Waterways

By land, north to south, Anne Arundel County is barely 23 miles long - but it boasts about 400 miles of waterways. No point in the county is farther than 10 miles from a Chesapeake tributary. Seven rivers and their myriad creeks make Anne Arundel a boater's paradise, a fertile fishing ground and a source of inspiration and comfort for those who seek the shores of the county to make their homes. The waterways of the county range from the marshes of Jug Bay Wetlands Preserve to the high banks of the Severn River.

Anne Arundel County officials accused the Maryland Economic Development Corp. of failing to properly address storm water management at the 36-hole public golf course being built by the independent state agency in Pasadena. County officials issued a stop-work order at Compass Pointe Golf Course at noon yesterday after complaints, including some from local residents, about runoff because of downed silt fences and failure of other devices intended to keep sediment from washing into waterways.

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.

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.

In Maryland Annapolis, Cambridge get funds for waterways, docks ANNAPOLIS - Pointing to the economic benefits derived from recreational boaters on the Chesapeake Bay, the governor announced grants yesterday to the cities of Annapolis and Cambridge to improve waterways and upgrade docks. Annapolis will receive $500,000 to replace and upgrade the boardwalk and boat slips at Annapolis City Dock. The city is spending $500,000 of its own money and expects another $500,000 in federal funds for the project.

Maryland has been awarded $560,000 in federal money toward setting up scientific tripwires to detect possible outbreaks of Pfiesteria, a toxic microbe believed to have triggered fish kills in the waterways of several Atlantic states. The state has already allocated $1 million for testing.Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida were also given grants by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to test rivers and streams for Pfiesteria piscicida.

My first visit to the Chesapeake Bay was disappointing to say the least. As a place that receives millions of visitors a year, it shouldn't be too much to expect clean water. Roughly 20 percent of all wetlands may no longer be protected by the Clean Water Act. We need EPA director Lisa Jackson and the EPA to act now to protect America's waterways. Muhammad Yasin, Reston, Va.

A group of environmentalists called yesterday on state and federal officials to step up efforts to keep mercury out of Maryland's air and waterways. The Maryland Public Interest Research Group and other environmental activists held a news conference on Federal Hill to discourage people from eating mercury-tainted fish and to attack federal legislation they say will increase mercury emissions from power plants. PIRG's Washington office released a report arguing that the Bush administration's Clear Skies legislation, being reviewed by Congress, would allow power plants to triple mercury emissions over the next decade.

Baltimore County has had its second sewage spill in a week - this time 190,000 gallons that poured into waterways in Dundalk before the spill was stopped yesterday. The spill, which began Sunday, lasted through yesterday morning because a pumping station alarm system malfunctioned, county officials said. "The alarm did not go off," said Elise Armacost, a county spokeswoman. "[Workers] found it when they went on a routine check this morning." The raw sewage flowed into School House Cove and Bear Creek, Armacost said.