So if the sun manages to stay out, this weekend promises to be a great one for solar enthusiasts, or for folks just curious about incorporating renewable energy and efficiency into their homes.

The Solar Decathlon runs through Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, where a house designed and built by University of Maryland College Park students and faculty holds a narrow lead in the international competition among 20 teams to create solar-powered houses that are affordable, energy efficient, attractive and easy to live in. 

The UM entry, WaterShed, which includes solar and a green roof, among other features, won the architecture contest Wednesday.  The overall winner in the weeklong Department of Energy contest will be declared on Saturday, Oct., but the entries are open for public viewing through Sunday.  For more, go here.

Meanwhile, solar buffs in western Maryland have put together a tour this weekend of 26 homes featuring solar energy or other green building techology.  Homes are open for inspection from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, with the lineup varying each day.  For more, or a free guide, go to www.mdgoesgreen.org

Finally, if you'd like to do something with your hands, join the Friends of Patapsco Valley Heritage and Greenway on Saturday to help remove trash along Herbert Run in Arbutus.   Cleanup is from 9 a.m. to noon.  Meet in the parking lot behind the Arbutus volunteer fire station, 5200 Southwestern Boulevard.  To register, go to www.patapscoheritagegreenway.org/eventcal.html

(Baltimore Sun photo: Photovoltaic panels on roof of UM's WaterShed house, by Algerina Perna)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Constellation Energy announced today that it's begun work on a 16.1-megawatt solar power plant at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg that when finished will be Maryland's largest single generator of electricity from the sun - at least for now.

Earth movers recently began clearing and grading the site for the $60 million project, which is expected to be completed next year.

Constellation plans to place 220,000 thin-film photovoltaic panels on 100 acres it is leasing from the Catholic institution, capable of generating more than 22 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.  The facility will be owned and operated by the Baltimore-based energy company.

Burning coal to produce the same amount of energy would release 15,170 metric tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide - roughly equivalent to what 2,975 cars and trucks spew from their tailpipes annually, according to Environmental Protection Agency data.

The project was made possible by a 20-year power purchase agreement with the state and the University System of Maryland.  The state will be paying a fixed rate of 22.25 cents per kilowatt-hour, well above the current cost to generate power from burning fossil fuels.  But Kevin Lucas of the Maryland Energy Administration says that higher cost is offset by the marketable solar renewable energy credits the state also gets, which are now selling for about 17.5 cents/kwh.

The panels were made by First Solar, an Arizona-based company with manufacturing plants in Ohio, Germany and Malaysia.  The construction is expected to employ 75 people on average, and up to 150 at its peak, according to Constellation.  Once finished, the company says it will be run and maintained by two workers.

The Emmitsburg facility is one of four large-scale renewable energy projects being pushed by the O'Malley administration by offering long-term power purchasing agreements.  While the largest in the state for now, an even larger, 20-megawatt project is proposed by Easton-based Maryland Solar on 250 acres of farmland at a state prison complex in Hagerstown. 

Constellation plans to build a separate 1.3-megawatt solar array to generate power for Mount St. Mary's.

(Photo: Aerial view of solar plant construction site, by Something in the Sky for Constellation Energy) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

A Severna Park man has been charged with illegally removing trees on his and community association property, in what Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler's office says is the first criminal prosecution for alleged violations of the state law regulating shoreline development.

William E. Clark, 73, was charged in Anne Arundel Circuit Court with six violations of state Critical Area regulations, including construction without a sediment control plan, clearing trees within a buffer, clearing trees without a permit, malicious destruction of the property of the Olde Severna Park Improvement Association, Inc., and theft of property of the Olde Severna Park Improvement Association, Inc. 

The charges, all misdemeanors, result from alleged tree clearing that occurred on his and neighboring association property in Sullivan Cove on the Severn River, according to a release from Gansler's office.

Maryland lawmakers adopted the Critical Area law in 1984 intending to protect the Chesapeake Bay from further degradation by limiting waterfront development.  The law regulates construction within 1,000 feet of the bay and its tributaries and severely restricts clearing of vegetation within a narrow "buffer" of land nearest the water.

The state has filed several civil suits againts landowners deemed in violation of the law and its regulations, but this represents the first criminal prosecution, according to Gansler's office.

