The violations on the Ridgely’s Reserve development in Joppa, which is still under construction, caused excess sediment to run off into a Gunpowder River tributary called the Foster Branch, according to the complaint filed on behalf of MDE by the state attorney general’s office.

The sediment pollution has resulted in a “die-off” of underwater grasses in the Gunpowder, among other consequences, according to the suit. This vegetation provides a key food source and habitat for river life, such as crabs, fish and waterfowl. Aquatic grasses also produce oxygen, and remove contaminants from waterbodies, but they also can be smothered by excessive runoff.

Surveys conducted by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science found that grasses in the Gunpowder declined about 90% from 2021 to 2023, when photographed by airplane. The scientists noted that the reason for the localized decline were a mystery, but measurements found spikes in turbidity, or the murkiness of the water.

The suit, which was filed in Harford County Circuit Court Friday, follows similar legal action by the Gunpowder Riverkeeper, a nonprofit organization focused on the waterway. About a month ago, the Riverkeeper filed a notice of intent to sue the builders, a required step for citizens who file environmental claims under the federal Clean Water Act. After giving notice, citizens must wait 60 days before filing suit. The state, however, is under no such obligation.

State environmental inspectors first visited the construction site in May 2022, according to Friday’s filing, after “multiple citizen complaints,” including from the riverkeeper, about “sediment-laden water observed emanating from the housing development and discharging into Foster Branch.” On the scene, they found sediment control problems, such as a clogged filter rendering a piece of equipment “useless” and a slope that had not been stabilized to prevent erosion.

Between that date and July of this year, state inspectors visited the site about 30 times, noting repeated violations, such as silt fencing that had been overrun by rushing water, and clear evidence that runoff from the site was polluting the surrounding waterways.

Harford County officials have fined the developers and established consent decrees requiring fixes. But officials believe the problems are continuing, according to the filing. Though many homes already have been constructed and sold, construction continues on the site.

In its filing, MDE asked the court to order the developers to halt the pollution and restore the affected natural areas. It also requested injunctive relief and civil penalties, which can be up to $25,000 per violation, per day.

“Inspection after inspection has documented problems with this project, and this pollution has caused real harm to our waterways,” Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain said in a statement Friday. “It is past time for this pollution to stop. We are asking the court to not only impose a financial penalty, but also require that the affected waterways be restored.”

The suit names D.R. Horton, the home building company; Forestar, the site developer; and Kinsley Construction, a contractor working on the site until March. The companies did not respond Friday to requests for comment.

Gunpowder Riverkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur said Friday he was grateful “there is positive movement from MDE in filing their own complaint.”

Nearly 1,000 people have signed an online petition calling for action to stop the pollution, which has at times turned the Gunpowder and Bird rivers orange with sediment, according to the petition. The petition was sponsored by a citizen group called the Mad About Mud campaign.

The suit also highlights sediment control violations specific to the sewer line constructed to service the new development’s homes. Though the sewer line has been completed, and Forestar “prematurely” filed to terminate a construction-related permit in April, the area still needed to be stabilized with vegetation as of Friday, when the complaint was filed, according to the document.

“The repeated violations at Ridgely’s Reserve demonstrate a blatant disregard for our environmental laws and the welfare of Marylanders,” Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement Friday. “The damage that has already been done needs to be addressed so the waterways around this community are made whole and healthy again while those responsible for the pollution answer for their actions in court.”

Le Gardeur said that in his monitoring of the Gunpowder by skiff, he continues to see turbidity increase as he moves closer to the Foster Branch, and clearer waters heading out toward the Chesapeake Bay. On the site, he has seen exposed soils, which concern him greatly, particularly when stormy weather approaches.

“It’s still a lot of bare soil out there,” he said. “I’m just glad it hasn’t rained recently.”

Residents in the Jessup area, surrounding the Savage Stone quarry, had complained of dust, as well as property damage and noise associated with the quarry’s blasting to mine a rock called gabbro, which is used in road construction.

After several lengthy hearings about the quarry’s operations, a Howard County hearing examiner agreed with the residents, stating that the quarry was in violation of conditions attached to its zoning permission, and should have its permission revoked.

But the quarry, which has operated since the early 2000s, appealed the ruling, bringing the case to the county appeals board, a five-member panel that is appointed by the County Council.

During an Aug. 29 hearing, the quarry’s lawyers argued that the original set of hearings should never have happened, because the county wasn’t allowed to set conditions requiring the quarry to come back for approval to keep operating every five years. That county requirement flies in the face of state law, which requires the Maryland Department of the Environment to govern mine operations.

Quarry attorney Sang Oh cited a 2012 decision by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, now named the Appellate Court of Maryland. In that case, East Star v. the County Commissioners of Queen Anne’s County, the court ruled that Queen Anne’s could not set a time limit on a mining operation, because that power rested with the state.

“Our representative, the state legislature, saw fit to create laws to protect mining activities,” Oh said. “And what they specifically did was create a body of law that was so encompassing that they made a clear intent to say the state — the Maryland Department of the Environment — controls the activities of the quarry, once this board decides where it goes.”

Attorneys representing homeowners’ associations from neighborhoods near the quarry argued the East Star ruling didn’t apply.

In that case, Queen Anne’s County limited a mine’s operation to five years, going beyond state law, which includes a 25-year ceiling. But in this case, Howard County placed no such cap on the quarry, said Samantha Bingaman, a student attorney with the University of Maryland Carey School of Law’s Environmental Law Clinic, which is representing the homeowners’ associations. The county merely required five-year renewals during the mine’s 25 years of operations, she said.

“We see a huge difference between limiting the amount of time that a mine can operate, regardless of whether they’re in compliance with the conditions, which is what East Star stated, versus what’s going on here,” Bingaman said.

The Board of Appeals determined that the county’s requirement of five-year renewals for Savage Stone should be revoked, though its other zoning conditions, governing the basting, noise and vibrations for example, still would apply. The law clinic team is exploring its options following last week’s decision, Bingaman said.

Randy Heckler, Maryland operations manager at Laurel Sand & Gravel, which runs Savage Stone, declined to comment on the decision, given that the official order has yet to be released by the Board of Appeals.

