Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility (June 2013)

The Cox Creek Dredged Material Containment Facility is one of the sites used for placement of sediment that has been cleared from shipping channels in the Baltimore Harbor. The Cox Creek facility is located on the western shore of the Patapsco River, one mile south of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It represents the effective re-use of a past industrial site and has triggered the restoration of wildlife habitat in the neighboring Swan Creek watershed. Cox Creek began receiving dredged material in 2005. Today, Maryland Environmental Service, in support of the Port of Baltimore, dredge an average of five million cubic yards of sediment from the harbor and its approach channels every year. 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 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.

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