Update: Read the full story here. 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

In a boost to efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay's crab population, Virginia's fisheries regulators have banned wintertime dredging for the crustaceans for the fourth straight year.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted 9 to 0 on Sept. 23 to renew the winter dredging ban, declaring that while the bay's crab stock has rebounded dramatically in the past few years, "more work remains to be done to bring the population back to healthy, sustainable levels."

Prompted by warnings from scientists that the bay's crab population was perilously low, Maryland and Virginia clamped down on commercial crabbing in 2008, attempting to replenish the stock by reducing harvest of female crabs.   Regulators shortened the harvest season and imposed other catch restrictions, including Virginia's ban on its winter dredge fishery, which targets primarily pregnant females. 

A new scientific assessment found that while crab numbers have recovered significantly since the restrictions, they are still below sustainable levels.  The population had been more depleted than previously believed, researchers concluded. 

(Maryland Dept Natural Resources biologists conduct dredge survey of Patuxent River to assess population.  Baltimore Sun photo by Candus Thomson)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science has a new weapon in the fight to slow the spread of invasive species - a $2.7 million floating laboratory to test methods for purging unwanted marine hitchhikers from the ballast water of oceangoing ships.

The 155-foot converted barge was trotted out Tuesday for a dedication ceremony in the Inner Harbor.  Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., was on hand for the event.  He called the more than 150 invasive species reported to date in the Chesapeake Bay a "significant threat" to native fish and plants.

The barge, part of the university's Maritime Environmental Research Center, is one of three such facilities around the country that can test the effectiveness of ballast treatments, such as ultraviolet light, chlorine and oxygen removers.  It can be towed from port to port to conduct testing in different seasons and water conditions.

(Photo courtesy University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News
        

Who says drinking water is dull? "Dam Jam 2011" on Sunday Oct. 2 aims to change that.

The daylong celebration at Cromwell Valley Park of Baltimore's drinking water reservoirs features live music, food, historical reenactors, wildlife on display and activities for kids, plus t-shirts and tattoos.

What more could you ask for? Oh, yeah, and there'll be a guided tour of Loch Raven Dam, with background on the history and inner workings of the region's three reservoirs.

Musical acts include Mosno Al-Moseeki, the "3rd World Rocker," Feinwood Jammgrass and Jeremiah Clark, who performs "alt-country Americana." City and county employees and local conservation groups will be on hand to present info on the importance of the region's waterways and what people can do to protect them.

Cosponsored by the city of Baltimore, Baltimore County and the Towson Arts Collective, the event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 pm.

Admission is free, and attendees are urged to bring chairs, blankets and picnic baskets to spend the day. The park is at 2175 Cromwell Bridge Road. For more information call, 410-396-500 or email kurt.kocher@baltimorecity.gov

(Patuxent Publishing Photo: Loch Raven dam, by Brian Krista) 

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore has more than polar bears and prairie dogs to show its visitors. Just look up!

In addition to some 1,500 animals on exhibit, the lush 135-acre compound in Druid Hill Park boasts some champion trees, such as the number one osage orange in Baltmore city, seen at right.   This giant is 76 feet tall, with a trunk that's 20 feet 1 inch around.

There's also a state champion bur oak in the African exhibit, measuring 87 feet in height and 11 feet 4 inches circumference.  Plus another city champion, a white ash, and two finalists, a towering 148-foot tulip poplar and a white oak.

The trees earned their champion or near-champion status under the state's Big Tree Program, which measures trees all over Maryland and seeks to identify and preserve the biggest and most magnificent of them - most in people's "backyards."

Though its primary focus remains on its wildlife, the zoo's decided to shine a bit of a spotlight on its arboreal splendor.  It's posting informational signs by these and some other notable trees on the grounds.  Sheryl Heydt, the zoo's curator of horticulture, is holding the osage orange sign in the picture at left. 

Other trees of interest include a Turkish filbert, which Heydt says she's been told are very rare in these parts, a sapling from the Wye oak, the venerable tree destroyed by a storm in 2002, and a beech that's showing its age - with the date 1907 carved in its trunk. Such graffiti is prohibited today, but it's a reminder that the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is the third oldest in the country, established in 1876.  Only Philadelphia (1873) and Cincinnati (1874) have older zoos.