University of Maryland law professor Jon Mueller, who manages the Environmental Law Clinic, said that even with the adverse ruling, the county Department of Planning & Zoning has the authority to pursue enforcement action against the quarry for the violations alleged earlier this year.

“The Board did not rule on what the hearing examiner said. The board ruled on a legal issue that the hearing examiner was not even presented with,” Mueller said. “They’re still blasting. We think they’re still in violation of the other conditions of the conditional use zoning, and the county does have the authority to act.”

“The ball is in the county’s court,” Bingaman said.

The quarry received a zoning violation from the county in April, because its zoning approval expired while it was in proceedings to receive its five-year renewal. The county decided against enforcing the violation until the end of the hearing process.

In a statement, Lynda Eisenberg, director for Howard County’s Department of Planning and Zoning said the county’s next actions are to be determined.

“The written decision of the Board of Appeals may yet be appealed to the Courts. The appeal period is 30 days from the date that the Board of Appeals issues their written decision,”  Eisenberg wrote. The Department of Planning and Zoning “will determine its next steps after the Board issues its written decision.”

The hearing examiner ruled that the quarry ran afoul of its original agreement with the county, which required it to maintain a fund to reimburse residents for any damage from blasting. Throughout its history, the quarry has never paid any residents, arguing that its blasts never exceed regulated levels, meaning that damage cited by residents cannot be caused by the explosions.

Residents, including in the neighborhood of Pleasant Chase, have described items falling from shelves and walls during the worst blasts, and argued that cracks they’ve noticed on their walls, foundations and driveways can be attributed to the mining operation.

For residents, the recent ruling was deeply frustrating, said Camille Edwards, president of the Pleasant Chase Homeowners Association. Some residents believed they would be able to testify before the Board of Appeals, just as they had earlier this year before the hearing examiner.

“People took time off their jobs to be there,” Edwards said. “And then they voted … to not proceed. So, who do the residents go to to complain now?”

During their deliberations, board members stated that neighbors still could go to the state or the county zoning departments with complaints about the quarry’s operation. But the five-year renewal hearings were unlawful, and not a proper forum for the complaints, the board ruled.

“It has to go through the complaint process through the county, or through whatever mechanism. They have to investigate it. They have to take action,” said Gene Ryan, chairman of the Board of Appeals. “Ultimately, it may come to us, but we can’t short-circuit that process.”

David Schneider, who purchased his home near the quarry site in 1997 — before the quarry existed — said he also was angered by the ruling. During the deliberations, he felt as though the board members already has reached a foregone conclusion: that they could not rule on the merits of residents’ complaints.

“It’s had a tremendous impact on our community: damage to our houses,” Schneider said. “In my driveway, in particular, there’s about a 2-foot crack across the driveway that developed after the mine.”

“It was our belief that this was coming to an end. And that basically, the quarry would be phased out,” he said.

This time though, the environmental conditions are different, potentially lessening concerns that the facility and its discharges would have a harmful effect.

Instead of discharging water into a small creek called the Marshyhope that flows into the Nanticoke River, the proposed salmon farm would discharge water through a pipe into the Susquehanna River — the Chesapeake Bay’s largest tributary.

Unlike the Marshyhope, the Susquehanna River is not a key breeding ground for an endangered bay species — the Atlantic sturgeon. Worries for the sturgeon, and how they would be impacted by cold water flushed into the river system from the salmon farm, were the principal reasons for public outcry, which ultimately compelled the Norwegian company, AquaCon, to abandon its proposal.

This time, AquaCon has secured 160 acres for its farm, in Port Deposit’s Bainbridge development, a former naval training facility that’s under redevelopment for industrial uses. The company plans to construct new buildings on the site, which would house salmon throughout their lifespan, from eggs to fully grown fish, said Henrik Tangen, AquaCon’s executive chair and president, in a statement to The Baltimore Sun.

At first, the facility will produce about 10,000 metric tons of Atlantic salmon annually, Tangen said. When it’s fully built, the facility is expected to produce double that, and employ about 300 people, Tangen said.

The county is “thrilled” to eventually host the AquaCon project, County Executive Danielle Hornberger said in a statement.

“This innovative project, which utilizes clean tanks over land and eliminates the need for harmful chemicals, promises sustainable practices that align with our commitment to protecting the environment,” Hornberger wrote. “Moreover, it will create high-quality manufacturing jobs for our community, driving both economic development and ecological responsibility.”

AquaCon’s goal is to begin construction in the first half of 2025, and complete its first harvest in the first half of 2028.

In June, the company applied for a permit to discharge into the environment from the Maryland Department of the Environment. Its application remains under review, said Jay Apperson, a spokesperson for the agency.

Twice in July, MDE advertised the receipt of the application, and the opportunity for a public meeting about its contents, in The Cecil Whig, Apperson said. But no such meeting was requested.

At least one environmental group says the project still warrants careful scrutiny.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation does not have a formal position on the project, but they are examining the proposal closely, said Alan Girard, the foundation’s advocacy director.

In particular, the foundation is examining any potential impact on other species in the Susquehanna River, or key environments that would be downstream of the new facility, like the vast underwater grass bed of the Susquehanna Flats.

“We do know that this location downstream of the Conowingo [Dam] does have shad, river herring, other anadromous species expected to be in that area,” said Girard, using the scientific term for fish species that migrate into rivers to spawn. “Those species are in low numbers, and we need to understand habitat impacts to them.”

In his statement to The Sun, Tangen said the facility would use raw water from the Susquehanna, provided by Artesian Resources Corp., the water and wastewater provider for Cecil County, for the salmon in its recirculating aquaculture system, or RAS, and then purify that water before returning it to the river.

“As we are taking water from the river, the discharge water will be cleaner than the intake water. We are cleaning the intake water to meet the high purity standard needed for salmon production,” Tangen wrote. “The same water cleaning process will be done to the discharge water enabling adherence to all thresholds set for discharge water to the river.”

In addition the flow of the discharge water would be “minuscular” compared to the large water flow of the Susquehanna, which is about 0.8 miles wide at the discharge point, Tangen wrote.

