Delaware River

A look at the tortured history of Delaware River waterfront development: 1987: The city tries to lure Disney to the waterfront for a $300 million project. 1989: Developer Willard Rouse backs out on a $700 million retail/restaurant/housing development. Former Philadelphia City Councilman Leland Beloff later goes to jail for trying to extort him. 1997: Officials in New Jersey and Pennsylvania express interest in a tram over the river that would have cost close to $42 million.

Stacy Levy makes art by exploiting natural phenomena such as rain and wind. Her two Philadelphia exhibitions, at University of the Arts and Larry Becker Gallery, explore the underappreciated role that water plays in everyday life. "Watercourse," an installation in the university's Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, is really more of a Franklin Institute-style science project, although it's executed with an artist's sensibility. Using several thousand water-filled plastic cups in three sizes (the kind used to dispense cheap wine at art openings)

A woman was in critical condition Saturday after being pulled from the Delaware River and resuscitated by police. The Marine Unit received a call just after 9 a.m. about a person floating in the river behind the Sugar House Casino. Police on scene were able to pull the unconscious woman from the river and resuscitate her. Medics took her to Hahnemann University Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition Saturday morning. – Jonathan Lai

Two Delaware County men remained missing yesterday after they fell from a 19-foot powerboat Sunday night while making a sharp turn during an outing on the Delaware River, police said. The boat was found in the river shortly before dawn yesterday, but no one was aboard, police said. Carl Gurer, 50, of Ridley Township, and Daniel Devaco, 48, of Essington, were lost about 9:30 p.m. Sunday near Philadelphia International Airport, according to police. A third person, Donna Weber, 32, of Collingdale, also fell from the boat, but she managed to swim to an unnamed island 50 to 100 yards from shore, where she collapsed, according to police.

As a calamity, the oil spill early yesterday morning on the Delaware River was no Exxon Valdez. About 160 gallons of crude oil mixed with diesel fuel "burped" out of a vent on the 900-foot tanker Sologne, which was moored at the Coastal Eagle Point refinery, according to Commander Michael D. Riley of the U.S. Coast Guard. There were no birds with oil-packed feathers, Riley said. There was no fouled coastline. But there was a sheen that spread about four miles downstream, to the Mantua Creek anchorage, Riley said.

In what could be another blow to the long-delayed deepening of the Delaware River, U.S. House and Senate budget negotiators have restricted an annual federal appropriation for the project, seen as a boon to the region's economy and ports. But Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) and Pennsylvania port officials said yesterday that the measure would not block the dredging from the current 40 feet to 45 feet once the Army Corps of Engineers decides to begin. The appropriations bill still must be approved by the full House and Senate.

From the broken concrete of Deemer's Beach, you can see north up the Delaware River toward Philadelphia, south down Delaware Bay toward the Atlantic, and east over two miles of sun-tipped waves to hazy New Jersey to get a sense of what people lost when they turned their backs on the waterfront. "There was the tidal bathing pool, and the trolley, and the baseball ground, and the roller rink, and the dance hall, and the arcade, and the 1,500-foot-pier, and the place where the Wilson Line ships used to dock," said Harold West, owner of the property since 1987.

TRENTON - A stretch of the lower Delaware River is getting a special classification to protect it from pollution. The Delaware River Basin Commission yesterday approved the designation of the river as special protection waters. That designation limits direct discharges of wastewater into the river. The ruling affects the area of the river between the Delaware Water Gap and Trenton. The upper part of the river, north of the Delaware Water Gap, received the designation in 1992. The Delaware River Basin Commission's members include the governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York as well as a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers.

A badly decomposed body was recovered from the Delaware River around midday Saturday, Philadelphia police said. The body was found floating by a pier near Delaware Avenue and Spring Garden Street, police said. Marine and rescue units were called to recover the body. Police could not provide the victim's name, sex or other details.

Authorities were searching for a man who jumped Friday afternoon from the bridge just north of New Hope and Lambertville into the Delaware River, an official said. The man, whose name was not available, jumped from the bridge around 4:10 p.m., said Joe Donnelly, spokesman for the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. The Pennsylvania State Police was investigating. A man died last month when he jumped from the bridge, which connects Route 202 between Solebury and Delaware Townships.

