Patapsco Area Water Quality

[5th Tuition]

Rant, Rant, Rant
I just came back from a Sunday afternoon trip to Downs Park. OMG, what has happened to the water quality in the upper bay! The bay was not only brown, but had a foam that was washing up on the shore. I can’t believe what we accept as “normal” water quality. People were in the water with their bare feet and people were fishing from the pier.
I wouldn’t let my dog near that water, much less my children. I can’t believe there were no signs posted to keep out of the water, or to not eat anything caught in the water.
I pulled my Iphone from my pocket and looked at some numbers. The chlorophyll count from the Patapsco buoy reads 53.97ug/L and the turbidity is 6.3 NTU. Whereas, the Gooses Reef Buoy reads Chlorophyll as 1ug/L and turbidity as 3.2 NTU. Numbers this far off can’t be good.

Is this a repercussion of the poop plant overflowing and the main sewage pipe break of a couple weeks ago? I can’t believe people who own waterfront homes in the area stand for this kind of water quality.
I was visibly upset to see people interacting with the bay in such a condition. Has anyone else noticed it?
5th (Marty)

[5th Tuition]

I wish the bay bridge swim was today and it originated from Downs Park!!!
Reporters would have been there to see it for themselves. No doubt many swimmers would have refused to swim in that water.
5th (Marty)

[Skip]

This is from few days ago.


Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 9:33 am

Algae bloom follows latest Patapsco sewage spill PAMELA WOOD Staff Writer CapitalGazette.com | 0 comments

First came the sewage, now comes the algae bloom.

The Patapsco River is seeing a large bloom of prorocentrum minimum algae, likely due to a massive sewage spill one month ago.

The Department of Natural Resources can't confirm the link yet, but officials said it makes sense that the influx of nutrient-rich sewage is driving the growth of the current algae bloom.

About 17 millions of untreated sewage flowed into the river per day for several days after a 54-inch pipe burst near the Patapsco Pumping Station in Baltimore County on March 25.

Last week, a monitoring station in Masonville Cove on the Patapsco started recording a spike in chlorophyll readings, said Mark Trice, who helps run the DNR Eyes on the Bay monitoring program.

Chlorophyll indicates the presence of algae in the water.

Tests showed the algae to be prorocentrum minimum, a variety of mahogany tide that can tint the water a reddish-brown color.

It's not clear how long the algae bloom will last — it depends on the weather and how many nutrients flow into the river and feed the algae, said Cathy Wazniak, a water quality expert with the DNR.

With so much algae in the water, the dissolved oxygen levels have dropped, meaning there is too little oxygen for fish, crabs and shellfish to live in that area right now.

The Patapsco algae bloom is one of several examples of earlier-than-usual algae blooms across the Chesapeake Bay this spring.

For information on algae blooms and water quality, the DNR posts data at www.eyesonthebay.net.

[garlien]

Hate to say it but I was just north of Downs Park between 5:30 and 7:30 tonight...My wife was at the park with our dogs and I was on the boat, and yes Marty you know where I was....

Water quality does not look like it affected my fishing....

Got 8 total fish, all looked like residents 16" to 22" all on light tackle...

Saw another boat drifting in the area with a couple of kids on board and they were starting to bring in perch....

Pretty good weekend for me between the deep water, bigger fish and John's magic umbrella on Saturday and the fish today on light tackle..

Oh and by the way, one of the fish, around 18" had, yes believe it, a pair of sea lice...Very weird...Maybe a mature female hooked up with him, who knows maybe young stripers like MILF's too....

[Spot77]

Marty, one of the things I'll have to monitor since i got put in charge of our neighborhood beaches and parks is water quality, and I'll have to be the bad guy that closes our beaches when the **** hits the fan.

Or when it hits the shoreline.


Previously no one ever bothered to close the beaches since they're private property. Ugh....I'm sure to get some hate mail from the ignorant this summer.

And thanks for mentioning the phone....I'll have to get the link from you so I can pull it up on my phone easily.

[hippie]

Spot77, Do you have any real pull in the water quality situation? If so do you think we can make a difference? If you do I'll send a PM and we could join forces to try. Thanks, Bob

[Spot77]

Originally Posted by hippie

Spot77, Do you have any real pull in the water quality situation? If so do you think we can make a difference? If you do I'll send a PM and we could join forces to try. Thanks, Bob

Not really.

I have a lot of good contacts and strong relationships in the legislature, but they're not going to do anything right now....and probably nothing for the next couple of years until the economic numbers start looking dramatically better.

Nobody wants to really tackle the biggest problems.....that would upset too many powerful campaign donors.

For now the only impact I can have is within my own neighborhood. I'm responsible for our beaches and parks, and we have a lot of waterfront property. We get a few volunteer work parties together every year to clean debris and assemble rain barrels from recycled materials to help reduce runoff, but that's about the extent of it.

I'm working on a big shoreline erosion control project, but I suspect that will be 5 to 7 years before we get all of the permits and funding to implement that. And by then the shoreline will have changed drastically again and I'll probably have to start all over again.

[hippie]

I hear you. It is election year so there probably won't be anything done. I reside in lower Pa. and have some legislators willing to do something through the CBF aggreement between the watershed states. Any campaigns I'm involved in are usually in southern Pa. Thanks again, Bob