Stormwater Partners Network

Decades of rapid development and suburban sprawl throughout Maryland have burdened the state’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters with increasing amounts of polluted stormwater runoff. In 2007, the state took a major step towards reversing this growing threat by passing a law requiring the use of Environmental Site Design (ESD) to reduce runoff from all development and redevelopment projects.  As a result, localities throughout the state must adopt an ordinance that requires sustainable stormwater management practices. As communities begin to formulate and implement these ordinances, it is essential that they incorporate the strongest possible protections to preserve and restore clean water for future generations. Moreover, by better integrating the built and natural environment, ESD also reduces flooding and the burden on existing, conventional infrastructure. This document describes the benefits of sustainable stormwater practices and details the key elements of a strong stormwater ordinance that will meet the clean water challenges we face using innovative and costeffective techniques.

This document can also be found on the American Rivers website at http://www.americanrivers.org/assets/pdfs/clean-water-/clean-water-for-maryland.pdf.

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.

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 River Basin, 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.  This sign has a uniform logo, and provides a web address, a telephone number, and a radio frequency to check for information.