So stop by and check out the zoo's trees in addition to its animals. For those who want a more in-depth exposure, there's a tree identification walk on Monday, Oct. 10, where visitors can stroll through the grounds and learn to spot them by their leaf, bark, twig, and fruit characteristics.  The session is for early risers, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. It's free to zoo members, and registration is required. More here.

(Photo at top of osage orange courtesy Maryland Zoo in Baltimore)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltmore's air may be less polluted than it used to be years ago, but it still ranks as the smoggiest in the East, according to a report today by Environment Maryland.

The five worst metro areas in the country for ozone pollution in 2010 all were in California, the environmental group reports. Baltimore came in sixth, topping Washington, Philadelphia, Houston and Atlanta. While air readings for this year are incomplete and preliminary, the greater Baltimore-Washington area came in fourth behind Los Angeles, Atlanta and Fresno, California.

There have been 19 Code Orange days in the Baltimore area this year when people with breathing problems were advised to limit outdoor activity, and five Code Red days when even healthy folks were urged to stay indoors.  But the report says there were many more bad air days this summer and last than the public realizes, because the warnings were based on an ozone pollution standard set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, which was not as strict as health experts and scientists had recommended.  Using the tighter standard suggested by the experts, the report contends there would have been a lot more Code Red and Orange warnings issued.

The Obama administration had been preparing to tighten the standard, citing recommendations of a scientific panel. Advocates and health experts argued that tightening the standard would yield health benefits, in terms of reductions in absenteeism from school and work and reduced hospital admissions for breathing difficulties.

But the move drew fierce opposition from business and industry groups, which argued the costs of compliance would hammer an already sluggish economy. The White House pulled back from the effort recently, as President Obama directed EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to postpone any further review of the smog standard until 2013.

The shelving angered environmentalists, who contended the Obama administration had acted for political reasons, leaving vulnerable people exposed to harmful air pollution. Business groups welcomed the pullback, and now are calling for EPA to pull back other pending regulations, contending they're too costly and unwarranted as well.

(2007 Baltimore Sun photo by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

This weekend brings more attention to the Baltimore area's water ways, with some stream cleanups scheduled Saturday followed by a fun fund-raiser for the region's watershed watchdog.

Last Saturday marked the 26th annual International Coastal Cleaunup, with volunteers clearing beaches and stream banks of debris and trash. This Saturday (9/24), there are a few more pickups planned, including of Bread and Cheese Creek in eastern Baltimore County, and of Stony Run in Baltimore city as it flows past Wyman Park near the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus.

The Bread and Cheese cleanup is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. starting around 1401 North Point Road. Gloves and trash bags provided, as is lunch. E-mail clean_bread_and_cheese_creek@yahoo.com or call 410-285-1202 to sign up!

The city event organized by Friends of Stony Run goes from noon to 4 p.m., and includes tree planting as well as trash pickup. Trash bags provided, but bring gloves and wear long sleeves, pants and rugged shoes. Look for signs at Tudor Arms & Craycombe to take the path down to the site for tree planting. For the trash cleanup, enter by the Remington Avenue Bridge and work north.

That same afternoon (9/24), Blue Water Baltimore is having its 4th annual Trash Bash fund-raiser from noon to 5 p.m. at Nick's Fish House, 2600 Insulator Drive 21230. Cost is $55 and includes seafood, drinks, live music, silent auction and electric boat tours of the Middle Branch. For more, go here.

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Just when it seemed storm-spawned sewer overflows were done, another one happened over the weekend.

Baltimore County's Department of Public Works reported more than 500,000 gallons of untreated sewage spilled out Saturday morning near the Patapsco pumping station in Baltimore Highlands. The overflow occurred on a 40-foot stretch of force main that had recently been replaced because it ruptured during or right after Hurricane Irene blew through the area.

A leak was detected last Wednesday in the replacement 54-inch diameter pipe, which had been put in on September 1. Utility crews excavated the pipe and discovered a joint failure. Sewage overflowed while repairs were under way to fix the joint.

Health officials have extended the water-contact warning they issued after the original overflow, cautioning against swimming, wading or touching the Patapsco downriver of the spill. County officials estimated 85 million gallons of diluted but raw sewage spilled into the Patapsco during the original pipe rupture, which took nearly a week to fix. Another 13.6 million gallons spilled into the river when power went out.

The public beach in the Hammerman area of Gunpowder State Park remains closed to recreation because of Irene-related spills, and water-contact warnings are still in effect on nine other county waterways. 