The Susquehanna, which drains much of central Pennsylvania and into New York, accounts for about half of the Chesapeake Bay’s fresh water.

“Due diligence of the various important criteria, such as access to water from the Susquehanna River, electric energy, wastewater treatment, and logistics (access roads and efficient distribution to customers as [the] site is just off I-95), is very positive,” Tangen wrote in his statement.

Based on a quick review, David Secor, a University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science professor who voiced opposition to AquaCon’s former site in Federalsburg, said the company seems to have found “a much more suitable site,” where discharges would be significantly diluted.

In his statement, Tangen said the AquaCon team has “more than 60 years of experience of planning, building and operating salmon RAS facilities elsewhere in the world.”

“RAS land-based fish farming is regarded as the future of environmentally sustainable seafood production,” Tangen wrote. “We are most proud to bring this technology to Maryland.”

The dead were almost exclusively Atlantic menhaden, though Maryland Department of the Environment investigators also observed several catfish, white perch and a few blue crabs, wrote agency spokesman Jay Apperson in a statement.

MDE investigators do not believe that a particular pollution incident is to blame, Apperson said. Instead, they believe the die-off can be explained by a natural phenomenon known as a turnover event.

Turnover events tend to occur in the Baltimore Harbor near Memorial Day and Labor Day, when warm days quickly give way to cool nights, said Alice Volpitta, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper for the nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore.

When night falls, bringing far colder temperatures, the top layer of water in the harbor rapidly cools off and becomes denser, causing it to sink toward the bottom. That brings the water formerly on the bottom of the harbor to the top.

That’s a problem because the water near the harbor bottom is depleted of oxygen. Fish trapped in the low-oxygen water will perish, causing large-scale fish kills, Volpitta said.

Though the turnover event was caused by a natural process, the existence of that low-oxygen water, often called a dead zone, isn’t natural. It is the result of pollution, including from fertilizers, wastewater and other sources of nutrients, flowing into the water.

“The issue is exacerbated by the fact that we have this dead zone at the bottom of our harbor to begin with,” Volpitta said. “While this is a natural turnover event caused by dropping temperatures as we approach the fall, the problem is exacerbated by pollution that’s flowing off of the land into the water.”

Atlantic menhaden — small, nutrient-packed fish — are critical to the bay’s ecosystem, and serve as a key food source for bay predators like rockfish and bluefish.

Menhaden are particularly susceptible to low-oxygen conditions, Volpitta said, so it isn’t surprising they make up most of the death toll. But if the conditions persist, other harbor wildlife could be impacted as well.

“In previous years, when we see these fish kills, we’ll see all kinds of things and so it remains to be seen whether or not it’ll be bad enough to affect other fish species as well,” Volpitta said.

Officials from the National Aquarium said in a news release Wednesday that they had seen small animals taking shelter in the shallow channel that houses the aquarium’s new floating wetland exhibit. The exhibit has an aeration system that can increase water oxygen levels amid low-oxygen events.

Aquarium officials believe the Inner Harbor is experiencing “pistachio tide” and “mahogany tide” algae blooms. The former is a result of the turnover process, bringing sulfur bacteria to the surface. The mahogany tide is caused by a combination of nutrient runoff and “a stretch of warm, dry days with little water disruption from wind or rain.”

“These conditions are perfect for the creation of a brown algae that impacts how deeply sunlight can permeate the water’s surface,” read the aquarium’s news release.

On Aug. 22, Blue Water Baltimore reported a similar fish kill, which also impacted menhaden, near Domino Sugar along the waterfront. They also observed a green “pistachio tide” in the water and low-oxygen conditions.

MDE counted 1,700 deceased fish then, and also measured oxygen-depleted conditions in the harbor, Apperson said.

On Wednesday, Blue Water’s monitoring team visited the Inner Harbor by boat, and Volpitta received their photographs of thousands of floating dead fish.

Wednesday afternoon, crews worked to remove the deceased fish that washed up on the promenade along the water, and used a boat outfitted with conveyor belts to scoop them from the harbor.

“It’s really sad. It’s heartbreaking,” Volpitta said. “It’s always interesting to me when we see a fish kill, because that’s the time you can see the true biodiversity of what’s living in there — but they’re all dead.”

So far, out of 200 schools and daycares tested, officials have identified 36 with levels of PFAS chemicals that exceed federal limits, spurring distributions of bottled water as students return to the classroom for a new school year.

Here’s what you need to know:

Why am I hearing about this now?

With growing awareness about the dangers of PFAS compounds, Maryland has embarked on a testing regimen to determine their prevalence in the state.

Previously, the Maryland Department of the Environment tested drinking water at its community water systems, which serve about 89% of the state’s population.

Some 64 of those 437 water systems — about 15% — are above the newly established federal PFAS limits, which are 4 parts per trillion for certain PFAS and 10 parts per trillion for others.

Most Maryland schools are served by those larger water systems and MDE has urged those systems to inform their customers about PFAS detected above the limits, wrote MDE spokesman Jay Apperson in a statement.

Late last year, MDE began a new round of testing at schools and daycares that aren’t hooked up to those systems, and use their own well water. The effort began in Wicomico County in December, and occurred statewide this summer, Apperson wrote.

The 36 impacted schools include public and private schools, as well as community colleges and daycares. Twenty-five of them are public schools. The Baltimore Sun has identified affected schools in Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties thus far. MDE is still receiving some data, so the number of schools impacted could increase, Apperson wrote.

The agency is advising schools above Environmental Protection Agency standards to notify parents about the results and create a remediation plan, according to Apperson.

“We are urging schools with the highest levels to find an alternate source of water, which could include bottled water, as soon as possible,” Apperson wrote.

Back up … what exactly are PFAS?

Called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, they are a large class of manmade chemicals manufactured extensively for products such as nonstick pans, rain gear, stain resistant carpets and firefighting foams, dating back to the 1940s.

PFAS is a broad category that includes thousands of chemicals, known for their heat resistant and water repellent properties. They have earned the nickname “forever chemicals” because of incredibly strong carbon and fluorine bonds, which allow the compounds to persist in the environment years after they are released. They also can build up in the human body.

