The buried streams article in today's Sun hit a nerve.

I've been getting calls and emails all morning from people who are aware of the problems caused by these buried waterways, which are discharging all kinds of filth and sewage into the Patapsco river, and later into the Chesapeake Bay. Here's a sampling:

"When I was a kid growing up in the 1940s we played in the stream that ran under EASTERN AVE past the chemical plant. The stream was covered up to make the parking lot for PEMCO by dumping thousands of tons of waste over the stream. I remember dropping one of the crystals into my goldfish tank and watching the fish die in a matter of minutes."

"I used to work for the Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association, and I know the frustrations that come with seeing the trash of other communities, come washing into your own.
I had spoken with representatives from Friends of Patterson Park, about restoring the stream that runs through the park, down Lakewood avenue, and to the outfall on boston street. This would require a lot of money, and a bridge be built on Boston street where the stream is exposed, but I think the benefits would be amazing. There is only one open running stream in Baltimore city I think, which runs beside 83 if I'm not mistaken. I know that daylighting the lakewood avenue stream would mean less parking for the area as well, but I feel that the residents on that street would be ok with it, because their basements would also stop flooding. Plus, their front stoops would open up to a beautiful waterway, instead of concrete."

"Over the past six months, contractors have taken down almost 80 trees between our neighborhood and the Bryn Mawr school all in the name of stream restoration.  Now we have two red fox families wandering around our neighborhood with their habitat destroyed as well as increased noise from Northern Parkway. 
   I should have contacted you earlier.  The bulldozers are gone but the stumps remain along with heartache over such a beautiful bit of nature in the city destroyed.  The only people who are happy are Bill Stack and Whiting Turner who received millions of dollars for the tree removal.  
   After reading Rona's article this morning and seeing the photos I am even more outraged that the city is focused on the wrong kind of restoration."

A guy also left me a message saying that neighbors in the Gwynns Falls area call the stream where we were "stinky creek." Jed Kirschbaum's amazing pictures do it justice, but you can't smell a picture. Let me just say that it was not good.

To get into the stream, we had to climb over a concrete barrier and walk along slimy, trash-coated rocks to waist-deep water. I lost my balance coming out of the water and leaned on a rock, promptly cutting my hand with glass from who knows where. Sujay told me not to worry -- his wife's a doctor, he said, and he cuts and scrapes himself all the time. Among the junk we found in there: a Huey Lewis CD, a motorcycle, a stroller, and enough plastic bags to make a circus tent. They did not come through the buried stream, but were clearly dumped there -- more evidence of how we value, or don't, the natural resources of this city.

The City Paper mined the topic of urban filth a few months ago in this excellent story by Van Smith. The cover story doesn't specifically mention buried streams, but it talks about the major odors and gushes of sewage that are coming through pipes and drains, and it sounds like Smith was in or near at least a few buried streams.

The Patapsco River ranked as Maryland's most polluted last year, and this problem is part of the reason why. It doesn't get as much attention as other bay issues, in part because it's out of sight and so far from the Chesapeake. But it's a major problem all the same.

You can learn more about it here. Kaushal and Elmore published some of their research in that journal. And for a map of the buried streams in the Baltimroe areas, click here.