Research

What’s in Your Storm Drain Inlet? A Study to Characterize the Loads from Inlet Cleaning

The Center for Watershed Protection, in partnership with Morgan State University, recently completed a research study for Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) to evaluate and provide recommendations to optimize their inlet cleaning program for TMDL compliance. Inlet cleaning is an element of the MDOT SHA’s plan to achieve regulatory compliance for TMDL and MS4 requirements. While there are current crediting protocols and guidance to translate material removed from inlets to nutrient and sediment load reductions, to date, there is limited research to quantify nutrient and sediment load reductions from inlet cleaning. The studies that do exist [...]

admin2020-03-19T10:04:08-04:00March 27th, 2019|

Environmental Concerns about Lead Wheel Weights

Wheel weights are used to balance car tires, and in most states are made of lead. According to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey, about 65,000 tons of lead wheel weights are in use on U.S. vehicles. About 2,000 tons of these weights fall from vehicles each year and end up in the roadway or street gutter. This creates an issue for water quality as the weights, which are made of raw lead, are worn down by traffic and can leach into local creeks. Because they are heavy, they can remain in the gutter or storm drains for many [...]

admin2019-02-26T13:54:47-05:00February 25th, 2019|

Constructing Stormwater Retrofits in Maryland: Challenges & Recommendations for Cost Estimation

The construction of stormwater retrofits has greatly accelerated within the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the past decade, as communities work to meet water quality requirements such as TMDLs and stormwater permits. The Center for Watershed Protection took a look at data from 584 stormwater retrofit projects constructed by 41 different partners over the past seven years in Maryland to see what we could learn about retrofit costs and the factors affecting their variability. We began with a dataset of projects funded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and reached out to the grantees to collect additional information on [...]

admin2019-01-23T12:05:35-05:00January 11th, 2019|

Expanding the Agricultural BMP Database

The Center has expanded the scope of peer-reviewed studies included in the Agricultural BMP Database. The Agricultural BMP Database is a long-term collaborative effort of the Water Research Foundation, the National Corn Growers Association and the United Soybean Board that provides a central repository of scientifically-based information on the effectiveness of individual BMPs for reducing sediment and nutrient pollution from agricultural sites. The long-term goal of the database is to provide agricultural planners, consultants, and producers with information that enables them to better select BMPs for their operations and to support improvements in agricultural BMP design and implementation. The work [...]

admin2021-04-02T11:31:53-04:00January 11th, 2019|

Performance Enhancing Devices for Stormwater BMPs

With the 2025 deadline for reaching water quality goals in the Chesapeake Bay fast approaching, and the estimated price tag of $7.3 billion to meet these goals in Maryland alone, new, cost-effective strategies for reducing stormwater pollution are sorely needed. The Center for Watershed Protection led a three-year project to research the capability of “performance enhancing devices” or PEDs to boost the performance of standard stormwater best management practices (BMPs) for removal of specific pollutants. This work was funded through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and included the in-kind support of Carroll County, Maryland. This project [...]

admin2018-11-28T08:02:22-05:00September 25th, 2018|

Agricultural BMP Research Needs

I was asked by Karen Cappiella, the Center’s Research Director to write a blog on research needs related to agricultural BMPs. I figure she chose me because of my agrarian roots having started my career many moons ago working for one of the local Soil Conservation Districts. Also, I happen to be a team member on a project that we are doing for the Walton Family Foundation to help improve the nutrient reduction strategies in the upper mid-west. These strategies were developed in response to the call for action by the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force. Part of our [...]

admin2017-09-22T11:41:09-04:00August 31st, 2017|

Center Awarded Research Grant to Study Trees’ Stormwater Benefits

For Immediate Release: July 25, 2017 Contact: Erin Valentine, Chesapeake Bay Trust, (410) 974-2941 ext. 113, evalentine@cbtrust.org Over $1 Million Announced to Support Stream Restoration and Stormwater Management Research (Annapolis, MD) July 25, 2017 – The Chesapeake Bay Trust, in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA), Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (Montgomery DEP), and with input from the Maryland Department of the Environment, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agency and technical partners on the Restoration Research Advisory Committee, announce six recipients of the collaborative Restoration [...]

admin2017-09-22T14:42:21-04:00April 24th, 2017|

The Center for Watershed Protection’s National Research Agenda for Watersheds

Did you know the Center for Watershed Protection has a national research agenda for watersheds? Some of you may know us for our consulting-style work helping communities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, or for our training institutes and webcasts, but the Center is also an organization with a mission that includes research to better understand the effects of land use activities on water resources and to develop best practices to prevent and mitigate these impacts. This research provides the technical and scientific foundation to support all of our other work. In a tradition begun by our former ED Tom Schueler, [...]

Chris Swann2017-09-18T09:37:37-04:00December 14th, 2016|

Chesapeake Bay Program Approves New Urban Tree Canopy BMP

Tree planting is a popular activity in the Chesapeake Bay watershed done by many local jurisdictions, watershed organizations and other groups, as well as State and Federal governments. However the existing urban tree planting BMP did not account for the variety of tree planting efforts and their associated water quality benefits. In 2015 an expert panel was formed to evaluate how sediment and nutrient removal credits are calculated for expanded urban tree canopy. Just last month the Chesapeake Bay Program accepted the recommendations and revised credit for the Urban Tree Canopy urban BMP. The newly adopted BMP credits include two [...]

admin2019-07-25T16:34:05-04:00November 17th, 2016|

Center for Watershed Protection Receives Funding from Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University

The grants are funded by the Delaware Watershed Research Fund, established with the support of the William Penn Foundation, to inform and advance on-the-ground conservation work including efforts currently underway as part of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative. JeanMarie Hartman, associate professor at Rutgers University, will lead a team from the Center for Watershed Protection and the Pinchot Institute for Conservation that will analyze municipal forest protection policies and determine which regulations are the most effective. Click here for the full press release!

admin2017-09-26T14:50:25-04:00August 16th, 2016|