Just in time for Earth Day today, Gov. O’Malley and Mayor Dixon broke ground on a new environmental education center yesterday.

The center will be part of a $153 million waterfront restoration project along the Patapsco River northeast of Brooklyn. A public park, wildlife preserve, oyster reef, and marine terminal will also be built along this part of the river — a location previously used for ship demolitions.

Cleanup of the area has already included 30,000 tons of trash, 27 shipwrecks, and almost 200,000 gallons of contaminated water. The site of the shipbreakings will be buried with fill from the river dredging, thereby clearing shipping lanes and creating a 127-acre peninsula in the process.

The junkyard has a long history of environmental problems — some of it quite recent. Part of the contamination can be attributed to chemical dumping during the demolition of an aircraft carrier and several other ships in the 1990s. Local residents are relieved to see the area being cleaned up and reinvented for public use. Hopefully in the future, we can work to keep our environment clean from the start, rather than investing tons of money and resources to repair it later.

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