The end of Sandalwood Road is where old boats go to die.

They lie sunken to their gunwales in the Back River shallows by Essex Yacht Harbor’s decaying piers and around its debris-strewn nine acres: dozens of rotting sailboats, hollowed-out cabin cruisers and an old paddle wheel.

After a decade of neglect, Baltimore County fined boatyard owner Maureen Carper $4,000 for failing to correct multiple code violations — $2,000 to be paid immediately and the remaining $2,000 to be paid if the property wasn’t brought into compliance in March. It was not.

Earlier this month, Carper appealed; her lawyer, William Marlow, says his client is an unemployed widow who inherited a mess from her husband.

“It was years of neglect when she inherited it, and she had no idea what she was getting into,” Marlow told the county Board of Appeals, adding that Carper needed more time to determine which boats might be salvageable.

But Administrative Law Judge Joseph L. Evans said Carper did only marginal cleanup and left the boatyard in a condition that was “not tolerable.”

As for anything salvageable, Evans was blunt: “The notion that there is a boat on the property that is launchable and watertight, what I am suggesting to you is it could not be launched anyway, because the access to the water is full of dead boats and a collapsed pier.”

Evans said the penalty seemed reasonable — especially after County Attorney Marissa Merrick said fines could have been as much as $1,200 daily, and after learning Carper is trying to sell the marina for close to $1 million.

“I am surprised the county has not done something more dramatic earlier,” the judge said.

How Essex Yacht Harbor became a graveyard for 110 once-seaworthy vessels now either sunk in the water or rotting on land, and how the county responded, explains a lot about the limits of state law, county codes and officials’ empathy for a taxpayer in a bad situation.

“The county is not interested in burdening people,” Merrick said. “However, when it has been this number of years, this number of months, without bringing this property into compliance … that is what the fine is for — and there is no legal argument that it is improper.”

An expensive boat funeral

Boat owners abandon and sink their vessels because the cost of proper disposal ranges from $3,000 for a small wooden boat to $15,000 for a larger fiberglass one, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The DNR considers a vessel abandoned if it is “left without authorization” on public or private land, or in state waters. A derelict vessel is an abandoned one that is “sinking, actively polluting, obstructing a waterway, or endangering life or property.”

Popular dumping spots include the waters around Baltimore and the counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Queen Anne’s.

The DNR removes an average of 30 to 60 a year. The state record was 79 in 2020.

State officials seek reimbursement if they can find the owner. Those who leave a boat in the water risk a fine of $1,000 and up to six months in prison. Owners can reclaim their vessel after paying; most don’t. A new law passed in 2024 allows the DNR to more widely publicize abandoned boats, as well as create a voluntary disposal turn-in program.

Leaking motor fuels and coppers from anti-fouling paint can pollute the waters. The biggest risk is from microplastics, which don’t break down. Oysters, fish and crabs can consume them, creating food web problems and, in some cases, leading to fish that carry both sperm and eggs.

“It’s a plastic pollution problem, essentially,” said Mario Tamburri, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science who specializes in maritime environmental issues.

But the boats at Carper’s marina were out of reach of state law because they were not abandoned at first; they became that way.

‘He wouldn’t get rid of anything’

Dennis Carper built the marina in 1950 after working for another boat builder. A combat infantryman in World War II, the senior Carper was good with his hands, worked hard and built a loyal following, according to his obituary in The Baltimore Sun.

“He couldn’t say no, and he wouldn’t get rid of anything,” said Ronnie Brown, a longtime family friend who owns part of the Carper property but was not cited or fined. “He’d store people’s boats here, and they’d stop paying. Or he’d give people money for boats and use them for parts.”

Among the boats laid to rest on Sandalwood Road: the houseboat that Keanu Reeves’ character, quarterback Shane Falco, lived on in the 2000 movie “The Replacements.” “You see the white yacht with the satellite dish? I’m the old houseboat next to it, covered in seagull shit,“ Reeves said in the film.

Carper died in 2013 and passed the marina to his son, David, who ran it until his death in 2019. His widow, Maureen Carper, inherited it. She declined to comment on the case, but her attorney said she had no involvement with running the marina.

Neighbors have grumbled about the property for years.

County inspectors took a look in 2024, said Adam Whitlock, Baltimore County’s chief of code enforcement. Inspector Dwayne Elliott’s notes indicate that he extended a couple of deadlines because Carper and Brown said the property was under contract to be sold. When the contract fell through, and the property wasn’t cleaned up to the department’s satisfaction, Whitlock said, the county issued the citation.

“There has been no progress on the cleanup of all the debris, boats, tall grass and weeds, vacant buildings, vacant trailers, vacant mobile homes. This property has been sitting as an open dump for over 10 years,” Elliott wrote in July 2024.

Six months later, Administrative Law Judge Andrew Belt imposed the $4,000 fine.

Real estate wrinkles

Around the same time, the county’s real estate arm was asking Maureen Carper to sell the county her house at 222 N. Marlyn Ave. to expand its Essex police precinct next door. The County Council approved the purchase in April 2024.

The county paid Carper $350,000, which was more than the assessed value — and approximately the estimated cost to clean up the boatyard. But by the time the contract to sell the marina fell through, Carper had used the proceeds to buy a four-bedroom home in Towson for $487,000, according to the state property database.

Kevin McDonough, president of the Rockaway Beach Improvement Association, said the hardships are no excuse for the neglect.

“If she didn’t want the property,” he said, “she shouldn’t have taken title to it when her husband died.”

For now, amid the derelicts, the only yacht parties involve raccoons, foxes, geese and a misplaced peacock, as Brown, 79, toils every day, breaking down boats and putting their remains in dumpsters that he rents for $600 and has hauled to landfills. He said he’s removed five boats from the water, each one a back-breaking endeavor.

Brown thinks the county could have given Carper more time. Why punish her now, he asked, when the place is finally getting cleaned up?

“It’s a mess, though, I will agree to that,” he said. “You can only pick at it a little at a time.”