In all,  Baltimore County reported more than 100 million gallons of diluted but raw sewage overflowed into Baltimore area rivers and streams during and after the storm, according to data logged by the Maryland Department of the Environment.    Many localities reported overflows, though none as large.  Second highest was Prince George's County, which reported about 20 million gallons overflowed in all.

(Worker walks by broken sewer pipe off Annapolis Road near Patapsco River, Sept. 2. Baltimore Sun Photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Saturday (Sept. 17) brings the 26th annual International Coastal Cleanup, a worldwide event organized by the Ocean Conservancy, when volunteers haul trash and debris from streams and beaches.

Maryland has its share of pickups planned, and there'll be no shortage of debris this time, what with the winds and flooding we've had the past few weeks. The state's shoreline could use a good housecleaning. 

Fort Smallwood Park in Pasadena and Stony Run in Baltimore are among the local cleanups on tap. To find a site near you and sign up, go here.

(Volunteer picks up trash on shore at Middle Branch Park. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Hurricane Irene toppled or took limbs from more than 2,900 trees when it blew through Baltimore a few weeks ago. But the city's Recreation and Parks Department has turned that ecological tragedy into gardening gold.

Crews have ground up the fallen giants, amassing huge mounds of wood chips.  Now the city's making it available for free to any resident who wants to mulch around house or garden. 

Starting Saturday (Sept. 17), the mulch can be picked up at nine locations, which are open from dawn to dusk, seven days a week.  The chips are coarse, of the type commonly used for flower beds, underneath shrubs, around the base of trees and for walking paths.

The locations:

- Camp Small: immediately west of Jones Falls Expressway and north of Coldspring Lane.

- Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park: parking lot at Eagle Drive and Windsor Mill Road

- Carroll Park: parking lot inside Carroll Park. Enter from Washington Boulevard and drive straight to back off park.

- Middle Branch Park: end of parking lot in front of Rowing Club. Enter from Waterview Avenue.

- Cimaglia Park (Fort Holabird): parking lot. Enter from Pine Avenue off Dundalk Avenue.

- Clifton Park: west side of St. Lo Drive, 250 yards north of Sinclair Lane, north of railroad viaduct.

- Herring Run Park: Parkside Drive just southeast of Sinclair Lane.

- Mount Pleasant Ice Arena: Northern Parkway and Hillen Road at back of parking lot.

- Northwest Park: in parking lot between old gym and red house. Enter off West Rodgers Avenue at South Bend Road.

There's no limit on how much you can take, but no commercial vehicles or uses are allowed. Residents should bring their own boxes, bags or other containers for hauling it away. 

As they say in the late-night TV commercials, act now, while supplies last!

(Photo courtesy Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Battered by Hurricane Irene, one of two small “floating wetlands” placed in the Inner Harbor a year ago to soak up pollution is being retired – to be replaced before long, supporters hope, by an even larger, though sturdier manmade island.

Laurie Schwartz, executive director of the Waterfront Partnership, a nonprofit promoting the Inner Harbor, said the dozen rectangular trays of marsh grass and flowers tied up by Baltimore’s World Trade Center are to be removed today (Friday, Sept. 16). They were showing wear and tear, she said, after a year of exposure to the elements – particularly the hurricane’s howling winds nearly three weeks ago.

“They stayed somewhat intact,’’ she said during the storm, but inspection afterward found the nylon ropes tethering them in place were frayed and some of the frames pulling apart.

The installation of the wetlands – seen in August 2010 photo above - was a largely symbolic first step in an ambitious campaign by the partnership to make Baltimore’s degraded harbor swimmable and fishable by the end of the decade.

Assembled by volunteers with the Living Classrooms Foundation, the wetlands were made out of wood, mesh and cast-off plastic drink bottles fished out of the harbor. The partnership and other sponsors of the project wanted to test whether the 200-square-foot array would remove any pollution and infuse the water with more oxygen for fish and crabs to breathe. They also hoped it would provide some food and shelter for fish and other aquatic creatures in a harbor that had lost all its natural marshland as the city developed over the centuries. 

Chris Streb, an engineer with Biohabitats, a local ecological restoration firm that’s helped with the project, said he believed the wetlands “worked great” and were never meant to be permanent.   

