It seems that things seldom get better for Marley Creek.

The Glen Burnie waterway has been closed to human contact for decades and was the site of a sewage spill in May. On June 29, the creek was clogged with 1,000 dead fish that died when the death of a large amount of algae sucked the oxygen out of the water.

Robert Ballinger, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said the fish kill occurred the same day as larger one in the Annapolis. Some 15,000 fish died in that incident.

In both cases, the sudden algae death depleted the dissolved oxygen in the water and suffocated the fish, he...