Though some PFAS compounds have been phased out because they are linked to health effects such as cancer, including PFOA and PFOS, others remain in use, including new chemicals created to replace them.

What are the health impacts of PFAS?

People who consume drinking water with high levels of PFAS won’t see an immediate effect, unlike drinking water contaminated with, say, E. coli bacteria, which could quickly cause gastrointestinal symptoms.

Elevated exposure to certain PFAS over time increases a person’s risk of a number of health concerns, including kidney and testicular cancer, high cholesterol, changes in liver enzymes, lowered antibody response to some vaccines as well as problems with childbirth, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

PFAS regulations for drinking water have evolved only recently.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency established new limits on six PFAS in drinking water, including PFOA, PFOS and compounds known as Gen X chemicals.

For PFOA and PFOS, EPA stated that no amount is technically safe for drinking, but the enforceable limit for public drinking water systems is 4 parts per trillion. Previously, under a regulation from 2016, there was no enforceable limit, and the recommendation was to keep PFOA and PFOS concentrations below 70 parts per trillion.

Now, public water systems are racing to comply with the EPA’s new rule by 2029. The EPA has estimated that between 6% and 10% of the 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to its rule may have to take action, including by installing treatment technology to ensure that the water they send to homes and businesses meets the EPA’s limits.

Some organizations have filed legal challenges against the EPA’s rules, including trade organizations representing water utilities and chemical companies in addition to the Chemours Company, which makes PFAS.

How prevalent are PFAS?

Unfortunately, PFAS are ubiquitous. You can be exposed to PFAS in a number of ways, including by: drinking contaminated water, eating contaminated fish, eating food with PFAS packaging, using PFAS-treated products or inhaling contaminated soil or dust.

Military bases and fire training facilities have been among the sources of contamination, due to the use of firefighting foams containing PFAS, as have industrial sites that produce PFAS for consumer use.

U.S. studies have shown that most Americans have been exposed to at least some PFAS, and have PFAS in their blood, according to the CDC.

But as the production and use of specific PFAS compounds, namely PFOA and PFOS, has declined, so, too, have the levels found in people’s bloodstreams, by 70% and 85% respectively from 1999 to 2018.

“However, as PFOS and PFOA are phased out and replaced, people may be exposed to other PFAS,” notes the website for the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

This article has been updated to correct the number of schools and daycares tested by the Maryland Department of Environment after the agency provided updated numbers Tuesday. 

But O’Neil isn’t there to study the grasses, so much as a perplexing invader in their midst called microseira, which is growing more and more prevalent there.

Located offshore of Havre de Grace, the Flats lie at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, the bay’s largest tributary. Estimated at over 10,600 acres in 2023, the sprawling bed of submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, is a key habitat for underwater creatures — and a critical sink for harmful sediments and nutrients rushing down the Susquehanna.

That’s what makes it such a key area for research. O’Neil, an associate research professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, visited in August with a host of other researchers and summer interns, along with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Each team collected data about the grasses, including species like wild celery and water stargrass. But O’Neil was focused on the algae-like mats of microseira, embedded in the sediment beneath the spiny green grasses.

Known by the name lyngbya until a recent change, microseira is a type of cyanobacteria, a photosynthesizing bacteria that grows in clumps on the bottom. And as the season progresses, it grows up onto the grasses, in search of sunlight, and sometimes floats in unsightly mats on the water’s surface.

“In Australia, they call it mermaid’s hair,” O’Neil said. “But we always joke that we don’t want to meet that mermaid.”

Closely related cyanobacteria appear in tropical environments like Hawaii and Australia. But Maryland researchers first noticed it in the Flats in 2004, after watermen complained that the mats were clinging to their fishing gear. In recent years, its footprint has appeared to increase, O’Neil said, and warming waters due to climate change could add more fuel.

But the impact of the microseira on the Flats remains unclear. For the time being, the cyanobacteria doesn’t appear to be slowing the growth of the Chesapeake’s largest grass bed.

The recovery of the Flats from near-decimation in the 1970s is an oft-cited success story for the bay, at a time when the restoration effort has fewer items in the win column than bay officials would have hoped when they signed the latest recovery agreement in 2014.

That agreement calls for a total of 185,000 acres of underwater grasses in the bay, but the latest estimate from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which tracks the figure annually, indicated there were 82,937 acres in the 2023 season — a considerable improvement compared to 2019’s figures, after rainy conditions buried grasses bay-wide, but well short of the goal.

That 2014 bay agreement also came with a 2025 deadline for states surrounding the Chesapeake to reduce their loads of nutrients and sediment runoff into the bay. While some states met their obligations or will come close, others remain far off the mark, meaning the overall effort will fall short.

A committee convened by Chesapeake Bay Program leaders unveiled its recommendations earlier this year for the future of the bay agreement. The committee called on governors of the bay states to recommit to the agreement, as scientists and other stakeholders figure out a new timeline for some of its goals, and new targets for others.

The latest science, in the form of a comprehensive evaluation released in May 2023, emphasizes the importance of shallow-water habitats like the Flats. In the bay’s deep trench, reductions in nutrients and sediments haven’t spawned the expected increases in dissolved oxygen levels. Whereas these improvements are arriving faster in shallow areas, particularly when underwater vegetation returns, providing habitat for crabs and fish.

In the Flats these days, that mysterious microseira is hardly difficult to find. Floating amid the grasses, O’Neil ducks underwater with her hand outstretched, and swims for the bottom. Her flippers dangle in the air for a moment, before she reappears, holding a fistful of the muddy, filamentous substance yanked from the grass bed.

Researchers believe the microseira is largely fed by nutrients in the water and legacy phosphorus in the sediment of the Flats.

In other habitats, such as Florida and Australia, similar cyanobacteria has crowded out aquatic vegetation, leading to declines. But the same story doesn’t seem to be playing out in the Chesapeake, said Brooke Landry, who focuses on SAV as program chief for living resources assessment at Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources.

“By August, there’s just a lot of it. It covers hundreds of acres in the bed,” Landry said. “It’s like: How is this not having a negative impact? And we’ll go and we’ll look around, and the grass underneath looks bright green and happy.”