The grasses flourished, he said, and grew so tall in fact that he thinks now it would’ve been smart to cut them back before Irene blew through.  Fierce 40- to 60-mile-per-hour winds tipped the trays on their side, he said. Though they righted themselves after the storm passed, the strain took a toll on the wooden frames and their tethers.

Perhaps the most productive part of the test wetland, Streb said, was its unseen underside. The plant roots and frame below water attracted lots of mussels, worms and microscopic aquatic creatures that in turn drew foraging fish.

“These things are chock full of ecology,” Streb said.

The frames are to be towed back to Living Classrooms in Fells Point, taken apart and studied, to aid in the placement of a new, much larger floating marsh by the World Trade Center. Students and other volunteers have been assembling new trays for months now, and the partnership is awaiting government approval to put up to 62 of them in the water – covering a total of 2,000 square feet of water this time.

And this time, supporters say, they’ll have reinforced corners and metal instead of nylon tethers to withstand the weather.

The new structure is to join another floating wetland of a different design that also was installed last summer by the National Aquarium. That one seems to have weathered the hurricane intact, as it was moved about 20 feet from its original location to one a bit more sheltered from wind and waves.

(Mike Trumbauer, from left, Adam Ganser and Bryon Salladin, all of Biohabitats, tow trays of floating wetlands to dockside. Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay, News, Urban Issues
        

Happy Park(ing) Day! For those not familiar with it, this is a day when artists, activists and creative business people transform curbside parking spaces into mini-parks and spaces for exhibiting art and socializing.

It was begun in 2005 in San Francisco by Rebar, an art and design studio there, but has gone global since. Last year, there were  more than 800 conversions in more than 180 cities in 30 countries on six continents. It's meant to get people thinking about "re-imagining the possibilities of the urban landscape," as Rebar's Matthew Passmore has been quoted.

Some Baltimore groups and businesses are getting in on the act. The Reservoir Hill Improvement Council is converting teachers' parking spaces at John Eager Howard Elementary School into a "composting kitchen," where students can learn how to build real and edible compost boxes. That's at 2100 Brookfield Ave. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The city's landscape architecture and design firms seem to seizing the opportunity to strut their stuff - or just to engage in a little Friday whimsy. They include:

Ayers Saint Gross, which will unveil a temporary "sculptural shade structure" made almost entirely from plastic bottles collected from the harbor and around the city. It'll be in a pair of adjoining parking spaces at the corner of Broadway and Thames Street in Fells Point. It'll be up from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

EDSA, Inc., which plans an exhibit exploring how society might adapt to apocalyptic events like earthquakes and hurricanes. Its spot will be on Commerce Street just north of Pratt Street, across from the Baltimore World Trade Center.

Floura Teeter, which will convert three spaces in front of its downtown office at 306 W. Franklin Street into an "urban garden designed to showcase sustainable food preparation using local, seasonal ingredients." This will be Floura Teeter's third Park(ing) Day observance.

Mahan Rykiel Associates, which is making two parking spaces in Hampden on the Avenue (832-836 West 36th Street) into a "pop-up, outdoor, dog friendly café." That'll be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more on Park(ing) Day, go here.

(Shannon Early blows bubbles into passing traffic while relaxing in Floura Teeter's greened parking spaces downtown. 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam.)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The deluge that's fouled the Chesapeake Bay with mud, debris and pollution could pose a severe test for the efficacy of state and federal efforts to restore the ailing estuary.

As I reported in The Baltimore Sun, scientists are warning that the floodwaters that poured through Conowingo Dam's spillgates last week during Tropical Storm Lee may devastate underwater grasses and oyster reefs, both of which help filter the water and provide important habitat for fish and crabs.

Their fears are based on history: the bay's grasses largely vanished, and its health plummeted, after another tropical storm, Agnes, produced record flooding in 1972. (Bill Dennison of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science argues that Agnes alone didn't push the bay into a downward spiral, that its impact was magnified by a series of unusually wet years that followed.) 

The surging rivers can simply uproot grasses from their bottoms, or bury them in a thick layer of new sediment. Oyster reefs likewise can be smothered as the mud clouding the water settles out, and the transformation of the bay to fresh water for prolonged periiods of time also can weaken or kill shellfish. 

