Baltimore Inner Harbor

My family and I visited Baltimore's Inner Harbor last Friday and Saturday, one of the America's oldest seaports - and one of the world's newest travel destinations. I was very impressed by the transformation of an abandoned area of rotting warehouses and piers to a major cultural and economic area of the city. I think this is an excellent example of waterfront re-development.

However, water quality could be improved. Visibility of the water was almost zero, and floatables were occasionally visible from the water taxi that we took. In addition to control of municipal and industrial discharges, stormwater runoff from the street needs to be intercepted and treated, as it could carry a large amount of trash, debris, oil, grease, sediment, and other pollutants to the harbor. Being an "inner" harbor that has a very limited pollutant flushing capability, control of the pollutant sources is critical.

Tour of the National Aquarium was fantastic! I believe everybody would appreciate watershed and salt marsh much more after seeing the exhibit "Maryland: Mountains to the Sea.

My album contains additional photos of the Baltimore's Inner Harbor.