Each month, we will highlight innovative, bay-oriented local actions. If you have a project that you'd like to see highlighted, please contact Catherine Shanks.
- Your River, Your Bay
- Water Pollution Begins on the Land
- What's Being Done
Not everyone lives next to a stream or river, but all of us live in a watershed. A watershed is all of the land area that drains to one point whether a stream, lake, river or the Chesapeake Bay. Whether you live right on the water--or, like most Marylanders, within a half mile of your neighborhood stream--your actions on the land can effect water quality in the streams and rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay.
Home to 14 million people, the Bay extends 64,000 square miles and includes parts of six states and the District of Columbia. Like all large watersheds, the Bay's watershed is made up of thousands of smaller watersheds that drain into its tributaries. For example, the Monocacy River Watershed is part of the larger Potomac River Watershed, which, in turn, is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
The 10 Maryland's Tributary Teams--comprised of local citizens, farmers, business leaders and government officials --are working to keep your local waterways clean and healthy.
As you may know, the health of the streams and rivers that flow through your neighborhood directly affect the health of the Chesapeake Bay. By controlling pollution upstream--in the streams and rivers that feed the Chesapeake Bay--Maryland's Tributary Teams are working to make a difference in our neighborhoods, our cities and towns, and the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Here in Maryland, major cleanup actions are now underway in ten key Bay tributaries, under the guidance of the Tributary Teams. Using a watershed approach to pollution control, these teams are tackling the nutrients that find their way into our streams and rivers from widely scattered sources on the land. Excess fertilizers from farm fields and suburban lawns, sewage from septic systems, and sediment from construction projects all can wash off the land and into our waterways every time it rains. Even pollution from our own backyards and driveways can find its way into our waterways through the network of storm drains that empty into neighborhood streams and rivers. Therefore, the way we manage growth in our towns and cities, care for our lawns, run our households, and grow our food can all affect water quality.
Each Tributary Teams meets regularly to help implement pollution prevention measures needed to address local water quality problems. These teams are laying the groundwork to ensure clean water and healthy rivers for future generations. The Teams sponsor workshops, facilitate local, state and regional policy changes, support local efforts to accelerate on the ground installation of practices and provide a forum for regional coordination on inter-jurisdictional issues and solutions. They also work to influence changes in behavior of the general public that will result in reductions in nutrients and sediment entering the streams and rivers as well as other actions to protect habitat, and improve water quality.
Developing a pollution control plan unique to each watershed, its population and its land-use patterns is no small task. Among the pollution control options being implemented in each tributary basin are upgrades to wastewater treatment plants, the planting of stream-side forests to absorb nutrient runoff, best management practices to reduce agricultural runoff and "smart growth" plans aimed at concentrating new development and protecting open spaces and natural habitat. This coordinated watershed-by-watershed approach brings the Bay cleanup closer to home for the many citizens, businesses and local governments working to protect local waterways and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
Other examples of bay-oriented local actions
- Forest Heights Green Roof Project and Zero Runoff Green Initiative
- Gunpowder Valley Conservancy Dulaney Branch Riparian Buffer Planting
- Baltimore City Watershed 263 BMP Theme Park
- The Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy: Training local leaders to guide community environmental action