In addition to sediment, such flooding washes countless tons of nitrogen and phosphorus off the land into the water, from farm and lawn fertilizer, animal waste and sewage treatment systems overwhelmed by the storm. Those plant nutrients feed massive algae growths in the water, which ultimately deplete the water of oxygen needed by fish, oysters and crabs.

Even in "normal" weather, a large oxygen-starved "dead zone" forms each summer in the bay, spreading out and up from the depths to the shallow edges.  A fresh infusion of nutrients washed off the land can feed a new round of oxygen deprivation.  (The storm-fed surge of fresh water also can help aggravate the situation, points out Mike Roman of UMCES.  It's lighter than salt water, so the bay "stratifies" into fresh and brackish layers, and with the water not mixing dissolved oxygen levels in the depths get depleted.)

There are reasons to believe the storm-caused ecological damage this time may not be as severe as in 1972. The rate at which water surged through Conowingo last week approached but did not equal the torrent during Agnes (nearly 800,000 cubic feet per second, versus 1.1 million cfs). The amount of sediment washed below the dam, though enough to turn the bay brown as far south as the Potomac River, was estimated to be a fraction of what Agnes pushed into the Chesapeake (4 million tons from Lee vs 20 million tons in 1972, according to the US Geological Survey).

And the timing could be key. Agnes hit in June, during the growing season for bay grasses and when the bay's dead zone usually begins to form. Lee has hit toward the end of summer, with the grasses gone or going dormant and the dead zone normally dissipating.

Some also think that the bay's in better shape now than it was in 1972, making it more able to handle a body blow from Mother Nature. They argue that the muti-billion-dollar cleanup that's been under way since the mid-1980s has done at least some good, cleaning up sewage discharges and getting many farmers to do things to reduce runoff from their fields and feedlots.  

If that's true, Tropical Storm Lee may prove to be only a minor or short-lived setback for the bay's health. If not, it could prompt some more to question the efficacy of what's been done so far, and whether the bay really can be saved without more radical measures - or maybe if it's even worth the effort.

How good are those expensive sewage plant upgrades if the sewer lines are prone to overflows whenever it rains?  And when you see the bay turn muddy all the way to the Potomac River, how effective really are all the "best management practices" farmers are being asked and paid to adopt to control runoff? 

So this is an unplanned pop quiz of sorts for the bay - and a test of the resolve of those who at least say they're committed to restoring it.  What's more, perhaps such extreme weather events should no longer be regarded as acts of God that can't be helped.  Scientsts have predicted that severe storms are likely to become more frequent as the earth's climate changes.  Seen in that light, bringing the bay back to ecological health just got even more challenging.

(Photos: NASA satellite image of sediment plume in Chesapeake after Tropical Storm Lee; floating plant material and debris on bay's surface, by Baltimore Sun's Kim Hairston)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay
        

Maryland's Department of Natural Resources announced today it's moving to suspend the fishing privileges of 60 recreational anglers for fishing and crabbing violations.

Among the infractions alleged: taking fish during closed seasons, taking fish during spawning seasons, taking fish in closed areas, exceeding daily catch limits and possession of female crabs. Violators can be suspended from one month to a full year, but the accused have a right to request a hearing before an administrative law judge.

DNR Secretary John R. Griffin called the violations a breech of the public's trust and said he hoped the suspensions serve as a warning to would-be violators.

The crackdown on sports anglers comes after DNR got lawmakers to approve stiffer penalties and suspensions for recreational fishing violations as well as commercial infractions.

(Undersized rockfish caught - and thrown back, 2005 Baltimore Sun photo)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

The Susquehanna River flooding has subsided since Friday, but the raging waters washed tons of mud and debris into the Chesapeake Bay.

Pictured here is a stretch of shoreline on the Magothy River in northern Anne Arundel County. The debris washes up on shore, much of it. But the mud settles on the bottom as it drifts down.

Here's a link to a satellite image of the bay, where you can see the Susquehanna quite clearly and the caramel-colored plume its created in the upper bay. (It's a huge image, so scroll right and down to find the river and the bay.) 

(Photo: Magothy River, by Amelia Koch, Chesapeake Bay Foundation)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 6:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Chesapeake Bay
        

Urban farming's the rage these days, at least in some green circles. If you're wondering how to get in on it, there's an all-day workshop Thursday (Sept. 15), with hands-on training, lectures and tours of existing farms in Baltimore.

