Page 20 - Port of Baltimore March April 2013
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The Port of Baltimore
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March/April 2013
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A dredged materials containment facility at Cox Creek has given birth to a wildlife
habitat that attracts bird-watchers.
On the Horizon
Plans are underway for a
BIO-
RETENTION FACILITY
at the
Dundalk Marine Terminal along
Colgate Creek that would restore
the land’s original filtering
properties. A bio-retention
facility combines open space
with stormwater management.
Stormwater is collected into the
treatment area, which consists
of a grass buffer strip, sand
bed, ponding area, organic
layer, planting soil and plants.
The stormwater filters through
slowly so that nutrients and
sediment are removed before the
clean water is discharged from
an under-drain pipe.
AUTOMATED HIGH-MASS
LIGHTING
will use sensors to
turn off the lights when the sun
comes up.
In 2013, the MPA will achieve a
goal it’s been working toward
since 2007 –
REMOVING
all of
the
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
TANKS
on its properties and
eliminating the risk that they
could leak into the ground and
ground water. Ten have been
removed so far.
M
asonville Cove
was a
degraded, abandoned
swath of industrial land
that over the years had
been used for a variety of
tasks such as manufacturing, ship-breaking
and even receiving debris from the Great
Baltimore Fire. The MPA created a two-
pronged plan for the area; it established a
dredged materials containment facility that
eventually will be a new marine terminal,
and created an 11-acre public nature area,
giving residents access to the shoreline for
the first time in decades, free of charge.
Tons of trash and debris, including
27 abandoned vessels and PCB-laden
electrical equipment, were hauled out
and the site was capped in such a way
as to preserve mature trees. School
children planted native plants to restore
the shoreline, and the MPA installed a
walking path, a kayak pier and a fishing
pier amid a wildlife habitat for birds, fish
and amphibians. Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown
formally opened Masonville Cove to the
public in November.
“This is a true milestone,” said Frank
Hamons, MPA Deputy Director for Harbor
Development. “We promised we would
open this to the neighborhoods, and it’s
wonderful to be able to keep a promise.
This is the first time in more than 70 years
that the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and
Curtis Bay have had access to the water.”
But that was just the first phase: Plans
call for another 41 acres to be remediated
and opened to the public, and the MPA
also is restoring and improving more than
100 additional acres of tidal and nontidal
open water and wetland acreage adjacent
to the cove.
Before construction began, an air
emissions study was conducted to
determine the amount of pollutants that
would be generated by the equipment
building the dredged materials contain-
ment facility. Because the study showed
that nitrous oxide emissions would exceed
the federal limits, the Port leased emission
reduction credits for two years to offset
those emissions.
As another example of how the Port can
By Land
BILL MCALLEN
