Cox Creek
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The dikes at the Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility provide a secure placement site for sediment dredged from the Baltimore Harbor, which by law is considered contaminated. The Cox Creek facility is located just south of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, on the western shore of the Patapsco River in the upper Chesapeake Bay. Approximately 102 acres are available for the placement of dredged material. Its annual capacity of approximately 500,000 cubic yards is equal to the average amount of material generated each year by maintenance dredging in the harbor. Cox Creek has a total projected capacity of 6 million cubic yards. Compared to Hart-Miller Island and Poplar Island, this is a very small placement site. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the site in the 1960s, and operated it through 1984, mostly as a private industrial site. It fell into disuse until the Maryland Port Administration acquired it through purchases in 1993 and 1997. Renovations, such as strengthening and raising the dike walls, prepared the site to receive up to six million cubic yards of dredged material from the Baltimore Harbor. However, Cox Creek currently receives only a small portion of harbor sediment; most is placed at Hart-Miller Island, and, based on testing results, not all of the sediment is contaminated. The Cox Creek facility will become increasingly important once Hart-Miller Island closes to placement of dredged material in December 2009. Explorations are also underway to determine whether some of the land |
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surrounding the placement facility could serve as a staging area for the innovative use of dredged material. Approximately 100 acres of the 1993 purchase have been permanently preserved for wildlife habitat, and approximately 11 acres of the Swan Creek wetlands were enhanced and restored. This tidal wetland environment now includes the following habitats: open water, low marsh with non-vegetated tidal flats, saltbush assemblages, and a beach/sand bar area. The National Aquarium at Baltimore and many citizen volunteers have helped to monitor and restore the wetlands.
Download the Cox Creek Backgrounder.