Stormwater Partners Network

For all of you interested in the County’s Natural History, check this blog: http://mocobio.wordpress.com. Very interesting items about stream monitoring and vernal pools. 

It seems to be a standard practice to put a sign up where a major road crosses over a stream.  For example, there are signs on I-495 the Capital Beltway at the places where it crosses over the Northwest Branch and Sligo Creek.

This sign below for the Paint Branch at Route 29 near White Oak is a little better.  Not only does the sign show the stream name but also an image of what appears to be the Middle Potomac region, as defined by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

These signs could be improved to help spread the message that Sligo Creek, Northwest Branch, and Paint Branch are part of the Anacostia River watershed, given the role that Maryland residents must play to restore the Anacostia.  One way might be to include the word “Anacostia” as well as the local stream name.  Another way may be to create and use a uniform logo on all the signs for these Anacostia watershed streams.   It would be great if Maryland started putting as much effort into the signs for the Anacostia watershed streams as it has done for the Intercounty Connector.

Ten Mile Creek, in the Clarksburg Master Plan Stage IV (Upper Little Seneca), is a high-quality, drinking water and trout stream in a beautiful rural watershed — but will it remain this way in the face of massive development projects that are on the drawing boards?

Ten Mile Creek is a Special Protection Area, and has been shown by ANS and DEP monitoring over many years to be among the County’s most healthy and biodiverse streams.  Recognizing the importance of protecting this creek, the Council set much of its watershed aside in the Clarksburg Master Plan in 1994 as “Stage IV” and highlighted a set of option including land use planning protections.  These options are supposed to be triggered by the build-out of the other Clarksburg stages, which has now occurred.

To be used effectively in protecting Ten Mile Creek, part of our backup drinking water supply (Little Seneca Reservoir, which the Creek feeds into), all of this data-gathering and the prior protection commitments must be reflected by the Council and County Executive in key decisions this summer:   the proposed 22-impervious-acre bus depot must be moved out of this watershed and to a truly Smart Growth greyfield site, and the proposed 1600 housing units in 3 subdivisions must be scaled down.

Please plan to attend the Planning Board hearing on the Clarksburg Master Plan, Stage IV set for Thursday, July 9.  for more information:  Diane Cameron:   dcameron@audubonnaturalist.org or Dolores Milmoe:  f.a.r.m@erols.com

The U.S. Geological Survey  stream gage on Sligo Creek is now up and running for the first time this week.  The gage is located upstream of Maple Avenue in Takoma Park.   Since last October when the gage was installed , U.S.G.S. staff scientists have been working at the site to find the relationship between the water surface height, as shown by a bobber, and the amount of water going by in the stream at a given time.   Now for the first time this week, it seems that the relationship has been found with enough confidence for these water discharge values to start to be posted on the site.

Now that the gage is working, it will be a useful tool for showing over time whether efforts to reduce the effect of stormwater in the watershed are successful.

Here is Diane Cameron holding the Sentinel Award on behalf of the Stormwater Partners Network with Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection Director Bob Hoyt.  The award is given annually by the Montgomery County Civic Federation to an individual or group, typically outside government, for contribution to good government at the local level.