admin, Author at Center for Watershed Protection

The Need for Headwater Protection and High-Elevation Stormwater Controls

Headwater streams and wetland areas are the birthplace of our surface water resources. They constitute the greatest percentage of total stream length in a river system. They are vitally important for providing clean and cold water, habitat, and flood control; however, they can only provide such services if they are protected from disturbance. Headwater streams offer the greatest opportunity for interaction between water and land; and it is with this interaction that numerous biological, chemical, and physical processes are constantly occurring to clean stormwater runoff. These are the processes which are responsible for maintaining water quality downstream. I am a [...]

admin2017-09-30T10:58:31-04:00July 11th, 2013|

Filtering Runoff Phosphorus with a Phosphorus Removal Structure

Dr. Josh McGrath (University of Maryland) and I have started a blog on the step-by-step design and construction of a phosphorus removal structure, which is essentially a large landscape filter. The motivation for this technology is that phosphorus is typically the most limiting nutrient in surface waters, and therefore eutrophication. Location of the blog: http://p-structure.blogspot.com The purpose of that blog is to provide a case-study example of designing and constructing a phosphorus (P) removal structure, step by step. A P removal structure is intended to filter dissolved P (DP) from runoff using industrial by-products, before the runoff reaches a surface water [...]

admin2020-03-28T12:19:40-04:00June 26th, 2013|

Stream Restoration Crediting for Meeting Sediment and Nutrient Goals in the Chesapeake Bay

How do you estimate sediment and nutrient load reduction benefits associated with stream restoration and keep your sanity, self-respect and professional integrity? This was a question posed to a Panel of Experts brought together by the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) and jointly facilitated by the Center for Watershed Protection and Chesapeake Stormwater Network. The CBP uses an expert panel process to review and update the sediment and nutrient removal performance of Best Management Practices to provide “planning level” estimates in meeting load reduction targets established by the sediment and nutrient TMDLs for the Bay. The Stream Restoration Panel of Experts [...]

admin2017-09-18T09:20:12-04:00May 31st, 2013|

Chesapeake Bay Program Approves New Stream Restoration Protocols for Estimating Sediment and Nutrient Load Reductions

By Lisa Fraley-McNeal, Center for Watershed Protection, Wednesday May 29, 2013 The new protocol recommendations for the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Modeling Team for redefining removal rates for individual stream restoration projects were accepted by the Water Quality Goal Implementation Team – the final step in the review process of urban BMPs. The recommendations are the result of work done by the Center for Watershed Protection and the Chesapeake Stormwater Network to include a better method to estimate sediment and nutrient load reductions associated with stream restoration projects. The revisions imply a much greater credit reduction rate than is currently approved. [...]

admin2017-09-27T09:46:18-04:00May 29th, 2013|

The Center for Watershed Protection Advances in Providing Stormwater and Watershed Management Resources with New Website Features and Enhanced Membership Benefits

The Center for Watershed Protection advances in providing stormwater and watershed management resources with new website features and enhanced membership benefits Ellicott City, MD April 30, 2013 The Center for Watershed Protection is making it easier for thousands of practitioners to quickly identify their water resource challenge and find a variety of approaches and solutions that are practical and affordable – all in one place. The Center is launching a new website with expanded news, more frequent installments of the peer-reviewed Watershed Science Bulletin and a regular blog on hot topics in the industry. The improvements are especially helpful to [...]

admin2017-09-27T09:48:51-04:00April 30th, 2013|

What is Green Infrastructure?

About a year ago, I wrote in the Center’s Runoff Ramblings about some thoughts on green infrastructure . . . Before "Green Infrastructure," there was low impact design, environmentally sensitive site design, conservation design, smart growth, and new urbanism. These concepts are certainly not all synonymous with each other, but they do share similar tenets of reduced environmental impacts…The different definitions of Green Infrastructure have been at the center of this morass. Recently, EPA defined green infrastructure as "an approach to wet weather management that is cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly" (retrieved on December 27, 2011 from (http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/home.cfm?program_id=298). The traditional [...]

admin2017-09-30T10:39:40-04:00April 18th, 2013|

Rivanna Watershed Snapshot Shows Progress, Room for Improvement

By: Laura Ingles, C-Ville, December 21, 2012 The Rivanna River was recognized in 2000 as a “national treasure,” and local organizations want the waterway to maintain its value. The Rivanna River Basin Commission (RRBC)—a regional organization representing Charlottesville and Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Green counties, that recommends programs for enhancement of the river and its watershed—recently released the 2012 Rivanna Watershed Snapshot to bring attention to its current condition and encourage future preservation. The RRBC partnered with other organizations, like the Center for Watershed Protection and StreamWatch, to compile the 12-page document. Local waterway monitor StreamWatch collected the scientific data, and [...]

admin2017-09-27T09:52:18-04:00December 21st, 2012|

Consultants to Track Sources of Waterway Contamination

Small Patapsco watershed project part of Chesapeake Bay cleanup, by Arthur Hirsch, The Baltimore Sun, November 29, 2012 On good days, the Tiber Hudson tributary of the Patapsco is a pleasant part of the scenery in Historic Ellicott City as it flows through a stone channel by Tonge Row, beneath Tiber Alley alongside Main Street and past the B&O Railroad Museum before it spills into the river. It’s a troubled waterway nonetheless, not considered able to support life, paved over in spots and surrounded by lots of asphalt. The urban and suburban surroundings that drain into the Tiber Hudson — its [...]

admin2017-09-27T09:53:55-04:00November 29th, 2012|

Catching Raindrops to Keep Waterways Healthy

By: Deborah Courson Smith/Deb Courson Smith, Public News Service – MD, November 19, 2012 WASHINGTON – If the rain falls on you, you have to keep it. At least most of it. That’s the gist of the rules dealing with rainwater runoff in Washington, D.C. Program manager Greg Hoffmann at the Center for Watershed Protection in Baltimore explains that storm water picks up pollutants and sediment as it moves to, and through, storm drains and sewers, and there are rules on the books that require control of that pollution. CWP just finished a guidebook to help project designers abide by [...]

admin2017-09-27T09:55:31-04:00November 19th, 2012|

The Scoop on Poop: Pet Waste a Major Polluter of Urban Waterways, Studies Show

By: Clara Vaughn, Capital News Service, Maryland Gazette, October, 28, 2012 When you fail to pick up after your pooch, you may be doing more than irking the next-door neighbors. Studies conducted over more than a decade in watersheds across the state have found that pets produce up to one-third of bacterial pollution in waterways near developed areas. That’s right. Dog poop is the source of startling amounts of E. coli, Giardia, salmonella and other microscopic pathogens in local waters. All three of the Anne Arundel County waterways permanently closed by bacterial pollution, Furnace Branch, Marley Creek and Rock Creek, [...]

admin2017-09-27T09:59:21-04:00October 28th, 2012|

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