Water

A scheduled 6:30 a.m. opening of the Curtis Bay drawbridge to allow for Coast Guard water traffic to pass beneath caused major traffic back-ups on Interstate 695 in both directions Friday morning. The drawbridge had closed by 6:59 a.m. and traffic was again flowing as of about 7:15 a.m., according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. However, there is a second scheduled opening of the drawbridge at 9:30 a.m., the authority said. An authority dispatcher said he could not estimate how long the second opening will last, because that depends on the type of watercraft moving through the span and water conditions at the time.

A proposal to levy storm-water fees on many state-owned properties has cleared the House, setting the stage for shrinking a loophole in the year-old law that requires private landowners pay to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Delegates voted unanimously for HB508 , which partially removes an exemption for state lands in the law enacted last year mandating that Baltimore city and Maryland's nine largest counties levy a storm-water cleanup fee...

The following is the Friends of Harford testimony before the Harford County Council in support of Bill 13-12. levying a storm water remediation fee. A copy was provided for publication. Friends of Harford supports the purpose and philosophy behind Bill 13-12 "Storm water Remediation Fee" because past storm water management practices have proven inadequate to protect our properties, our streams, the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay. Just as these past inadequacies accumulated over time, so too will correcting them take time -- and money.

The concept behind the proposed Maryland Agriculture Certainty Program is sound. Farmers would voluntarily agree to meet relatively high standards for pollution runoff and hire third-party inspectors to verify the results. In return, they would be spared from new regulations for 10 years. In a business that is fraught with uncertainty from droughts and floods, rising and falling commodity prices and boom or bust crop yields, the appeal of predictability is clear enough. The model is not unlike the discharge permit of some manufacturers or sewage treatment plants - a kind of contract between regulators and polluters.

I am writing in response to Sen. E.J. Pipkin's letter to the editor in which he called me the state's land planning czar ("O'Malley is waging war on rural Maryland," Feb. 26). The senator may think such name-calling and his "war on rural Maryland" slogan is strategic for him. However, it is bad for rural, suburban, and urban Maryland. This type of rhetoric damages the "One Maryland" approach that has helped bind all of the state's communities together for many years. As a matter of fact, the state provides more assistance per capita in rural counties than it does in the more suburban and urban counties in Central Maryland.

Employees who were barred from their offices on the Johns Hopkins at Keswick campus because of water contamination have been granted additional paid leave days, human resources officials said Friday. Employees in the campus' south building, which was closed two days, will get two days of added leave, said Pamela Paulk and Charlene Moore Hayes, executives for Hopkins' health system and university, in an email to employees who work at the North Baltimore office complex. "You will be able to use the two days as you wish," the human resources officials said.

Despite a report to the contrary, filmmaker John Waters is very much alive. A website called National Report published a would-be obituary for Waters on Wednesday, with the headline: "Acclaimed Cult Filmmaker, John Waters … Drops Dead at 67!" The report went on to say he was found dead -- apparently of natural causes.  Despite the less-than legitimate look of the report or its source, a few folks believed it and began circulating it. This morning, a couple of people had already started mourning on Twitter, including one woman who Tweeted: "I woke up and John Waters is dead.

Officials on Tuesday continued investigating the second round of illnesses in less than a week at a North Baltimore office building but did not quickly find a link between the two bouts. Still, officials overseeing the investigation are confident that the building is safe and have decided it will be open for business on Wednesday. The water heater that was identified as the source of last week's sicknesses — more than 20 people reported headaches, breathing problems and dizziness — was taken offline before the building, part of the Johns Hopkins at Keswick campus, was reopened.

The Baltimore Health Department said late Wednesday that investigators believe a faulty hot water heater sickened 23 people at the Johns Hopkins at Keswick complex this week. An estimated 600 people were evacuated from the complex Tuesday afternoon after people reported difficulty breathing. Standard checks by emergency officials ruled out exposure to carbon monoxide, explosives, hydrogen sulfide and low oxygen. Investigators said they also were examining the possibility of food contamination.

Watch out, ladies and gentlemen, the Maryland Senate - where Democrats outnumber Republicans 35 to 12 - could be going weenie on gun control. Already, they're caving to the "gun enthusiasts" on the proposal to require a license to buy a handgun in a state where, according to a Washington Post poll, more than 85 percent of us support it - 73 percent strongly so. By Wednesday, our mighty senators had cut the cost of the license from $100 to...