The health of the Flats could be the reason, O’Neil said. The grasses in the Flats can grow up to 6 feet long, often reaching the surface, so the microseira cannot completely cover the grasses and block the sunlight. In other environments, such as Florida’s, the grasses can’t grow as high, sometimes because of hungry marine species such as turtles and manatees, O’Neil said.

But microseira has plenty of weapons in its arsenal, including an ability to “fix” nitrogen — or take in nitrogen from the atmosphere and use it for growth, something that algae cannot do. Therefore, simply reducing the amount of nutrient runoff into the water wouldn’t stop the microseira.

“I don’t want people to think that keeping nutrients out is not a good idea, because it is,” O’Neil said. “But there are other mitigation strategies that have been used in other places to save the seagrass, including harvesting [the microseira].”

In tropical environments like the Hawaiian and Australian shorelines, some types of lyngbya have been a documented cause of “stinging seaweed disease,” in humans, causing skin, eye and respiratory irritation because of the toxins they produce.

But the microseira found in the Flats creates different toxins that do not pose the same threat to people, said Cathy Wazniak, DNR’s program manager of coastal integrated assessment.

“It’s not a human health threat, because you have to ingest these things, and I don’t think anybody’s making a salad out of that benthic mat,” Wazniak said. “But there are animal implications, maybe ecosystem implications.”

Scientists still are trying to determine the impacts of the toxins, Wazniak said. They’ve found one in tiny zooplankton living on the mats, but it remains unclear whether the toxin is passing up the food chain to other organisms, and what effects it may have, Wazniak said.

Globally, cyanobacteria appear to be growing more plentiful, and spreading to new regions, as climate change warms underwater ecosystems, O’Neil said.

“It’s not just occurring here. The species that we work with in the marine environment, that used to be confined to Florida, I’m now finding in Cape Cod,” O’Neil said.

The microseira research is just one chapter in the evolving history of the Susquehanna Flats.

A pivotal moment came in 1972, when Hurricane Agnes, a generational storm, sent powerful floodwaters rushing down the Susquehanna, wiping out the Flats.

Back then, the storm felt like the “nail in the coffin” for the Flats, said Cassie Gurbisz, associate professor of marine science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“The SAV was gone from the Flats for like 30 years — and then all of the sudden, in the early 2000s, it came back,” Gurbisz said.

That resurgence was the focus of Gurbisz’s dissertation. She determined that several factors came together to make it happen. Nutrient reductions, including from the ban of phosphates in detergent, and a dry spell in the bay region, created a “window of opportunity” for the grasses to regain a foothold at the mouth of the Susquehanna. And once the grasses passed a certain tipping point, the bed’s growth was exponential.

“It’s kind of like this runaway train. We call it positive feedback,” Gurbisz said. “The plants clear up the water, and that means they’re getting more light, and then they can grow even more, and clear up the water even more, and get even more light.”

The result is a strengthened ecosystem that can better withstand threats, like 2011’s Hurricane Lee, 2018’s heavy rains and other influxes of nutrient pollution.

For observers, that means a lush underwater meadow, visible from a boat when the waters are shallow, but enchanting from behind a dive mask, surrounded by swaying sprigs of green.

“I harp to my friends and neighbors all the time about how amazing the Chesapeake Bay is, and SAV. But still, their perception of getting in the water in the bay is just like ‘ick,’” Landry said. “The fact [is] that there are these beautiful areas, where the water is crystal clear.”

For nearly a week in late July, Early’s home had frustratingly low water pressure. Turning on the faucet yielded only a trickle.

“It was a pain in the butt to even fill up your dog’s water bowl,” said Early, a 29-year-old living in the Sudbrook Park community with his girlfriend and three dogs.

Since then, the issue has cropped up several more times — all without warning — Early said, including earlier this week, when the pressure was low for most of the day Wednesday before it came back later that evening.

Baltimore County officials blame an ongoing project to replace 8,600 feet of an aged water main on nearby Reisterstown Road, in between Interstate 695 and Irving Place. But Early and other residents say they weren’t notified about the project, or its potential to impact their water service. And the outages keep occurring despite phone calls to city and county officials.

The Randallstown chapter of the NAACP said earlier this week that the problems have affected more communities than Sudbrook Park.

The NAACP said it has received about 100 complaints of low water pressure over the past three weeks from residents in Pikesville, Milford Mill and Owings Mills. At one point, homes on one block of Windsor Mill Road in the Woodlawn area lost water entirely, according to the NAACP.

“There’s absolutely no notice at all for people to be able to prepare that they might not have any water, or low water pressure,” said Ryan Coleman, president of the Randallstown NAACP.

Ron Snyder, spokesperson for Baltimore County’s Department of Public Works and Transportation, said that there was no notice to residents Wednesday because the low pressure was an unexpected side effect of work being done to replace the water main. Water service was restored by 7 p.m., Snyder said.

The outage along Windsor Mill Road occurred due to an emergency water main repair, which was completed by a Baltimore City DPW contractor, said agency spokesperson Jennifer Combs.

“DPW’s primary priority during emergency repairs is to restore water service as quickly as possible,” Combs wrote in a statement. “To expedite this process, advance notification to customers is not provided for emergency repairs.”

The $11.9 million replacement main project on Reisterstown Road began last summer, Snyder said, and is about 85% complete. Crews work from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, Snyder said.

“There’s underground water lines that are decades old that need to be repaired and replaced and unfortunately there are times when water pressure may be affected,” Snyder said.

The county endeavors to keep such instances to a minimum, and to notify residents when problems may arise, Snyder said. The county held an information session about the water main project in June 2023 at the Pikesville Library, he said.

On Friday, the county issued a news release warning residents in the Owings Mills area, who also received flyers this week, that they could experience low water pressure or disruption of water service this weekend due to another water main replacement project on a different section of Reisterstown Road, between Pleasant Hill Road and Stockdale Avenue. That work will occur Friday at 9 p.m. until Saturday at 5 a.m., according to the news release.

Glyndon, Reisterstown & Owings Mills! You may experience low water pressure or brief service disruptions from 9 PM Fri, Aug. 23 to 5 AM Sat, Aug. 24 as part of an $11M water main upgrade.

