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Home Volume 10 Number 4 Dams, Sediment & the Bay

Dec. 2011 · Volume 10 Number 4

Dams, Sediment & the Bay

Big Year for Bay Storms, Bad Year for Bay

Jeffrey Brainard

Jeffrey Halka and Larry Sanford watched as the coring tube disappeared over the side of the RV Kerhin, a research vessel on station in the northern Chesapeake Bay. The tube held a heavy weight that would help the core sink quickly and burrow into the Bay's bottom four meters below. They worked under a September rain, a reminder that 2011 was turning into one of the wettest years on record. Two big tropical storms, Irene and Lee, had blown over the Chesapeake a few weeks earlier, dumping torrential rain on the region. The Bay's water was still brown. Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant's quarterly magazine, reports on research, extension, education and other Chesapeake Bay issues and activities of interest to the marine community. It is produced and funded by this program, which receives support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Assistant Director for Communications, Jeffrey Brainard; Editor, Michael W. Fincham; Production Editor and Art Director, Sandy Rodgers. more . . .

Countdown for the Conowingo

Jeffrey Brainard

Last year, the federal government directed the communities surrounding the Chesapeake Bay to take on a difficult challenge: improve the Bay's water quality by reducing the overabundance of sediments and nutrients flowing into it by 2025. But that might prove to be an especially big challenge for residents of Pennsylvania and New York if policy makers don't figure out what to do about the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River. Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant's quarterly magazine, reports on research, extension, education and other Chesapeake Bay issues and activities of interest to the marine community. It is produced and funded by this program, which receives support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Assistant Director for Communications, Jeffrey Brainard; Editor, Michael W. Fincham; Production Editor and Art Director, Sandy Rodgers. more . . .

Those Dammed Old Rivers

Michael W. Fincham

Over the 18th and 19th centuries, a string of dams would go up along the river as the Patapsco became one of the first focal points of the Industrial Revolution in Maryland. Those dams created water power for grist mills, saw mills, paper mills, cardboard mills, textile mills, as well as foundries and forges and hydroelectric plants. Towns would sprout up around the mills at places that came to be called Avalon, Orange Grove, Ilchester, Ellicott City, Oella, Daniels, and Oakland Mills. Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant's quarterly magazine, reports on research, extension, education and other Chesapeake Bay issues and activities of interest to the marine community. It is produced and funded by this program, which receives support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Assistant Director for Communications, Jeffrey Brainard; Editor, Michael W. Fincham; Production Editor and Art Director, Sandy Rodgers. more . . .

Jon Kramer Leaves Maryland Sea Grant

Michael W. Fincham

First impressions can be deceiving, but in the case of Jon Kramer they weren't. He came to Maryland Sea Grant in 1998 to interview for an Assistant Director job and took an informal sit down with the communications staff. We were not the search committee, just colleagues curious about a candidate. Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant's quarterly magazine, reports on research, extension, education and other Chesapeake Bay issues and activities of interest to the marine community. It is produced and funded by this program, which receives support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Assistant Director for Communications, Jeffrey Brainard; Editor, Michael W. Fincham; Production Editor and Art Director, Sandy Rodgers. more . . .

Sediments Pose Threat to the Bay

Jeffrey Brainard

The muddy-brown water in the satellite photo of the Chesapeake Bay, taken from 400 miles up, tells a story about the health of the Bay in 2011 and, perhaps, future years. Chesapeake Quarterly, Maryland Sea Grant's quarterly magazine, reports on research, extension, education and other Chesapeake Bay issues and activities of interest to the marine community. It is produced and funded by this program, which receives support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Assistant Director for Communications, Jeffrey Brainard; Editor, Michael W. Fincham; Production Editor and Art Director, Sandy Rodgers. more . . .