The free event open to anyone is organized by The Greenhorns, a national nonprofit promoting urban farming.  Besides the health aspects of raising nutritious local produce, the session will focus in part on how productive green space can reclaim the former industrial sites known as brownfields that pepper the city. Baltimore has at least 1,000 brownfields comprising 2,500 acres, according to the group. The city’s Office of Sustainability is aiming to convert 10 acres of city-owned vacant lots into farmland though competitive grant giving.

Visits are planned to Five Seeds Farm in the Belair-Edison neighborhood and Real Food Farm in Clifton Park in Northeast Baltimore. Partners for the event include the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, Maryland Institute College of Art and the Baltimore Free School.

For details. go here.

(Real Food Farm, 2010 Baltimore Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Hurricane Irene may have paradoxically breathed a little life back into the Chesapeake Bay, but the deluge that's caused flash flooding around Baltimore and forced evacuations along the Susquehanna River could well snuff out whatever spark of vitality the earlier storm brought to the ailing estuary.

That's the prediction of a pair of scientists I canvassed, who'd previously suggested that there was a silver lining to the havoc wrought on Maryland two weeks ago by Hurricane Irene. That storm's winds, which toppled trees and power lines across the state, roiled the bay's water and broke up its massive dead zone, they said, giving fish, crabs and shellfish a fresh infusion of life-sustaining dissolved oxygen at the end of what has been an extremely trying summer. 

But the five-day downpour brought to us this week from the Gulf of Mexico by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee is nothing but bad news for the bay, the experts say.

The Susquehanna, source of half of all the fresh water entering the bay, is rising to a level not seen since Tropical Storm Agnes in 1972, with projections that it will be pouring over the Conowingo Dam at more than 600,000 cubic feet per second when the flood peaks early Saturday morning. (UPDATE: The rising river may be cresting a day earlier and somewhat lower than previously predicted, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, but its flow was still projected to peak today at 777,000 cubic feet per second.)

That's well short of the 1.1 million cfs that raged over the dam during Agnes, wiping out grass beds and smothering oysters and clams down the bay.  (UPDATE 09-12: Flow peaked Friday Sept. 9 at 778,000 cubic feet per second, third highest recorded, according to US Geological Survey data. The second heaviest flow reached 909,000 cfs in January 1996.)But it'll be more than enough flow to scour out the nutrient-laden sediment that's piled up behind the dam for the past four decades, according to Bruce Michael, director of resource assessment for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

"Scouring of sediments/nutrients trapped behind the Conowingo Dam occurs when river flows exceed 390,000 to 400,000 cfs," Michael emailed me, "so this event will result in a significant amount of sediments and nutrients being transported from behind the dam and deposited in the upper Bay."

In addition, the torrential rains have washed tons of nutrients, mud and organic matter (yup, sewage overflows, but also plenty of pet, farm and wild animal waste) into the streams and rivers now surging into the bay. All that pollution can feed a new round of algae blooms and suck right back out of the water the oxygen that Hurricane Irene may have brought. And the tide of fresh water itself can make matters worse by "stratifying" the water - salt water is heavier than fresh - preventing dissolved oxygen from mixing throughout the bay.

"In recent history, we have seen low oxygen events in the mainstem in virtually every month of the year given the right conditions," according to William Dennison, vice president for science applications at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "It will be an interesting autumn."

Michael said that even if oxygen levels do drop in the bay's waters - DNR plans to sample later this month - the dead zone is unlikely to reach the size or intensity it did in early summer. But it's just one more insult to a bay that in recent years has been showing some signs of recovery, especially with a resurgence of lush grass beds in the upper bay.

"Bottom line, this is not going to be a good year," Michael concluded, for the bay's water quality or the grass beds that provide vital shelter and nursery for fish and crabs.

Some might wonder if this just shows the billions of dollars spent on bay restoration so far have been wasted. The bay's condition is always going to vary to a degree with the weather, and this year's has been extreme, with unusually heavy spring flows of fresh water, then record heat followed by near-record storm flooding. The controversial pollution diet that Maryland and other bay states have been put on by the federal government can't negate extreme shocks like these, but Michael argues that the pollution reductions being required can reduce their impacts and give the bay more resilience to bounce back.

(Baltimore Sun photos: Susquehanna spilling over Conowingo Dam, flooding of Port Deposit, Sept. 8, by Karl Merton Ferron)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Baltimore's "trash mill" is gone - for good, or ill?