Gov. Corbett and senior agricultural officials from Chile gathered at Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia on Tuesday to mark what they say is a growing Chilean and South American fruit trade to Philadelphia. On a pier behind them, the Bahia Castillo, a refrigerated cargo ship, was unloading fresh Chilean fruit. About 10,000 pounds of the grapes, kiwis, apples, and pears were donated to Philabundance, the hunger relief group, which took the fruit by truck to area food pantries.

From the broken concrete of Deemer's Beach, you can see north up the Delaware River toward Philadelphia, south down Delaware Bay toward the Atlantic, and east over two miles of sun-tipped waves to hazy New Jersey to get a sense of what people lost when they turned their backs on the waterfront. "There was the tidal bathing pool, and the trolley, and the baseball ground, and the roller rink, and the dance hall, and the arcade, and the 1,500-foot-pier, and the place where the Wilson Line ships used to dock," said Harold West, owner of the property since 1987.

Canadian astronaut Cmdr. Chris Hadfield has tweeted another fun photo from space showing Pennsylvania, New Jersey and neighboring states from a heavenly perspective. "Chesapeake to Cape Cod to Lake Huron - in a glance, so much history, geology and geography," @Cmdr_Hadfield posted on Twitter. In the shot from the International Space Station, the white sands of the Jersey Shore's barrier islands are clearly visible and the Delaware River seems to disappear as it narrows north of Trenton.

Nicholas Biddle Jr., 95, of Gladwyne, a businessman and civic leader who was instrumental in establishing Fort Mifflin on the Delaware as a historic treasure for visitors, died Friday, April 26, of heart failure at home. Mr. Biddle was a descendant of a storied Philadelphia family; its members arrived here from England in the time of William Penn. The line produced a president of the Second Bank of the United States whose home, Andalusia, is a historic mansion in Bucks County; a young naval hero who died at sea fighting the British in 1778; and an envoy who received accolades from two presidents when he died in 1961.

A woman was in critical condition Saturday after being pulled from the Delaware River and resuscitated by police. The Marine Unit received a call just after 9 a.m. about a person floating in the river behind the Sugar House Casino. Police on scene were able to pull the unconscious woman from the river and resuscitate her. Medics took her to Hahnemann University Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition Saturday morning. – Jonathan Lai

By this time next year, the Coast Guard Auxiliary hopes one corner of Marcus Hook will have become a bustling hub for local members to train, teach classes, patrol the waters, and more. Marcus Hook officials, businesses, and politicians are collaborating with the auxiliary, a uniformed, all-volunteer branch whose members perform almost all of the tasks associated with the National Guard, to build a training facility on the edge of the Delaware River. The facility, which Coast Guard members are aiming to have completed by midsummer, will have room to hold boating safety and other classes for recruits, and the river will provide a site for training with the auxiliary's boats and floating piers.

Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo calls his township's five-mile waterfront a "mishmash" of uses. There are light industry and chemical storage; parks and older apartment houses; riverside cottages and the 18th-century Andalusia estate. But on 45 open acres on State Road just over the Philadelphia line, tucked between a truck yard and small warehouses, the mayor sees the future taking shape. A builder will start building and selling the first of 600 homes, including townhouses, condominiums, and 16 customized, million-dollar houses.

THE OWNERS of the SugarHouse Casino have agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims that their workers illegally dumped material into the Delaware River as the building was being constructed in Fishtown, prosecutors said Monday. SugarHouse HSP Gaming will pay a $25,000 civil penalty and donate $625,000 to the Brandywine Conservancy, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting natural resources, U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger announced in a news release. "This case reinforces our commitment to protecting the environment by ensuring that corporations either follow environmental laws or face serious sanctions," Memeger said.

  Philadelphia's Hidden River is going to become a lot easier to see starting on Mother's Day, when boat tours return to the Schuylkill. The cruises, run by a company new to the river, Patriot Harbor Lines, begin May 12 and will leave from 24th and Walnut Streets for three-hour cruises that include a two-hour stop at Bartram's Garden, the historic jewel in Southwest Philadelphia. Tickets are $30, which includes the $10 admission to visit the home of famed naturalist John Bartram.

Authorities recovered the body of a 49-year-old Gloucester County man that washed up on the shore of the Delaware River on Tuesday night. At about 9 p.m., a passerby discovered the body along the shoreline at Finns Point. The deceased, from Franklinville, had jumped from the Delaware Memorial Bridge on Jan. 20, said Cpl. John Day of the Delaware State Police. Although found on the eastern shore of the river in Salem County, the small strip of land actually is part of Delaware by a quirk of history, and Delaware authorities led the investigation.