06/12/2026
Good Evening Friends of Norman Creek Marina.
I think it is important for me, as the owner, to provide more details as to why we are not selling fuel this year—and probably won’t in the future.
It is sad: Norman Creek Marina has been serving Middle River since the 1970s. This is a picture of our original gas dock!
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And we served a pretty broad range of customers from regular boats to the tow boat companies to our commercial crabbers to the State DNR and the County Police. And for all those years, we followed the Maryland regulations about selling fuel….AND THAT IS NOT EASY OR CHEAP! We spent between 8 and 10k dollars a year complying pressure and leak test; special insurance on the tank; CP annual test; daily measurements and monthly reports. We were ALWAYS in compliance.
Well, the State changed the rules! They passed a new rule in 2022 that took effect 13 June 2025, that required us to RIP OUT half of our compliant system and upgrade it. It wasn’t, “hey if you are upgrading you need to meet these new standards,” it was “we don’t care that you are in compliance on the 12th of June, unless you change everything you are out of compliance on the 13th!
To meet the new standards would have cost approximately $160,000. AND that would mean putting new pipes into an old dock. Plus, we would still have the old underground tank (even though it was old, it was in perfect condition when we took it out of the ground). That made no sense. So we made the difficult decision to take the whole system out, upgrade, and then see how much it would cost to put a new gas/diesel system in.
Well, the cost for a full new system (new tank, etc.) is between $375,000 and $400,000. We are a little marina that sells as much gas in a year as a gas station sells in a month! We just couldn’t do it. So, that is why we are OUT of the gas/diesel business.
I have been VERY clear with the State of Maryland: Their new regulations put us out of business. There was no effort to work with us, no grant funding, nothing. Neither the State nor Baltimore County really care about the key businesses that MUST exist to serve our boating community.
So Middle River which is home to somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 boats, now has four places that sell diesel and five that sell gas.
I feel terrible about this, especially for the hard-working commercial crabbers and other commercial boaters: We gave them access 24/7/365 so that they could keep working. Now we can’t.
For all of our loyal customers and supporters, over the years: THANK YOU. I wish I was not writing this, but this is the hard truth. THANK YOU for your love and support.
Michael
Owner, Norman Creek Marina
"The best little marina on Middle River!"
