A Pennsylvania environmental group says it plans to sue five big Lancaster County hog and chicken farms as part of a sweeping campaign to keep manure pollution out of the Chesapeake Bay. PennFuture, a nonprofit advocacy group, says the five "factory farms" are among up to 250 livestock operations in this state that have failed to get water pollution control permits required by federal and state laws. "These farms have refused to comply with the laws protecting water from farm pollution, despite the fact that they have known of the laws' requirements for some time," said Kimberly L. Snell-Zarcone, staff attorney for the environmental group.

The owner of a quarantined Carroll County farm faces more than a half-dozen charges of polluting state waterways and illegally disposing of dead animals. Carroll Schisler Sr., 60, of the 2500 block of Marston Road in New Windsor has been charged with four counts of illegally discharging a pollutant into state waters and four counts of illegally allowing the disposal of solid waste on his farm, a spokesman from Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.'s office said yesterday. The state alleges that the water pollution, which occurred March 8 and April 1, resulted from decomposing animals and from waste and wastewater.

BEIJING -- The Chinese government provided details yesterday of its efforts to contain the second major environmental disaster to hit the country's waterways in little more than a month. State media reported that authorities sealed dams and pumped neutralizing chemicals into the Bei River after a toxic spill of cadmium Tuesday from a smelter in southern China's Guangdong province, where thousands of factories make up the manufacturing hub of a booming export-driven economy. As the spill threatened the provincial capital of Guangzhou north of Hong Kong, the gates of two dams downstream were closed for the cleanup effort, Wang Zhensheng, a local Communist Party official, told the official China Daily.

Baltimore: Central Booking Suspect missing from intake center An armed-robbery suspect escaped yesterday from the Central Booking and Intake Center, officials said. Troy Aaron Gross, 42, of Gwynn Oak was arrested Thursday on armed robbery and other charges, said Mark Vernarelli, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Vernarelli said Gross was taken to the facility Friday morning. He said correctional officers discovered that Gross, who was being held without bail, was missing yesterday.

KINSALE, Va. - "Smells like detritus!" hollers Justin Powers, 17, as our kayak flotilla noses into a salt marsh where the Yeocomico and Potomac rivers meet near the Chesapeake. It is good that Justin and his 15 colleagues from Turner Ashby High School, in the far-off Shenandoah Valley farming country, know the odor of organic matter decaying from tidal marshes - vital fuel for the web of life in the Chesapeake. Making the connections between farmland and bay waters has never been more pressing.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Official charged in Arundel animal cruelty case resigns The top Prince George's County health official, who was arrested Wednesday on two felony charges of animal cruelty and six misdemeanor charges of animal neglect, resigned from his county post yesterday. "It is an unfortunate chain of events that has led to Dr. [Frederick J.] Corder's decision," Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson said in an e-mailed statement. The charges were brought against Corder five weeks after Anne Arundel County animal control officials confiscated eight animals from his Harwood farm - two miniature horses with severely overgrown hooves and six dogs that were covered in urine and feces.