Stormwater -- for some reason it's difficult for a lot of folks to make the connection between what's on their roads and lawns and what ends up in the Bay. I think a lot of people see storm drains on their streets but don't really think about them.
Well, Baltimore radio reporter Joel McCord had an excellent piece on WYPR 88.1 FM this morning that creates a clear picture of why storm drains and stormwater are keys to a clean Bay. Listen online at WYPR.org.
Earlier this month, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) asked members to send in bottles of water from their local creeks and rivers as part of a campaign to show the Chesapeake Executive Council that residents of the Bay watershed are demanding "Clean Water for a Change." Residents from across the watershed sent in hundreds of bottles and stories about their local waterways.
During that time, CBF Senior Naturalist and author John Page Williams was on his way back to Annapolis from a meeting in Union County, Pa. He decided to collect water samples for the campaign along the way. As he drove, the following story about the connection between the Bay and its tributaries, and the tributaries and the people who live and work on them, began to emerge.
Water in streams, creeks, and rivers is by its very nature interconnected. Recently, I received a great lesson in this interconnectedness while gathering bottles of such water for the Chesapeake Executive Council meeting from a number of Chesapeake tributaries in central Pennsylvania. The occasion was the trip home from the annual meeting of the Merrill W. Linn Conservancy and its associated Buffalo Creek Watershed Alliance in Mifflinburg, Union County. As I drove the rolling hills south over tributary creeks and along the Susquehanna toward home near Annapolis, a story began to unfold.
Buffalo Creek flows through Mifflinburg and under a lovely old covered bridge. The members of the Watershed Alliance had talked enthusiastically the evening before about their monthly water quality monitoring project, and about an upcoming plan to install a lime-feed system in the headwaters to neutralize the nasty effects of acid rain on the creek and its creatures. They also reminisced about happy days paddling the creek together in canoes and kayaks. Intelligent, dedicated local stewardship like this is one of the factors that keep me believing we CAN save the Bay, and its streams, creeks, and rivers.
The next stop was Penns Creek, just to the south. The upper reaches of this large Susquehanna tributary form one of the Commonwealth's finest wild trout streams, though its lower reaches warm up enough to shift the balance to smallmouth bass and sunfish. Penns has its own dedicated watershed association, sharing many members with the Linn Conservancy and the Buffalo Creek Alliance. Pat Arduini, a staunch Linn Conservancy member and an outdoor educator for the Union county schools, had been part of a monitoring crew sampling Penns Creek the day before.
As I stopped to collect water, I met Bill Lynch, owner of Penns Creek Pottery and another Linn Conservancy member, who has lived by the creek and operated his pottery in an old mill for the past thirty years. Yes, he lives there because of the creek, and he is another dedicated local steward.
Several miles to the south, the road (Route 104) crossed Middle Creek at Middleburg. I stopped at a creekside café for a sandwich and found several anglers looking for stocked trout.
Middle Creek was showing the runoff effects of heavy rain in Pennsylvania's lower tier counties. Stocked trout don't seem to mind it, but the creek is too muddy and warm for wild trout. One angler remarked that the semi-tame stocked rainbows' preferred bait is kernels of canned corn. He also proudly told a story of bringing his son there to catch his first trout. I hope these anglers begin to realize that they have an important stake in Middle Creek's future.
The next stop was Mahantango Creek. The only people around were a road repair crew, who seemed to be paying close attention to preventing soil erosion from their project, because the creek was running clear just downstream. I recalled that Mahantango is one of the favorite canoe field trip sites for CBF's Harrisburg-based Susquehanna Watershed Education Program.
Below the Mahantango, Route 104 blended into Routes 11/15, which parallel the Susquehanna. I stopped at the Sweigart's Island Wildlife Management Area boat landing to fill a bottle with clear river water and recalled that the students and staff on CBF's summer, 2006 Expedition Susquehanna had camped on the island in heavy rain, just before the river rose to flood stage, forcing all of them back to land for nearly a week. On this day, though, the river was placid and lovely.
A few miles to the south, I stopped in Duncannon at John Cunningham's Riverside Campground, a great gathering place for river rats and smallmouth anglers. The campground sits right at the mouth of the Juniata River, a major Susquehanna tributary whose output of fresh water is about the equivalent of Virginia's Rappahannock. Here the effects of rain in the lower tier counties showed clearly, especially because the storms had come just after farmers had tilled their land. Clearly there is plenty of restoration work yet to do in this big river's watershed.
John Cunningham said that the Juniata was clearing, but that most of his anglers were (understandably) fishing the main Susquehanna above the confluence.
In Wormleysburg, across from Harrisburg, I stopped at a landing to dip a bottle in the Susquehanna again. Here the river was carrying water from all of its tributaries to the north, and it especially showed the effects of the Juniata's flow in its now-muddy color. "Yes, we all live downstream," I reflected aloud.
