Massive Garbage Flows Into Chesapeake Bay From Susquenahanna From Massive E. Coast Storms
In the days after record July rainfall filled Chesapeake Bay waterways with debris, Comptroller Peter Franchot said Maryland was "literally drowning in Pennsylvania’s trash." How much of the detritus actually came down the Susquehanna River and through the Conowingo Dam’s opened floodgates? It's impossible to quantify, but one scientist who has studied the effects of major rainstorms on the bay said it could have been significant. The Susquehanna drains an area that makes up 43 percent of the Chesapeake watershed.
As for any debris already built up behind the dam that might have been released when the gates opened, officials at Exelon Corp. say they had recently cleared the filters that protect the Conowingo’s 11 hydroelectric turbines. And photos Exelon officials shot show a significant load of branches, tires and plastic barrels that the dam caught, and remained behind it when the flooding subsided.
Larry Sanford, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said the Susquehanna is a dominant influence on the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake. The river contributes about 90 percent of the upper bay’s fresh water — far more the half commonly thought, Sanford said.
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Exelon officials said they have removed 600 tons of debris from the dam so far this year, much of it built up along its western half, the Harford County side of the dam. And debris in that area “generally does not pass through [the dam] in flood conditions,” said Kristen Otterness, a spokeswoman for Exelon Generation. A photo of that portion of the dam taken July 24, which Exelon provided to The Baltimore Sun, shows a relatively small buildup of branches, foam and plastic. That same day, 4 inches of rain fell at BWI, forcing the Conowingo gates to open over the following days. A photo of the same area taken two weeks later shows the same field of debris — only multiplied, stretching across the river.
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/environment/bs-md-conowingo-debris-20180810-story.html