As I have said before, ever since I have arrived in Maryland, scientists and regulators have been talking about the lake behind Conowingo Dam filling up with sediment, and the damage it will do to the Bay when that process is completed. As I heard it over twenty years ago, the damn only had another useful life of 20 years...
It's kind of like the weather; everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Must be time to talk about it again:
Conowingo Dam May Pose Threat To Chesapeake Bay
A federal scientist says the Conowingo Dam in northeastern Maryland is not trapping as much sediment and nutrient pollution as it has in years past - possibly endangering the Chesapeake Bay.Last year, Tropical Storm Lee, while not a humdinger of a wind or storm surge event, brought huge amounts of rain to the Susquehanna River basin, and caused enormous amounts of erosion of material from behind the dam, and a huge pulse of mud and debris into the upper Chesapeake Bay.
The dam on the Susquehanna River prevents millions of tons of sediment and nutrient pollution from reaching the bay. The Susquehanna is the bay's largest tributary, and for years, two-thirds of the mud washed downstream has been settling behind the dam.
But Robert Hirsch, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Va., tells The Baltimore Sun that things have changed. Hirsch has been reassessing the dam's trapping ability in the wake of last summer's Tropical Storm Lee.
Hirsch says he can't provide details yet but will be briefing policy makers in a matter of weeks.
Are they going to propose to do anything about it this time?
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