Love Your environment? Take Action! Enrollment opened July 15th a HCC.

Free Information Session via Google Meet about WSA and the Certification Classes available 7:00 p.m.
Click here to join the session Thursday August 13 at 7 PM.

Classes Start September 2nd and are Tuesday Evenings
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Click for the HCC Course Description and Registration Link.

February 2024

Greetings!

Because of your interest in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, we wanted to let you know about some new information available on MDE’s website.

Chesapeake Bay Restoration Spending Report

As part of Maryland’s annual budget process, the Departments of Agriculture, Budget and Management, Environment, and Natural Resources are required to report to the Maryland House and Senate Budget Committees on Chesapeake Bay restoration spending. From 2000-2023, Maryland spent about $15 billion on Bay Restoration activities. The 2023 report, as well as reports from previous years, can be found here. The Maryland Senate Public Safety, Transportation, and Environment Subcommittee held a Chesapeake Bay Overview budget hearing with the Secretaries of Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Planning on January 25, 2024. The recording of that hearing can be viewed here.

Improved Plans to Reduce Nutrients from Wastewater

MDE recently updated its core strategies to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus discharges from Maryland’s major wastewater treatment plants. These actions will ensure that Maryland continues to meet its clean water goals and Chesapeake Bay restoration commitments, while also stimulating a green economy and workforce development. A summary of the updated strategy, with a link to the full report, can be found here.

Wastewater Performance Tracking Results

Ensuring wastewater treatment plant compliance with Enhanced Nutrient Removal standards is one of Maryland’s priority Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) strategies for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. To achieve Maryland’s WIP and Chesapeake Bay climate change goals, MDE set concentration targets for Maryland’s major wastewater treatment plants. The most recent performance tracking results are available via a link on the right side of the wastewater strategy page.

Winter Salts

Although winter salts are effective deicing tools, they can impact human health, the environment, and stormwater infrastructure. The best solution is widespread decreased use of winter salts. Resources and tips for applicators, stormwater permit managers, business and property managers, and around your home can be found here.

Thank you for all you do to protect the Bay and its tributaries!

Questions, comments, and suggestions about any of the above can be directed to mde.chesapeakewip@maryland.gov.

After a growing season, one of our Master Watershed Stewards (who’s also a Master Gardener) was asked to revisit with a homeowner. There had been a transformation. The homeowner corrected erosion problems identified during the initial Homeowner Interview and Site Assessment (HISA) with suggested new plantings and practices. The result are delightful.

The homeowner stated about their follow-through: “Yes, we incorporated your suggestions into a beautiful landscape plan for our yard. We still need to have some sodding done but otherwise the yard is coming along nicely and I’d say 90-95% of the erosion problem has been resolved.” In addition the homeowners had their lawn service raise the mower decks to mow at 3 to 4 inches to further slow the flow of water.

Clocktower Crossing entered into a mentorship agreement with the Howard County Watershed Stewards Academy (WSA) in September 2022. Resident Teresa Weathington Guzman completed the Master Watershed Steward certification course in the Fall of 2022. The project has been funded by the Howard County Community Stormwater Partnership and serves as Teresa’s Capstone project, which is required to complete the certification program.

Current area versus Planned Shade Garden

This project involves two primary activities that will decrease pollutants in the stormwater that flows from the community directly into the Little Patuxent River.

1. A contractor has been engaged to design and install a new conservation landscape, a rain garden, and up to 20 trees – all using plants that are native to our region.
2. The project will increase resident awareness on storm drains, rain harvesting, and the importance of conservation landscapes and native plants to slow the flow of water in the community. This will be achieved through a resident survey and several events:

• At the project launch BBQ, residents will learn about planned spring/summer activities, discuss best management practice (BMP) installations under design by the contractor, and consult with Master Watershed Stewards and Master Gardeners on how to slow the flow of stormwater.
• In the spring, there will be a series of Pull and Plant events to remove non-native invasive plants at two sites and replace them with native gardens.
• In the summer, the project will host a stormdrain stenciling event.

Stay tuned, Clocktower residents! Watch for Save the Date door hangers and mark project events on your calendars. These activities will be great opportunities to help improve stormwater and erosion issues in the community and to connect with neighbors.

Three Phase Action Project

A group of four Watershed Steward Academy (WSA) interns consisting of Shari Rosenberg, Kory Sutherland, Bob Hartranft and Jack Boccuzzi have initiated a three phased Action Project in the Oakland Mills area of Columbia Maryland. The project involves education about local water pollution sources affecting the health of the Chesapeake Bay and offers alternative practices that are more environmentally friendly. This information will be shared with Oakland Mills High School (OMHS) students via the Oakland Mills Speaker Series and at an environmental awareness event at Oakland Mills Interfaith Center.

At an OMHS class on March 21, 2023, the WSA team demonstrated how water pollution occurs using an Enviroscape model. The interns demonstrated how actions in Oakland Mills can negatively affect water quality downstream at the Chesapeake Bay. After the demonstration, the group discussed several Best Management Practices (BMP’s) that counteract these poor practices. The class focused on the use of rain barrels to collect rainwater from roof drains and slowly release the captured water.

This coincides with the environmental mantra of “Slow the Flow.” To facilitate and jumpstart the desired behavioral change, the group utilized the labor, energy and imagination of 25 seniors of Oakland Mills High School to decorate these barrels. WSA members will also participate in the OMHS Scorpion Speaker Series on April 14. This outreach event to additional OMHS students will disseminate watershed information thru entertaining games and videos.

