Way Downstream

In Washington, D.C, Maryland’s 10-year-old Heritage Areas Program beat out 85 other heritage tourism programs nationwide to claim a 2006 Preserve America Presidential Award conferred in the Rose Garden. Our prize-winning program consists of 10 certified heritage areas representing 18 counties and 62 municipalities, and includes the Four Rivers Heritage Area in Anne Arundel County. Statewide, the project encourages communities to use heritage tourism to build economies while protecting, developing and promoting cultural and natural resources …

In Maryland, where over one million new residents are expected over the next quarter century, the Department of the Environment reports that water and sewer capacity opens — or closes — the door to development. Growth meetings held throughout the state are the basis for the new report, which concludes that developers shouldn’t be able to build when water supplies and available sewers can’t meet the new demand. The report also concludes that the state needs to help local governments as they plan how to use water and other regional resources. See the full report at: www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/Final_Report_MDE_MDP.pdf …

In New Jersey, last week the Federal Energy Commission gave preliminary go-ahead to build a liquid natural gas plant. Meanwhile, along the Patapsco River, officials from AES Inc., a Virginia company that wants to put an LNG plant at Sparrows Point across the river from Anne Arundel County, endured hostility at an open house with the community last week ...

Our Creature Feature comes from Virginia where, next week, Omega Protein’s 11 fishing vessels, one more than last year, aided by spotter planes, will begin a controversial ritual outlawed in most states along the East Coast: the factory harvesting of millions of menhaden.

The menhaden haul brings $45 million to Virginia, but the sportfishing industry it threatens generates 10 times as much revenue, according to a report to be released next week by the advocacy group Menhaden Matter. An Omega spokesman dismissed the report in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot: “Unfortunately, everybody doesn’t have the ability to buy $50,000 sport boats and go fishing in their spare time,” the spokesman said.