Meg Walburn Viviano reports for chesapeakebaymagazine.com that the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has recognized the Maryland Port Administration with an Award of Excellence for Environmental Mitigation — for the port’s unique algae project that cleans up nutrient pollution in the Baltimore Harbor.
Known as the Algal Flow-way Technology, the demonstration project is a linear raceway constructed at the port’s Dundalk Marine Terminal on the Patapsco River. The technology pumps water from the river onto the raceway, which flows over a surface designed to encourage algal growth. As the algae grows, it cleans and oxygenates the water before it’s returned to the river.
Increasing oxygen content and removing excess nutrients from the urban Patapsco helps combat some of the biggest threats to a restored Bay, including the oxygen-poor “dead zones.”
“Doing what we can to protect our environment is important to our overall mission and we will continue to move forward with environmental programs that benefit the air, water and Port itself,” said MDOT Maryland Port Administration Executive Director William P. Doyle.
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