admin, Author at Center for Watershed Protection

North Branch Bennett Creek Stream Restoration Complete

The Center for Watershed Protection is happy to announce the completion of a $1.3 million, three-year project to restore over 2/3 of a mile of stream at the Bar-T Mountainside property in Urbana, Maryland. The Center managed the overall project with design and construction support from Ecotone, and the work was funded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Frederick County and Baltimore Gas and Electric. The North Branch of Little Bennett Creek flows through the 115-acre Bar-T Mountainside property, owned by Joe Richardson and operated as an outdoors summer camp and afterschool program. This project restored a 1,744-foot segment [...]

admin2020-05-26T14:44:00-04:00May 26th, 2020|

2020 National Watershed & Stormwater Conference Highlights

2020 National Watershed & Stormwater Conference Highlights From April 14th through April 16th, the Center for Watershed Protection, Inc. hosted its fifth annual National Watershed & Stormwater Conference virtually. We had originally intended to host this year’s Conference in Austin, Texas; however, in the current situation, the Center made the ambitious and difficult decision to transition the Conference to a virtual format, with each Center staff member pitching in from their homes. Even though we had to transition to a virtual format, we still wanted this year’s conference to highlight the water concerns associated with the Texas region. We were [...]

admin2020-05-13T09:33:38-04:00May 6th, 2020|

Helping Municipalities Work Together to Achieve Clean Water in the Wyomissing

Over the past seven years, the Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) has provided technical assistance to the Wyomissing Creek Watershed Coalition, a unique coalition of eight municipalities that drain to the Wyomissing Creek in Berks County, Pennsylvania. As a cold water fishery with a naturally reproducing trout population, Wyomissing Creek has a special set of TMDL requirements. These municipalities share a single wasteload allocation as identified in the 2004 sediment TMDL and they work together to meet federal and state Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) stormwater requirements. CWP initially coordinated with the Berks County MS4 Steering Committee to hold [...]

admin2020-05-13T09:33:18-04:00March 27th, 2020|

A Message from the Center for Watershed Protection Regarding COVID-19

The health and safety of our staff, partners and communities are of utmost concern to us during the COVID-19 crisis. This is new territory for us all, and CWP is closely monitoring the situation and the evaluating the impact that it has for us an organization. To date, we have taken the following steps: Employees are working remotely until further notice Where trips to the office are necessary (for checking signing, etc.) employees are following social distancing and hygiene recommendations We are continuing to monitor the situation to determine the best path for future conferences Please know that we are [...]

admin2021-03-25T11:09:21-04:00March 23rd, 2020|

Ethics and TMDLs: The ugly truth about meeting regulatory requirements

As I reflect on the New Year, I can’t help to recall my first New Year’s as an environmental professional some 40 plus years ago. It is truly amazing how the mind works in that I recall those early days quite vividly and yet struggle to remember the movie that I watched last Saturday. So why choose a subject of “ethics” and why focus on total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) when so many bigger environmental problems exist that involve ethics (e.g., climate change)? First, let’s define “ethics.” According to Merriam-Webster, ethics is “the discipline dealing with what is good and [...]

admin2020-03-20T08:46:14-04:00March 19th, 2020|

8,500 Glass Jars Create A Living Water Map Of The Towson, Maryland Area Watershed

Towson, Maryland, February 18, 2020— Earlier this year, environmental artist Stacy Levy kicked off an interdisciplinary eco-art adventure with Towson University students and faculty, a process that brought participants up close and into contact with the myriad creeks, rivers, and runs that make up their campus watershed. For over a week, collaborators studied maps, learned to read urban and suburban landscapes, and used 5-gallon buckets to collect more than 1,000 gallons of water samples from over forty Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Now, those samples fill 8,500 recycled glass jars to create a living water map branching across the floor of the [...]

admin2020-03-06T11:00:56-05:00March 4th, 2020|

Three Things You Don’t Know about Non-Profit Funding but Should

I’ve worked for the Center for Watershed Protection, a non-profit, for the past 20 years. For about half that time I have helped the Center to fundraise by submitting proposals for a variety of grant and contract opportunities from government agencies, private foundations and other sources. With this experience, I have seen that many funding entities have misconceptions about non-profits that result in unnecessarily restrictive funding policies. Non-profit organizations, particularly small ones, struggle to stay afloat and it does not help when funding entities adopt misguided policies based on a lack of understanding. So here are my top 3 things [...]

admin2020-02-10T10:55:27-05:00February 10th, 2020|

Stormwater Jobs Training Program First Environmental Program to Receive National Accreditation

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (January 23, 2020) – The Center for Watershed Protection today announced that its Clean Water Certificate (CWC) Training Program for Workforce Development, which launched in Baltimore in 2017, has gained ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) accreditation—the ANSI/ASTM E2659 accreditation for the Standard Practice for Certificate Programs. The Center’s training program, the first environmental program in the nation to receive this type of accreditation, teaches participants stormwater installation and maintenance skills and job-readiness competencies so they can secure living-wage jobs in the stormwater industry. “Becoming ANAB accredited means that our training program meets the highest of standards, so [...]

admin2020-01-24T10:00:22-05:00January 24th, 2020|

New Guide for Retrofitting Stormwater Ponds on Private Lands

Throughout the U.S., thousands of waters are listed for water quality impairments from stormwater sources. Total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) developed to address these impairments are enforced in part through municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permits, and compliance with these TMDL requires retrofitting developed lands by installing new or upgrading existing stormwater best management practices (BMPs). However, the supply of public lands on which to install retrofits is limited since the majority of land in most communities is privately-owned. As a result, MS4 entities must figure out how to also harness private lands for retrofit installation. The Center for [...]

admin2020-01-24T10:02:48-05:00January 21st, 2020|

Helping Historic New Market, MD Bring Stormwater Management into the Present

The Town of New Market, Maryland was established more than 200 years ago. As a result, runoff from the historic district (almost half the area of the Town), which was developed before the adoption of stormwater management regulations, flows untreated into storm drains and streams. Over the past two years, the Center for Watershed Protection has assisted the Town with efforts to better manage runoff from these areas to reduce pollution while also addressing other community concerns. The work began in 2017, when the Center conducted an assessment for the Town to evaluate opportunities to install stormwater retrofits that reduce [...]

admin2019-11-27T08:08:16-05:00November 27th, 2019|

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