Stormwater Partners Network

This is forwarded from the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection:

The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will host a regional public meeting to discuss the state of the county’s streams.  The public will be encouraged to provide input on watershed-specific restoration plans that address stream pollution in their area and meet new stormwater permit requirements.

The meeting will focus on restoration approaches in the West-Central region which includes Lower Monacy, Potomac River tribuatries (including Muddy and Watts Branch) and Seneca Creek watersheds.  It will be held on Saturday, February 27 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Seneca Valley High School, 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown.

For more information, see the attached flyer or go http://montgomerycountymd.gov/dep and click on “Stormwater Permit (MS4)”.

Regards,

Montgomery County Stormwater Restoration Implementation Strategy Team

The Stormwater Partners have been very active this summer, with recent meetings with Montgomery County DEP, DPS, Parks, and Planning officials on stormwater code changes, toughening up on erosion and sediment control violators, and stewardship of our Parks.  There is also ongoing interest in the greening of our MCPS school grounds.  All of this and more will be discussed at our upcoming meeting at the end of July:

Stormwater Partners Meeting
Tuesday, July 28 at 7:30 pm
Izaak Walton League
Rockville Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America
18301 Waring Station Road, Germantown, MD 20875

(Thanks to Tom Vegella of the IWL Rockville Chapter for hosting this meeting)

 For more information:     

Steve Dryden  jsdryden@comcast.net or Diane Cameron  dcameron@audubonnaturalist.org

Please forward this message to your group’s email list — all are welcome!  Thanks!

More information:
This will be a joint meeting of the Izaak Walton League (Rockville Chapter) with the Montgomery Stormwater Partners, a coalition of all the watershed stewardship groups and other watershed activists in the county (more info at stormwaterpartners.org).  Please forward this message to your group’s member lists - we love to welcome new people interested
in getting active on watershed and stormwater issues! We’ll brief you on the latest decisions affecting water quality in our County:  tightening local stormwater regulations to incorporate Environmental Site Design; cracking down on sediment control violations at construction sites, school and park land stewardship; opposing artificial turf; protecting Ten Mile Creek (in Little Seneca); a possible county watershed conference in 2010.  SWP is very interested in hearing from Seneca Creek residents about their take on these issues, and other matters of concern. SWP would also like to know anything it can do to assist Seneca activists in their various initiatives.

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 Maryland Department of Natural Resources Stream Waders program has designated Seneca Creek, Cabin John Creek, and Rock Creek as some of the Maryland streams they would like for citizen volunteers to monitor during the index period of March and April.   This program is the citizen volunteer component of the Maryland Biological Stream Survey and has been found in studies to have reliability comparable to professional monitoring.   

The closest training session to the area is on February 21st at the Patuxent 4-H center in Upper Marlboro.   Stream Waders is a great way to learn about the water quality of these streams. Check out http://www.dnr.state.md.us/streams/mbss/w_new.html for more information.

     As part of the Attorney General’s audit of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler will visit Gaithersburg and Great Seneca Creek on Thursday, December 11, 2008.  Gaithersburg will be the Attorney General’s fourth stop on his statewide tour of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

     Attorney General Gansler will spend the day in Gaithersburg to hear firsthand from local environmental leaders, residents, students and elected officials about the challenges facing the Great Seneca Creek watershed. Protecting the environment and holding polluters accountable is the Attorney General’s top priority.  The information gathered during the audits of individual rivers provides valuable information in identifying polluters and problems faced.  This information is essential in the Attorney General’s efforts to enforce the laws and assists in designing creative solutions to environmental issues. 

     As part of the Audit, Attorney General Gansler will visit an enforcement site and receive briefings on various environmental issues in the Great Seneca Creek watershed.  The Great Seneca Creek Audit will conclude with a Town Hall Meeting at Bohrer Park at 5:00 p.m. in the Activity Center, located at 506 South Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg MD 20877.  The public is invited to attend the Town Hall meeting.  This is an opportunity for citizens to share their concerns about the health of Great Seneca Creek and any other environmental issues in the community.

Great Seneca Creek Audit
Town Hall Meeting
5:00-6:00 p.m.
Activity Center at Bohrer Park
506 South Frederick Avenue
Gaithersburg, MD 20877