The owner of the Morgantown coal-fired power plant in Charles County will close next year, five years ahead of the previously announced date for shifting to a natural gas facility.
James Jones, 66, wants to build his “dream” retirement home in Eagle Harbor. He has the blueprint ready, but his land is constantly wet, making it difficult to build a foundation. Storms have eroded so much shoreline over the last few years that it has made it difficult to build a dock for his boats.
James Jones lined his shoreline with rocks and wooden slates to curtail further erosion. (Elizabeth Shwe/Maryland Matters)
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When James Jones drives up to his one-acre property in Eagle Harbor, a small historically Black waterfront community on the southern tip of Prince George’s County, he is taken aback by the shimmering view of the Patuxent River, the longest river entirely within Maryland.
Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI (but can be posted at other times).
A gray whale was found in Keil Cove April 27 and then drifted to Lime Point in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, experts said. The whale was still alive and underweight when researchers found it, and it “spent 47 days exploring San Francisco Bay.”
Another gray whale was found washed up May 3 in the Port of Oakland and a third was found May 4 at Angel Island State Park. Experts weren’t able to perform an animal autopsy on any of the three whales to determine the cause of death but collected samples for research.
Four gray whales and one fin whale have been found dead in the San Francisco Bay Area since early April, McClatchy News previously reported. Three of the whales had injuries related to a ship strike.
The whales spend the winter off Mexico’s waters, then they head back north and stay off the coast of California in spring and summer.
Scientists believe the numbers observed on shore are a fraction of the real die-off. They say many more die at sea and are never observed, instead floating offshore or sinking to the bottom.
Although the gray whales are still migrating north from Baja California, fewer whales have stranded this year than in the two previous years just 68 so far.
While the death of these whales is tragic, Milstein said, it offers an opportunity to “better understand what’s affecting the other 20,000 remaining gray whales out there.”