Arriving home in Maryland near sunset, I walked down to the Severn River in front of my house to dip the last bottle. The river here is about four miles upstream of Annapolis. It is tidal and brackish, but the salinity right now is only 7.5 parts per thousand, or about 25 percent that of sea water, and conversely, about 75 percent fresh. A small portion of its fresh water has come from its own small watershed, but most has come down the Chesapeake from the Susquehanna and in through its mouth on the tides. As I looked at the sun setting over the river, I realized that I was probably looking at water that had come from each of the tributaries I had sampled earlier in the day.
Yes, these waterways are all interconnected, and so are all the stories they told me on this day. That is a complicated message, but it's the kind that the Chesapeake usually gives us, mixing hope and encouragement with deep concern for the many ways we hinder the Bay ecosystem, even as we seek to restore it. It is simply too complex to give us easy answers. There is hope, however, in facing the challenges clearly, combining the efforts of local people with the promising ones of state and federal government. We CAN heal the Chesapeake, if we care enough.
John Page Williams, CBF Senior Naturalist
Follow John Page Williams' odyssey on our "Clean Water for a Change" map.
The original title of this post was "Miles to Go Before I Sleep." That's virtual miles, via Google Maps, but it's still exhausting. I've been mapping the Chesapeake Bay watershed for hours, and I'm still not finished.
We asked members to send us bottles of water from their local river or stream and tell us about the quality of their waterways. We'll be taking the bottles with us to the Chesapeake Executive Council meeting tomorrow, May 12, to show our region's leaders that we all deserve "Clean Water for a Change." Check our website for more info.
I'm mapping out the locations of the hundreds of bottles and comments we've received.
We've heard from folks all over the watershed, from as far west as Monterey, VA, up to Stephen Foster Lake in northern PA and down to the mouth of the Bay at Norfolk, VA. Here are a few excerpts. Check out the rest on our map. And follow us on Twitter (#ecmeeting) as we follow the Executive Council meeting from Mount Vernon Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
I live on the Patapsco River in Anne Arundel County between Rock and Bodkin Points. Slag, coal and coke from Sparrows Point routinely wash up on our shores, as does trash from upstream. And that's just the pollutants we CAN see!
I live on the Chesapeake and every day, I walk on the beach. I see the debris along the tide line...everything from construction materials to landscaping fabric...devastating to our ecosystem and something must be done to control this human carelessness!
The Piankatank River is free from industrial pollution but there are many irresponsible boaters. Gas spills, harmful cleaners, and not following "no wake" regulations has taken a toll on the health of this river.
When I first moved here, 16 years ago, there were native Brook trout in Beaver Creek. Now the developers are here & the Trout, along with the farms, are gone. Beaver Creek makes its now-degraded contribution the the Chesapeake.
We live in Glebe Heights between Mayo and Edgewater in Anne Arundel Co. We love to swim in the South River but we are afraid most of the time due to the fact that every time our dog has gotten in the water he has ended up at the Vet w/ a severe skin condition.
The Shamokin Creek is polluted with acid mine drainage. There are over 60 discharges throughout the watershed, with each discharge having unique properties. Iron, manganese, aluminum, sulphur and low pH are found in unacceptable levels.
Share your waterway story and I'll add it to the map.
Yesterday, while state and federal officials met inside Union Station for their annual Executive Council of the Bay Program meeting, CBF led a rally and performance action to protest the government's slow progress on Bay restoration. Turnout was excellent -- thank you to our Bay supporters who came down to D.C. to participate!
In the park outside Union Station, 200 or so folks chanted "EPA: Don't Delay, Save the Bay." Ken Smith, president of the Virginia State Waterman's Association broke down while he spoke about the losses that the watermen are suffering.
In the words of Emily from Oceana, "Ken Smith of the Virginia Waterman's Association had to pause and choke back tears as he told the crowd about his memories of the Bay. "Those days are gone, but I'm hoping it will happen again."
CBF Board chair Keith Campbell and Sue Brown of the National Wildlife Federation stirred the crowd, and former Maryland State Senator Bernie Fowler vowed we will not give up until he can see his feet through clear Bay waters.
As CBF President Will Baker described it in an e-mail to staff last night, "Then in an unprecedented action, long lines of our ralliers in black t-shirts walked slowly and solemnly, with cameras from the media rolling, across the main floor of Union Station where the meeting was taking place. Described by onlookers as "awesome" and "eerie," the action was a powerful statement of frustration with the slowness of progress."
There's a good video on WJZ-TV's website. Photos and more video will be online soon.
If you attended the rally or happened to be in Union Station at the time, share your thoughts with us.
Photos by Nikki Davis
The period for comments on Charles County's proposed Cross County Connector closed yesterday. Thank you to all our members and friends who sent letters urging the wetland permit be denied. For those unfamiliar with the proposed highway project, Charles County would like to build a $60 million roadway connecting the malls in Waldorf with thousands of new houses planned in the Bryans Road area. The problem? The project would destroy dozens of acres of forests and wetlands in the Mattawoman Creek watershed.