If you're experiencing any interruptions visit https://t.co/bK2oneALgJ) pic.twitter.com/jcjfUEFmjd

— Baltimore County Public Works and Transportation (@BaltCoDPWT) August 23, 2024

Pikesville resident Diane Davison said she also has experienced repeated instances of low water pressure dating back to July 22, making daily tasks like flushing the toilet and taking a shower considerably more difficult for days at a time. But the most frustrating part has been the lack of warning, she said.

“They could put flyers out. They could ask for an email list. They could put up signs in the neighborhood,” Davison said. “Going out for a couple hours a day is understandable. But not when it’s days on end — and unforeseen.”

On a neighborhood Facebook group, residents have commiserated about the incidents, and their efforts to get more information from officials, often unsuccessfully, Davison said. Initially, some residents called the city’s 311 phone line to report outages and request information, Davison said.

The city handles water service to the county, but Baltimore County’s public works department largely handles water main replacement in the county.

To Coleman, the issues — and the confusion between city and county — highlight the importance of changing how the area’s water system is governed, perhaps creating a regional structure.

“The quality of life cannot be impacted like this, and it’s difficult dealing with at times,” Coleman said.

Last year, a task force convened by the General Assembly considered the governance of the water system. In its final report in January, the task force stated that the idea of a regional water authority, allowing the city and county to manage the system collaboratively, “shows promise,” but further study would be needed, particularly to calculate its financial cost.

Legislation passed in the General Assembly this year established a new workgroup, tasked with developing an equity analysis, a financial transition plan and a workforce analysis for transitioning to a regional governance model for Baltimore’s water system, with a deadline of June 30, 2027.

Officials said the repair would take weeks, but weeks became months and months became nearly two years.

To fix it, city workers ended up excavating 7,500 cubic yards of soil (about 750 dump truck loads), creating a small canyon beside the drinking water lake in Northeast Baltimore and shuttering a chunk of its popular walking loop.

After numerous delays, city officials say the saga is nearly complete. They’re confident that the massive crevasse will be filled this fall, reopening the full 1.3-mile path to visitors long frustrated by its dead ends near the sinkhole site.

The project is yet another poster child for Baltimore’s struggles with aging infrastructure. The cause of this multimillion-dollar project is the failure of an underground storm drain built nearly 150 years ago when Ulysses S. Grant was president with hand-laid bricks.

Baltimore has 1,146 miles of stormwater drains, most of which were built before 1950, as the city diverted its once-vast network of streams and creeks into underground pipes, clearing the way for rapid development.

In July 2022, a 115-year-old storm drain made of stone collapsed along North Avenue, creating a sinkhole that ultimately forced the demolition of several homes. That incident was the first domino to fall in a series of old water infrastructure failures, which the city believes briefly caused E. coli bacteria to be detected in West Baltimore taps in September of that year.

“These things have been happening under our feet all the time, and it’s really only when they collapse and disaster strikes that we realize,” said Alice Volpitta, the Baltimore Harbor waterkeeper, who closely follows stormwater issues in the city.

Development has brought more impervious surfaces into Baltimore, which can’t soak up rainwater, sending it gushing into the buried streams and their aging pipes, Volpitta said. And climate change, she said, promises to increase the intensity of storm events, potentially overwhelming the drains further.

“These pipes, to begin with, were designed for a city that no longer exists,” Volpitta said.

Timothy Wolfe, the engineering office chief for the Baltimore City Department of Public Works’ Water and Wastewater Bureau, starts the Lake Montebello sinkhole’s story in July 2020, when damaging flooding near the reservoir along Hillen Road swept away cars and trapped an MTA bus.

“It was a pretty bad situation, so we went in, we said we’ve got to do some investigation to determine what the cause is,” Wolfe said.

Ground zero was that storm drain from 1876, which used to be a stream called the Tiffany Run, a tributary to Baltimore’s Herring Run, which feeds into the Back River and then the Chesapeake Bay.

In July 2021, Wolfe and other officials walked into the storm drain for an inspection, and discovered that a 70-foot section had sunk about 15 feet, causing bricks to fall into the pipe, Wolfe said.

Back then, it was “stable, but concerning,” Wolfe said.

The city commissioned engineers and contractors to address it, but as they prepared to begin work, the sinkhole opened about 50 feet above the drain, and it began to fail.

Of greatest concern was a massive water main, 7 feet in diameter, routed through the soil above the Tiffany Drain. If the drain collapsed, so could the drinking water pipe, interrupting water service to thousands of customers in eastern Baltimore city and county.

“That’s when we decided to switch gears and really prioritize this,” Wolfe said.

It was a “touch and go” period, said Councilwoman Odette Ramos, who represents the area. Ramos praised DPW’s “cautious approach,” which kept workers safe and ensured reliable water service, but did require residents’ patience. Even now, Ramos said she’s hesitant to give residents a concrete date for the project’s completion.

“I’ve not been giving people timelines, because I don’t want to get peoples’ hopes up,” Ramos said. “When it happens, that’ll be great, and we’ll have a big party.”

The water line issue was the project’s first intermission: In about six weeks, the city obtained a replacement 48-inch water main, hooked it up to the system, and ran it above ground to bypass the sinkhole so the work could carry on.

But once the construction crew began excavating the soil, they hit a second speed bump. As the crews dug deeper, the soil began to shift dangerously, requiring them to move the newly installed water pipe farther away from the site, right beside a building at the Montebello Water Treatment Plant, which was then closed to workers due to the safety concerns.

The unstable soil also required construction crews to install a massive stabilizing wall on the hillside as they burrowed deeper into the soil. That took an additional nine months.

Finally, workers could excavate deep enough to reach the Tiffany Drain, and replace the collapsing section of the historic brick structure with a large, 110-inch diameter pipe made of polymer mortar reinforced by fiberglass. They expect that the new pipe will be hooked up to the system, and the whole area will be backfilled with soil, around the end of October. Then, the city will begin plantings on the site to restore the area, which formerly hosted disc golf holes, according to DPW officials.

