Waterways

Stormwater is the only source of pollution to local waterways that is growing. There has been much talk lately of stormwater fees as a "rain tax. " While catchy, the moniker really doesn't tell the story. The story begins when those raindrops hit parking lots, roads and other paved surfaces. As they flow downhill, they pick up pollution - oil and grease from automobiles, fertilizer from our yards, and dog waste that wasn't picked up. That pollution flows into storm drains, then into local streams and creeks, then into local rivers.

Thanks to Alison Prost for her recent commentary ("Beyond 'rain tax' rhetoric," May 1) explaining the health and economic issues that will be addressed with a stormwater fee and debunking the misrepresentation of the fee. The fee is not about rain. It takes aim at the pollution, trash and debris that are washing into our local rivers, the Baltimore Harbor and Chesapeake Bay. The polluted runoff makes these waterways unfit for use and the fish in them unsafe to eat. Many Baltimore organizations - private, public, community and nonprofit - are working hard to make our waterways fishable and swimmable.

AN OLD publication once called Baltimore the Liverpool of America, a reference to our harbor, shipping and industry. There are times, however, when I prefer to compare our city to Venice, because of all the water underfoot. I'm serious. This summer, we've seen an apparently sound chunk of Cathedral Street collapse. Another urban sink hole, suspiciously close to the Walters Art Museum. Some 35 years ago, when construction crews labored and labored to build its back addition (at the time, I thought the pyramids went up faster)

Stormwater is the only source of pollution to local waterways that is growing. There has been much talk lately of stormwater fees as a "rain tax. " While catchy, the moniker really doesn't tell the story. The story begins when those raindrops hit parking lots, roads and other paved surfaces. As they flow downhill, they pick up pollution - oil and grease from automobiles, fertilizer from our yards, and dog waste that wasn't picked up. That pollution flows into storm drains, then into local streams and creeks, then into local rivers.

A $10.1 million dredging contract has been awarded to California-based Dutra Construction Co. Inc. by the Baltimore District of the Army Corps of Engineers.The company will dredge several waterways, including the Craighill, Brewerton and Tolchester channels.Pub Date: 9/20/96

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is on the verge of exempting more than one-third of the nation's waterways from federal rules that protect them from pollution, according to environmental and business activists. Isolated wetlands and smaller streams that occasionally go dry would no longer get protection under the 30-year-old Clean Water Act because the administration is planning to change the definition of protected waterways, many activists say. The Environmental Protection Agency would not comment.

BLADENSBURG -- Against the backdrop of an abandoned Maryland marina silted over as the result of urban development, the chief federal environmental official said yesterday that 40 percent of the nation's rivers, lakes and streams are adversely affected by pollution.Carol M. Browner, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, cited the Anacostia River waterfront, just outside Washington in this historic Prince George's County community, as an example of what "silt from polluted runoff -- the No. 1 problem threatening America's waterways" -- can produce.

Saying the future of maritime businesses and recreational boating is at stake, Baltimore County will press ahead with its request to dredge four Middle River waterways, even though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is likely to deny the request.County officials are concerned that vessels -- particularly sailboats -- can't make it into the channels and are seeking permits to dredge Greyhound Cove, Chestnut Cove, Frog Mortar Creek and Galloway Creek. More than 300 homes and 20 marinas, restaurants and other water-dependent businesses are on those waterways.

Five picturesque creeks and coves in eastern Baltimore County are being dredged and another four will be scooped in an aggressive $2 million project to enrich the environment and continue to attract recreational boaters.The deepening of the channels is considered crucial to the environment because the process allows sunlight to reach the submerged grasses that serve as natural banquets for fish and crabs. Also, the ebb and flow of tides, or flushing, is vastly improved because of easier passage of water from the creeks into Middle River.

Baltimore will spend $475,000 to study its aging sewer system, which has caused more than 16 million gallons of raw sewage to be dumped into waterways over the past five months. With legal pressure building from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of the Environment, the city Board of Estimates unanimously agreed yesterday to an emergency spending request to hire engineers to examine ways to upgrade and maintain the system. The board approved a contract with Metcalf and Eddy Services of Baltimore to inspect and determine priorities for repairs to the 3,100-mile system.

Captains Sharing & Caring, a nonprofit foundation that gives children with terminal illnesses or physical disabilities and their families a day out on several local waterways, is looking to marinas, yacht clubs and those with private docks to hosts events this summer. According to Cheryl Krajcsik, the executive director of the foundation, this is the third summer that the foundation will run events, mostly on Middle, North East and Magothy rivers and Bodkin Creek. The events typically last from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the water - with a picnic or other activities, such as swimming afterward - on Sundays from June through August.