Mattawoman Creek wanders for 20 miles through the forests and wetlands of Southern Maryland, from Prince George’s County across Charles County to the Potomac River.
In the springtime, the stream’s shady bends glimmer with golden strands of yellow perch eggs. Fishermen crowd the banks. Bass tournaments draw sportsmen from across the country every year to Sweden Point Marina in Smallwood State Park on the lower Mattawoman.
More than 50 species of fish breed in the creek, including rockfish, catfish, bluegill and pumpkinseed sunfish. The creek’s wooded valley also boasts the richest variety of amphibians and reptiles in the state, including marbled salamanders and southern leopard frogs, according to a report by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Because of its role as an important breeding ground for fish, the Mattawoman Creek has been recognized as “the best, most productive tributary” in the Chesapeake Bay by the state natural resources agency.
But now all of this life – and the sports fishing culture of the whole region – is threatened by the proposed four-lane highway.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, along with a number of local and statewide organizations, opposes the highway, called the Cross County Connector, because it is the opposite of “Smart Growth.” The road would spur low-density development, roughly one house per acre, in a largely forested area, away from established cities and towns. All the construction would create runoff pollution that will imperil an important watershed with exceptional biodiversity and biological productivity.
Kim Coble, Maryland Executive Director of the foundation, wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Maryland Department of the Environment in September 2008 asking them to deny permits to allow Charles County to destroy more than seven acres of wetlands to build the road.
“The loss of these natural filters through construction of the road and subsequent development spawned by construction of the road will result in additional loads of nutrients and sediments into Mattawoman Creek,” Coble wrote. “Thus, the proposed permit will significantly degrade water quality in violation of the Clean Water Act.”
CBF believes that if the state and federal agencies are to consider granting the permits, the Corps must require a thorough study – called an Environmental Impact Statement – to be conducted. The study should examine how the runoff from the road and housing construction would affect water quality, natural resources and fish in the creek.
So far, Charles County has underestimated how much development – and therefore, how much pollution – would come from the Cross County Connector.
But even the county’s own documents report that the road will “facilitate” the construction of 1,113 residential units at a density of about one unit per acre and add other developments that are “dependent” on building the road. The actual number of new housing units in the area may be much higher, reflecting the southward march of sprawl from suburban Washington.
The Bay Foundation is not the first organization to come to the conclusion that the county’s development plans in the area around the Cross County Connector would pollute the Mattawoman Creek.
The Corps, in a August 2003 report, said that runoff pollution into the stream would rise by 50 percent by the year 2020 because of all the development planned in the northern section of the county. That would have a “severe” impact on the creek because of all the additional impervious surfaces like blacktop or roofs, according to the Army Corps report.
Experts at the Center for Watershed Protection have demonstrated that covering more than 10 percent of a stream’s watershed with blacktop and other impervious surfaces causes environmental degradation. The 2003 Army Corps report projects impervious surface percentages in the Mattawoman watershed to rise to substantially more than 10 percent.
Charles County, one of the fastest growing jurisdictions in Maryland, has a population of 145,000 and county officials predict that the number will grow by nearly 50 percent by the year 2030. Since the 1990’s, county officials have been trying to direct 75 percent of this growth into a development district that takes up most of the northern section of the county around Mattawoman Creek.
The problem is, the county’s designated growth area is larger than Washington DC in a largely forested area – and it threatens one of the most biologically productive areas in the Bay watershed. This sensitive area should not be exploited for growth.
The state and county governments have been working in opposite directions around the Mattawoman Creek. Recognizing the stream’s value as a breeding ground for fish and a filter for pollutants that would otherwise run into the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland has purchased or protected about 5,900 acres of land around the creek or in the stream’s watershed in Charles County. The protected lands include the Mattawoman Natural Environment Area, immediately south of the proposed location where the Cross County Connector would be built across Mattawoman Creek.
In 1998, the state, under former Gov. Parris N. Glendening, spent $25 million to buy and preserve 2,225 acres of forested land threatened by a project called Chapman’s Landing near the western end of the proposed Cross County Connector.
Now environmental gains like this – protecting lands that serve as a natural filter for pollutants and habitat for wildlife – are at risk of being overwhelmed by the proposed highway and associated development.
That’s why CBF has asked the state and federal agencies to deny the permits necessary to build the four-lane highway that would severely damage one of Maryland’s natural treasures – the Mattawoman Creek.
“CBF believes this wetland permit should be denied,” Coble wrote to the government agencies. “We are not confident that the impacts to the natural resources that will be affected by the current proposal have been adequately quantified, nor avoided or minimized.”
By Tom Pelton, Senior Writer, CBF
Photos courtesy Mattawoman Watershed Society
