2023

We created a backyard rain garden to attract butterflies and hummingbirds while managing water from our house and driveway. The choice of a rain garden was motivated by examples at Olney Elementary School and by our county’s RainScapes program. The garden is a fully DIY “COVID project” that took two years from initial research to final inspection, with actual construction in July-December 2022.

Through the RiverSmart Homes Program, a single mother at 700 Geranium Street NW wanted to reclaim her backyard while managing more than 4,000 square feet of runoff from her neighbors’ properties. Together, we removed 1,000 square feet of impervious surface, installed a 100 square-foot rain garden, and planted two trees on the property. This transformed a paved yard with an open culvert into a functional space for the residents and now provides ample opportunity for stormwater to absorb in the yard before running into the MS4.

Pollution from storm water runoff is a leading contributor to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The Master Watershed Stewards of York County, PA, organize the Street 2 Creek Storm Drain Art Project. Using an annual artist contest, project leaders use artwork around drains to raise citizen awareness and help educate the York community about the connection between storm drains and local creeks. The painted drains lead the way from the Codorus Creek to the Royal Square district in the City of York.

The Montgomery Parks Volunteer Services Office (VSO) first hosted the Clean Waterways Art Contest in 2021 to connect with local artists and educate the public about stormwater pollution through painting storm drain murals in Montgomery County. Among the entries was a painting by a local environmental artist Pamela Gordimer featuring Ruby the Recycling Octopus, an iconic character created to raise awareness about the effects of litter as a result of stormwater runoff. The painting, titled “Ruby’s Quest”, was painted alongside volunteers and was just the start of a successful partnership between a local artist and Montgomery County Parks (Montgomery Parks). Together, Montgomery Parks and Pamela Gordimer have reached over 100 volunteers over the past two years throughout Montgomery County.

The Woody Ward Community Center stormwater retrofit project aimed to mitigate the impacts of a buried stream and the build environment by restoring the landscape in a way that replicates the services of a natural system, through the various retrofit and restoration techniques employed throughout the project.

An asphalt traffic intersection in Colmar Manor, MD, (38.935080, -76.948532) was replaced with PaveDrain heavy-duty permeable pavement, along with an in-situ water level sensor for performance monitoring. In the two years since it was installed the system is functioning as a roadway and stormwater BMP without maintenance, representing a commitment to environmental justice in this economically disadvantaged neighborhood. Furthermore, the use of sensors has documented stormwater performance well in excess of expected, suitable for crediting towards local stormwater compliance.

The city refocused its Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE) program to target inspections of commercial facilities that have the potential to discharge pollutants into our storm drains and streams. Traditionally, the city inspected 30 percent of outfalls to look for IDDEs. IDDEs were rarely identified, so with MDEs approval we requested to refocus our efforts towards inspecting commercial businesses and eliminating pollution at its source.

The City of Havre de Grace created an Open-End Contract for Design & Build Ecological Regenerative and Restoration Projects in 2020 to improve program delivery for its Phase II MS4 permit. Since the program’s inception, four projects have been completed (additional projects are in progress), over $4 million in grants have been awarded, and hundreds of pounds of nutrients have been kept out of the Susquehanna River. Additionally, this program enabled the City to meet its Phase II MS4 Permit goals well in advance of its deadline.

The Meadowbrook Riparian Enhancement project is a notable example of the type of restoration work implemented on parkland to reclaim historically modified landscape to provide stormwater treatment wetland habitat, enhance the riparian buffer and provide carbon sequestration to aid in the climate resilience of the county. The project transformed half an acre of a mowed turf area into a naturalized riparian buffer with native plantings of 90 trees, 50 shrubs, and 5000 herbaceous plugs. Approximately a quarter of an acre was regraded to create wetland habitat.

The Ray’s Meadow wetland creation and riparian buffer planting project consisted of removing 250’ of pipe and daylighting a drainage channel into a system of floodplain wetland planted with over 4,000 native herbaceous plugs and planting one acre with 200 native trees. This project will provide over an acre of restored floodplain directly adjacent to Rock Creek in a heavily developed area. In addition, the project is located along the Rock Creek trail providing excellent public access.

The Glenmont Forest Green Streets project was completed by the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection to reduce stormwater runoff and pollutant loading to the receiving stream and to help meet the County’s MS4 permit and TMDL requirements. This innovative green streets project installed ESD stormwater management facilities along residential streets throughout the Glenmont Forest and Wheaton Hills neighborhoods, within the existing public right-of-way. Working with a dedicated community and local nonprofits, Montgomery County DEP completed this retrofit to add ESD stormwater facilities within a developed urban environment with minimal existing stormwater infrastructure to provide water quality improvement and enhance neighborhood aesthetics.

The Willow Pond Retrofit and Stream Restoration project included the retrofit of the existing wet pond stormwater management facility to an innovative gravel lens system that would filter water through gravel and underdrains, reducing the water temperature discharged from the facility. The project included 1,700 linear feet of stream restoration along with restoration of the natural floodplain. The design utilized a structure engineered to intercept the floodway, diverting flood flows into the stormwater pond, while still maintaining the base stream flow within the channel.

Prince George’s County Department of the Environment (DoE) partnered with GV-Petro Joint Venture, LLC (which is a joint venture of GreenVest, LLC and Petro Design Build, LLC) and Maryland-National Capital Parks & Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) to implement the Tinkers Creek Stream Restoration Project; an ambitious, innovative, and complex undertaking that stabilized eroding stream channels, re-connected the floodplain and its associated wetlands, improved habitat for terrestrial and aquatic species, and engaged a diverse community through outreach programs to enhance access to this valuable community amenity. The restoration of perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral stream reaches promoted stability and resiliency in both the stream resources and riparian buffers and delivered a suite of co-benefits including critical utility and infrastructure protection, public and private property stabilization, management of invasive plant species, and reductions in nuisance flooding. As one of the largest stream restoration projects in the State of Maryland at over 40,000 linear feet, this project reduces sediment loading to the Chesapeake Bay by over 4,000,000 pounds per year and represents a successful partnership between public and private entities and a success for the local community and Chesapeake Bay.

Nature Forward, SMC and the Center for Watershed Protection worked together to design and construct a step pool system to stabilize a deeply incised stream bed at Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, MD. The thoughtful design minimized tree loss and overall site disturbance, interrupted downstream pollution, restored base flow by connecting to the existing floodplain and enhanced in-stream and riparian wildlife habitat. The project improved public access and educational infrastructure for people of all abilities with a stormwater-permeable, wheelchair-accessible nature trail, a complex of accessible boardwalks around an in-line pond, and weirs that double as stream crossings.