The distinctive floating litter collector has been towed from the Harris Creek storm-drain outfall in Canton, where it has kept tons of refuse out of the Inner Harbor - when it wasn't broken.

Celeste Amato, spokeswoman for the city's Department of Public Works, said it was broken and was taken away to be checked over by a consultant, who'll see what it needs to be fixed. Amato wrote in an email that "it cannot be repaired in place and was removed pending a decision on how to move forward."

Its removal upset John Kellett, who built the device evoking one of the historic water mills that once lined Baltimore's streams. Like those mills, it used a waterwheel to turn a conveyor belt, which lifted floating trash into a dumpster at the back of the shed housing the device.  Solar and wind power or water currents were supposed to turn the wheel.

But the innovative facility, which cost the city $375,000, has had a troubled three-year life. It was originally placed where the Jones Falls empties into the Inner Harbor, then moved to Canton after being deemed not large enough to handle all the debris that pours out of the falls after a storm. At the Harris Creek outfall, it captured upwards of five tons of plastic, paper and foam cups, plates, boxes and bottles every month. Its novel design and appearance also earned it support from residents who wanted to see the harbor and their neighborhoods free of unsightly and unsanitary litter. 

The wheel has been prone to breakdowns, however, and hasn't been operational much of this year. Its inventor has sparred with public works officials over its care and repair.

"From my observations, the city hasn't made any efforts to make it work for a while," Kellett said in a voicemail message he left me. He said the city never responded to his offer of free technical assistance, and had re-engineered the device in a way he thought was sure to fail.

Kellett, at one time director of the Baltimore Maritime Museum and now managing agent for Clearwater Mills, a local firm that makes trash interceptors, had hoped the mill would lead to other similar devices for automatically collecting the unsightly floating debris that fouls the Inner Harbor. Instead the city hired a consultant to evaluate the technology and whether it makes sense to keep using it, much less replicate it elsewhere on the harbor's two dozen outfalls - many of them conduits for litter washed off city streets into storm drains.

Amato, the public works spokeswoman, said the consultant's review is ongoing. Meanwhile, she said, the city has strung a boom in front of the Harris Creek outfall to corral floating debris, where it can be picked up by the skimmers and bass boats operated by city workers.

"We are back to what we always did," she wrote in an email, noting that even when the wheel was working, some trash had to be manually fished out of the water because it got trapped in corners and other places.

The mill's removal is seen by some as a step backward in the struggle to clean up the Inner Harbor, which is so marred by trash that Baltimore is one of the few cities in the country ordered by state and federal environmental agencies to come up with a plan for eliminating it.

The mill's removal was an especially bitter pill for Dr. Ray Bahr, a retired physician in Canton who's spearheaded a campaign to clean up and green up the East Baltimore neighborhoods that drain into the Harris Creek outfall. When it was working, he said, the device helped community leaders gauge how they were doing in policing their streets and alleys. (BTW, Bahr says public radio station WAMU 88.5 FM will carry a story about the harbor cleanup efforts at 1 p.m. Friday and again at 7 a.m. Saturday.)

FWIW, Baltmore scores sixth from the bottom for cleanliness in a ranking by visitors of 35 cities by Travel & Leisure magazine.

(Baltimiore Sun photos: Top, water wheel in 2008 at mouth of Jones Falls, by Amy Davis; bottom, John Kellett with wheel in Canton in 2009, by Tim Wheeler)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Solar power's catching on bigtime on campus.

The University of Maryland College Park has one of the largest solar arrays in the Baltimore-Washington region, with more than 2,600 photovoltaic panels on the roof of its Severn Building. 

It's expected to generate about 792 MWh of electricity in the first year.  That's enough to power 872 homes for one month, and avoids 408 tons of CO2 emissions that would come from burning fossil fuels to get the same amount of juice.

The array is owned by Washington Gas Energy Services, which spent $2 million on the facility installed by Standard Solar.  The project was underwritten in part with a $630,000 state grant, and the university contracted to buy the electricity.

It's one of 16 solar projects supported by the Maryland Energy Administration under its Project Sunburst grant program. Officials say nine of those have been completed so far, providing 5.2 megawatts' worth of solar generating capacity.

(Photo courtesy Maryland Energy Administration)

Posted by Tim Wheeler at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Climate change, Going Green, News