On good days, the Tiber Hudson tributary of the Patapsco is a pleasant part of the scenery in Historic Ellicott City as it flows through a stone channel by Tonge Row, beneath Tiber Alley alongside Main Street and past the B&O Railroad Museum before it spills into the river. It's a troubled waterway nonetheless, not considered able to support life, paved over in spots and surrounded by lots of asphalt. The urban and suburban surroundings that drain into the Tiber Hudson - its "watershed" - will be inspected early in December by teams of consultants and volunteers as part of a continuing private, county and state effort to improve the streams and rivers that ultimately flow into the Chesapeake Bay. Focusing on areas some distance from its channel, the crew of about 15 will spend four days driving around, looking for possible pollution sources and ways to better protect the Tiber Hudson.

On the wave of unwanted publicity over unruly youths downtown, owners of businesses around the Inner Harbor were probably none too thrilled to have the smell of dead fish wafting through the air last weekend. Naturally, they brushed it off as having no impact on tourism - but you can bet that the odor was about as welcome as another Pat McDonough press conference. The likely culprit was mahogany tide, an algae that feeds on excess nutrients. This creates huge blooms that eventually die, rot and suck the oxygen out of the water, leaving other forms of aquatic life to suffocate.

Maryland is fortunate to have many beautiful parks, rivers and streams, breathtaking views, delicious fish and shellfish and enjoyable recreational opportunities, from our nation's largest estuary to the snow-capped mountains in Western Maryland. Throughout our history, we have not done enough to protect these treasures and the water that links them, allowing them to deteriorate and their ecosystems to suffer. Under Gov.Martin O'Malley's leadership, though, things have started to turn around.

Parts of three waterways have been opened to shellfish harvesting after tests showed declines in bacteria there, the Maryland Department of the Environment announced Monday. An area of the Wicomico River on the Eastern Shore, at the border between Wicomico and Somerset counties, is now approved for commercial harvests. Waters below Bay Point had been closed because of high bacteria levels in the water. The headwaters of Broad Creek in Talbot County have been conditionally approved, meaning that oysters and clams can be harvested there except after a heavy rainfall.

Since the Department of Natural Resources needs additional funds to dredge our Maryland waterways, they should first strictly enforce registration in Maryland of all those Pennsylvania and Delaware boats residing for the season in the many Eastern Shore marinas from Chesapeake City southward to Rock Hall and beyond. All one has to do is walk those docks to see the preponderance of out of state boats (with no Maryland registration decals) using our state's waterways but not paying their fair share of maintaining them.

Captivated by the idea of living and playing on the water, Evan Belaga moved two years ago from the sprawl of Tysons Corner, Va., to a fixer-upper on the banks of Weems Creek in Annapolis. But his vision of life on the waterfront began to blur once he took a closer look at the creek behind his home. With each rain, a torrent of sediment, debris and oil gushed into the creek, creating a murky mess. "It's like the Mississippi Delta," Belaga said. Once he became aware of the problem, the newcomer didn't waste time before acting.

Among the many rites of summer that are being renewed this holiday weekend, police across Maryland plan increased patrols in an effort to clamp down on drunken driving and boating. "Most folks will be off on holiday, but we are working," said Sgt. Thornnie O. Rouse, spokesman for the Maryland State Police. "People often tell us that they are paying our salaries. We are just showing them they are getting their money's worth." Stepping up patrols on Maryland waterways, the state Department of Natural Resources has canceled leave for its 280-member police force who are involved in "Operation Osprey" this weekend.

A year after the rockfish season was cut short because recreational and commercial fishermen were charged with poaching with illegally tied-down gill nets, a bill proposing the ban of all gill nets in Maryland waterways will be considered by the General Assembly. Sponsored by the Maryland Saltwater Sportfishing Association and state Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, a Baltimore County Democrat, Senate Bill 1032 calls for the ban of gill nets whether they are weighted down or not. Gill nets are legal, but it has been illegal to hold the nets down with weights since 1985.

Last month, there was a deluge of stories in The Baltimore Sun about cleaning up two of our region's most consistently polluted attractions: the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Of course, the health of these two water bodies is inexorably linked - and not just to each other, but also to the health of our communities. When it rains, pollution and litter on our lawns and in our streets gets flushed into storm drains that empty into our streams, our harbor, and ultimately the bay. The Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore has just released the Healthy Harbor Plan to make our harbor safe for swimming and fishing by 2020.