“We like to show off the project, so they can see just how complicated it is,” said Cherod Hicks, a DPW engineer who led the project. “It goes to speak to what the engineers and our craftspeople were doing over a hundred years ago. If you look at the masonry around that pipe, it’s beautiful.”

Hicks estimates that his crew worked about six days per week, and 10 to 12 hours each day,  to get to this point, working around rainstorms that would fill the tunnel and make construction work impossible for 24 hours at a time.

“If it rains in Baltimore County, and Baltimore County gets a quarter inch of rain … this will be about 80 to 85% full,” Hicks said of the storm drain. “If it rains in the city with, really, a two-year rain event, this is basically at full capacity.”

The inundations of the stormwater system are a powerful reminder that rain gardens and swaths of greenery in an otherwise urban setting are a critical part of stopping infrastructure failures before they happen, Volpitta said.

“These streams under our feet are basically coming back to life,” she said, “and they’re letting us know that they’re still there, through flooding and some serious infrastructure damage.”

There are plenty of other occasional reminders that the Tiffany Drain was once the Tiffany Run, like the small fish and water snakes that Hicks has spotted in the trickling water of the drain pipe.

The ordeal was a personal project for Hicks, who lives close enough to the project site that he can see it from his bedroom window.

“I also have a personal impact, because if we lose the 84-inch water line, I personally won’t have any water. I understand the inconvenience to not be able to use the full loop of the lake,” Hicks said. “Some of my best conversations and times with my family and friends are walking the full lake loop.”

Though the loss of the full loop has been frustrating, some residents say they’ve adapted to the change.

Gail Geller and JoAnne Kraus, two local lakegoers, have made a ritual out of walking from one dead end to the other, tapping each set of barriers before turning around, they said. Both live within a few miles of the lake, and meet there weekly to walk. From the lakefront path, they’ve watched the project run its course, including the creation of a massive pile of excavated dirt.

“It’s been annoying,” Geller said. “But it’s been interesting to watch the evolution.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the lake path buzzed with dogwalkers, families pushing babies in strollers and even an impromptu karaoke station inviting passersby to sing.

But, at least anecdotally, one group of people have seemed to be using the lake path a bit less: bikers.

“I think the bicyclists miss being able to zip around at a high speed,” said Lisa Hansen Terhune, a resident of the Mayfield neighborhood beside the lake and a board member of the Mayfield Improvement Association. “I’ve just also noticed maybe a few less groups of people — there used to be a lot of boot camps and ad-hoc exercise groups.”

With the project’s finish line seemingly in sight after a number of delays, there comes hope that all of the lake’s visitors will return.

“It’s a great asset for the city, and for any time: morning, midday and early evening,” Terhune said. “I think having it open around fully will bring more people back.”

Equinor, a Norwegian energy firm, was provisionally awarded the lease Wednesday to an area in the Atlantic Ocean, alongside northern Ocean City and the Delaware beaches, according to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which ran the auction.

Situated about 26 miles from the mouth of the Delaware Bay, the area is farther from shore than the two current wind farm projects planned for the Maryland and Delaware coastline, from developers U.S. Wind and Ørsted.

Equinor’s portfolio includes oil and gas projects, but it has also invested in offshore wind and renewable energy and has pledged carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company operates a pair of U.K. wind farms, called Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon, and brought its first turbine online in December at a third, which will be the world’s largest upon completion, according to Equinor. The company also operates the world’s largest floating wind farm, Hywind Tampen, on the Norwegian shelf.

Equinor already leases offshore wind areas off the coast of New York (Empire Wind) and California (Atlas Wind), as it makes a foray into the U.S. market.

“What Maryland is getting is not only an experienced international developer, but one who’s been in the U.S. market for a while now, and understands how to work with locals, local manufacturing, state government, et cetera,” said Sam Salustro, vice president of strategic communications at the Oceantic Network, an offshore wind trade organization of which Equinor is a member.

In a statement to The Baltimore Sun, an Equinor spokesperson said the lease area is “a long-term opportunity in an attractive region,” with plenty of demand for renewable energy.

“It comes with offtake opportunities across several mid-Atlantic states that have high energy demand and that have demonstrated significant support for offshore wind and renewable energy projects,” wrote Equinor spokesperson Magnus Frantzen Eidsvold in a statement.

BOEM also leased an area off the coast of Virginia at the same time Wednesday, which went to Virginia Electric and Power Co. — the only bidder — for $17.6 million. A subsidiary of Dominion Power, the company is already developing an adjacent wind farm called Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, has vocally backed ambitious offshore wind goals for the state. In June, Moore signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of the Interior, committing to secure more offshore wind areas for Maryland. Moore's goal is for 8.5 gigawatts of wind power for Maryland by 2031.

“Gov. Moore has been already a champion of offshore wind in his short time in office. He’s risen the bar in Maryland. He’s worked hard at attracting investments and building up a workforce. And it was very much a signal from the industry that they want to be here,” Salustro said of Wednesday's auction.

In a statement Thursday, Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul G. Pinsky said securing the new area offshore of Maryland was a "major priority" for the governor and his administration.

"Yesterday’s offshore wind energy lease auction is a decisive stride forward that will advance clean energy production, create new jobs, and work against climate change," Pinsky wrote in a statement.

Businesses deciding to operate turbine manufacturing and other key operations in Baltimore’s Sparrows Point, and the recent announcement of a cable plant in Baltimore’s Wagner’s Point have continued to bolster the industry in Maryland, Salustro said.

But the projects have also faced backlash from some leaders and residents in Ocean City, who are adamant that the turbines will be an eyesore interrupting ocean views, and could deter tourism.

Leaders such as U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican whose district includes the resort town, have sought to link periodic whale deaths in the mid-Atlantic to the wind farms under development. But federal officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have said there is no connection between the multiyear whale mortality event and wind farm activity, and that ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements seem to pose a greater threat.

Initially, four other companies entered the fray Wednesday to win the right to the site, with the opening bid at about $10 million, including U.S. Wind. The price climbed for six more rounds of bidding, and Equinor emerged on top, with a bid of about $75 million, according to BOEM.

The area comprises 101,443 acres and could produce an estimated 2 gigawatts of wind energy, enough to power about 900,000 U.S. homes.

