Weems Creek

The Anne Arundel County Health Department cautioned residents yesterday to avoid swimming in or contact with the water in the upper portion of Weems Creek in Annapolis.The agency issued a health advisory after more than 1,000 gallons of sewage spilled early yesterday morning into a tributary, behind the Admiral Heights subdivision.Sewage backed up at a Bristol Road pumping station owned by the City of Annapolis during a electric power failure between 5 and 6 a.m., department spokeswoman Evelyn Stein said.

Tim Fletcher emerged from the comfort of a heated SUV and looked out as the wind rippled across the water. Standing on the College Creek bridge, he assessed the progress of a dual bridge reconstruction along Rowe Boulevard as crews used concrete and brick to patch the torn-up overpasses. The cold blasts rippling over the exposed work site -- the other bridge is over Weems Creek -- quickly sent Fletcher and his tour group retreating to the sport utility vehicle. "Yes, building bridges in the summer is much more pleasant," said Fletcher, a project engineer for the State Highway Administration, as he pulled the door shut.

It creaks. It clangs. It grinds. It groans.The Weems Creek Bridge is not dying quietly. But the 1929 bridge, which begins making noise as early as 5 a.m. as it swivels to allow boats to pass, soon will be silenced as a new, state-of-the-art span takes its place."

A Weems Creek task force report disappointed waterfront residents last week who had hoped the state would come forward with a comprehensive plan to restore the Annapolis waterway.Gov. William Donald Schaefer created the task force last year to assess the damage caused bythe State Highway Administration during the Route 50 expansion and to recommend improvements.However, the report released Wednesday focused predominantly on preventing further degradation of the Severn River tributary."We found in looking back at previous water quality information and reports on Weems Creek that it's very difficult to make a connection between the creek's problems and the State Highway Administration," said David A. C. Carroll, the governor's Chesapeake Bay coordinator.

Severn River Association president Stuart Morris calls it "a surprisingly attractive group of ravine woodlands." Sen. Gerald Winegrad, D-Annapolis, calls it "a drainage ditch."On Friday, environmentalists will try to convince Winegrad, the State Highway Administration and the Maryland Department of the Environment that a tiny section of non-tidal wetlands behind The Capital newspaper offices on West Street in Annapolis deserves to be saved.The SHA plans to fill in the wetlands -- which comprise 3/100 of an acre, or about one-tenth of a football field -- in order to build a new interchange at the heavily congested intersection of routes 2 and 450. The SHA also would cut down about two acres of trees surrounding the wetlands.

A plan to create wetlands adjacent to Weems Creek in Annapolis using rubble from the Ridgely Avenue bridge is in jeopardy because of a dispute between state and federal officials over a nearby project, a local environmental leader said.William Moulden, president of the Severn River Association, has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to sink 550 tons of the bridge, which is due to be replaced, to create wetlands.But, he said, his permit application "is in the Dumpster right now," because the State Highway Administration (SHA)

Seven Anne Arundel County organizations have been chosen by the Chesapeake Bay Program's Small Watershed Grants Initiative - a program that helps communities restore and preserve streams in the bay - to receive funding from federal agencies. The recipients announced yesterday by Sens. Paul S. Sarbanes and Barbara A. Mikulski are: The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which will use its $100,000 Community Legacy grant to implement restoration and habitat projects in the South River. The city of Annapolis, which will use its $30,000 grant to install a rain garden in Back Creek Nature Park to manage storm-water runoff.

The metal behemoths, each as heavy as 25 elephants and strong enough to pound steel tubes 90 feet into the ground, have hovered over the gateway to Maryland's capital for 10 months, their long necks almost as familiar a sight to commuters as the State House dome. Annapolis has a reputation for quaintness, but with two of its bridges undergoing serious rehabilitation, the Colonial town has grown used to having cranes fill its skyline. Roaring jackhammers and orange traffic barriers round out the construction milieu.

A 20-foot embankment that collapsed behind Annapolis Mall 12 days ago releasing silt and construction site runoff into Weems Creek apparently met state design standards, prompting county officials to challenge those standards yesterday."