WSA will ultimately raffle off the three decorated rain barrels at the Oakland Mills Interfaith Center’s Green Spring Fling event on May 7, 2023.  This third interaction with community is an annual outdoor event.  By participating in this event, it is expected that a broader, diverse audience will be present to receive messaging of watershed issues and procedures that individuals can implement to improve OUR environment.

For her WSA class project, Jem explored the neighborhood watershed and engaged her community to improve both her neighbor’s environmental knowledge and the environment. After assessing the area’s streams, nearby waterbodies, and storm drains, Jem did a Neighborhood Source Assessment (NSA) to find the distinctive nature of the community. She found that, like many suburban areas, it has single family homes with lawns and driveways, downspouts discharging on impervious surfaces and about 70% of the properties were impervious surfaces – hardly any areas to slow the flow of stormwater or mitigate the effects of runoff.

Working with seven different neighbors, on Chateau Ridge and Burnside Drives, 33 were trees planted.

Additionally, Jem helped raise awareness about:

• Rain Barrels
• Rain Gardens
• Conservation Landscaping

There will be follow-up to monitor the trees and their health as well as the planting’s ability to slow the flow.

The Watershed Stewards Academy congratulates Jem on her excellent Class Project, her ability to involve her community and her continued work to improve our streams, rivers, and bay.

Our ecosystem’s health is important for our quality of life. We rely on our ecosystem for food, water, air, recreation, and many other things. Even at the local level, it is important to understand the impact of our actions on the ecosystem.

Stormwater is a serious problem in our region because increasingly heavy downpours wash over impervious (impenetrable) surfaces like roofs, roads and parking lots, and into our streams. Even lawns absorb very little water. Instead, stormwater washes surface pollutants into storm drains which flow into our local streams, eventually making their way to the Chesapeake Bay.

As a part of our project, we are conducting a monitoring study on the Howard County Glenmont neighborhood streams to assess its water quality and determine if there are actions we can take as a community to improve it. We are sampling phosphate, nitrite, and E. coli levels at all four of our sites every month, twice after heavy rains. We are also surveying aquatic macro-invertebrates (small animals that live in the substrate) to determine how healthy the stream is for living things. 

In addition to working in the stream, we are conducting surveys to better understand the Glenmont community’s ideas and approaches toward stormwater and water pollution. Finally, we are engaging the community by providing informational events and presentations.

Where do these pollutants come from?

Pet waste is one of the most common sources of neighborhood pollution. Other pollution sources include lawn care products such as fertilizers and pest control chemicals and litter.

Why does stream pollution matter?

Stream pollution impacts our health, especially since we enjoy using our streams and downstream waters for recreation! Pollutants can spread disease to other animals and to humans.

Additionally, when too many nutrients, like fertilizers, enter rivers, streams, and the Chesapeake Bay, they fuel the growth of algae blooms and create conditions that are harmful for fish, shellfish and other underwater life that many people love to eat. In fact, excess nutrients are the main cause of the Bay’s poor health.

How did you identify a need to monitor stream pollution in Glenmont?

There is always room for improvement in our understanding of ecosystem impacts within our community and we’re still too early in our project to interpret our stream pollution data. Check back later if you’d like to see the data for yourself! For now, our data is still a living document and subject to change. Glenmont Stream Monitoring Data

What are you seeing so far?

We conducted a Neighborhood Source Assessment, or NSA, to see how our community can improve its practices to be more environmentally conscious. We found lots of well-maintained gardens and lawns as well as quite a few dogs. We noticed some room for improvement on implementing rain barrels to conserve water and rain gardens to mitigate pollution from running off into the streams when it rains. If you’d like to see more details of the report, visit our NSA Findings Link.

How do you do your sampling?

We are sampling roughly once a month for phosphates, nitrites, and E. coli bacteria because these are the three most common measurement criteria indicating pet waste or fertilizer pollutants in the water. Since heavy rains flush these pollutants into the streams, bacteria levels often spike a day or two later. We have established four sites that we return to each time. Macro-invertebrate population monitoring is another way of measuring water quality. We are monitoring these populations twice, once in May and once in August. For a more detailed understanding of our sampling methodology and the equipment we are using, visit our Sampling Methodology Link.

How did this project come about?

We are members of the University of Maryland Extension Master Watershed Stewards Program, a community of citizen scientists interested in bettering our watershed ecosystem’s health. Also, one of the team members lives in the area. There’s much more to the program than just this project. Visit the Watershed Stewards website.

How can I take action on my own?

The Howard County CleanScapes Program has funding set aside to help individuals take pollution mitigating action of their own. You can receive a subsidy to cover big portions of the cost of installing a rain garden, conservation landscape, environmentally friendly driveway, green roof, and more! Visit the CleanScapes website for more information and to participate!

I’m interested in getting involved!

If you’d like to get involved in monitoring your community’s stream health, the Master Watershed Stewards Program, or CleanScapes, we’d be very happy to help! Contact GlenmontWSA2022@gmail.com

I want to read more!

There is lots of reading material out there! Here are just a few websites for you to get started:

• Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL)
• Clean Streets and Yards Challenge/Dog License Amnesty Program (2021)
• Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Survey (2017)
• Non-Tidal Water Quality Methods Manual