“Despite the fact that we’re going through a period of uncertainty in the market — you know, they’re holding this just a couple months before the presidential election — this was a real vote of confidence in the U.S. market, to have such a robust auction,” Salustro said.

The auction price paled in comparison with some previous East Coast auctions, including one in New York about four years ago, Salustro said. But coronavirus-era supply chain issues have hampered the industry and slowed some projects. The reduced auction cost has an upside, Salustro said, in that there is less cost that will be passed from the wind farm developer to its eventual ratepayers.

Now that the auction is complete, the Department of Justice will have up to 30 calendar days to conduct an antitrust review, BOEM spokesperson Brian Walch told The Sun. With the result confirmed, Equinor has the exclusive right to submit a wind proposal to BOEM. The lease doesn't give Equinor the right to construct turbines, Walch said.

Wednesday’s sale, the fifth during President Joe Biden’s administration, also generated about $23 million in bidding credits, which developers can put toward workforce development and fisheries mitigation payments,instead of paying the federal government that portion of the lease price.

Last summer, the federal government had also announced another area, about 23.5 nautical miles off Ocean City, for possible lease, but the site (called B-1) was excluded from Wednesday’s sale after BOEM cited “the significant costs and mitigation that would be required.”

BOEM is preparing a possible next auction for the Central Atlantic region, which includes Maryland waters, in 2026, Walch said.

The projects from U.S. Wind and Ørsted have been under development for about a decade, but neither company has begun placing turbines in the water, with a complex regulatory process required before construction can begin.

Last month, U.S. Wind received a final environmental impact statement after a lengthy federal government evaluation, placing it close to the starting line.

“We are well on our way to putting Maryland’s offshore wind goals that much closer to reality,” said Jeff Grybowski, US Wind CEO. “We are now one step closer to securing all of our federal permits by the end of this year, and look forward to the day we can get steel in the water.”

Grybowski said previously that the company aims to begin construction sometime in 2025.

Ørsted, which is behind U.S. Wind, said in January that it was formally withdrawing from its power purchase agreement with Maryland, because of its outdated terms, though it would continue developing its wind farm.

The project, which has an estimated price tag of $77 million, was proposed following a three-year study of storm risk in Baltimore, particularly to key infrastructure along the Patapsco River.

If completed, motorists can expect to see new walls rise along the southern approaches to both tunnels, ranging from 2.5 to 6.5 feet from the ground, said Cynthia Mitchell, a spokesperson for the Baltimore District of the Army Corps, in an email.

The existing walls at the tunnel entrances were not built to withstand floodwaters, and engineers would determine during the design phase for the project whether they would have to be replaced, Mitchell said.

The two tunnels together would receive about 9,500 linear feet of flood walls, protecting both the entrances and the ventilation buildings for each tunnel, according to a news release from the Army Corps. The walls would include closure structures ranging in length from 20 to 50 feet. When not needed, the closures could be left open, Mitchell said.

The height was selected based on an “intermediate” estimate of sea-level rise, according to the study — somewhere between the most and least extreme predictions for the average water level in the Patapsco River in the coming decades. It is meant to reduce the flood risk from an intense 100-year storm event, according to Monday’s release.

By the year 2100, the average sea level in Baltimore is estimated to increase by 1, 2.1 or 5.4 feet (in low, intermediate and high scenarios, respectively), according to a 2015 study by the Army Corps called the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study.

Higher water levels could raise the flood risk associated with storms in the Baltimore area. Steady population growth and continued development along the shoreline in the region mean the risk for injury, loss of life and property damage is also increasing, according to the Army Corps.

The Fort McHenry Tunnel on Interstate 95, which connects South Baltimore’s Locust Point to the Canton Industrial area on the eastern side of the city, is used by about 45 million vehicles per year, and the Harbor Tunnel on I-895, which connects South Baltimore communities such as Brooklyn to Southeastern Baltimore City, is used by about 27 million vehicles per year, according to Joe Bieberich, project manager for the storm risk study conducted for Baltimore by the Army Corps.

“It is very important to make sure these critical transportation routes remain open during a coastal storm event, maintaining access to jobs, commercial transportation routes and emergency services,” Bieberich said in Monday’s release.

The area studied by the Army Corps for coastal flood risk incorporated all of the city’s Patapsco River shoreline, including the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Canton and a swath of South Baltimore. The Army Corps also evaluated Martin State Airport in Baltimore County during the study.

The tunnel projects were selected based on cost-effectiveness and need, but they’re considered a “first bite at the apple,” Mitchell said, and future protective actions could be proposed later.

This year’s collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge due to a March ship strike, which killed six construction workers, brings the importance of infrastructure protection into harsh relief, officials say.

“The people of Baltimore know all too well the impact caused when vital transportation infrastructure is lost. This project would improve the resiliency of the tunnels, which are critical routes for the transportation of goods and services in the state of Maryland and along the Eastern seaboard,” Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, the Army Corps’ commanding general, said in Monday’s news release.

The Army Corps has recommended that Congress approve funding for 65% of the project’s cost. The other 35% would be picked up by the Maryland Transportation Authority, which owns and operates both tunnels. Spellmon signed the recommendation Aug. 5 during a ceremony at the Army Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The projected cost could increase if contamination is found in the soils near the tunnels, according to the study, which was funded jointly by the Army Corps and the transportation authority. The construction will also require right-of-way agreements with landowners, which could be “difficult and time consuming to obtain, particularly on railroad properties,” the study stated.

But if all goes according to plan, construction would begin in 2027, according to the release. Design work is likely to begin later this year.

It’s estimated that the new flood wall infrastructure would cost the transportation authority about $60,000 annually at the Fort McHenry Tunnel and about $130,000 annually at the Harbor Tunnel, according to the study.

In a statement, John Sales, a spokesman for the transportation authority, said the agency “greatly appreciates” the report from the Army Corps, calling it “a first step in evaluation for any potential project.”

“Given that the design phase is not anticipated until later this year, the MDTA has not determined a more refined total cost estimate for the project, right of way impacts or project schedule. The MDTA will also still need to consider whether federal grants are available to support MDTA’s efforts,” Sales wrote.