Watershed

Washington County Soil Conservation District and Canaan Valley Institute are leading an effort to develop a watershed-based plan for Antietam Creek. The plan will address pollution from fecal coliform bacteria entering the creek from failing septic systems. A meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 21, at C.R. Semler Inc., 11664 Mapleville Road, Smithsburg. The workshop is free and dinner will be provided. To register, call 800-922-3601, ext. 252, by 4 p.m. Friday, June 17.

Samantha Gloria of Hawaiian Gardens, Calif., clears weeds Monday near Beaver Creek. Gloria was among a dozen AmeriCorps volunteers at the Newcomer Farm in Boonsboro doing maintenance work on stream fencing and a buffer as part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation Farm Stewardship Program. The program is designed to help farm owners install and maintain buffers and fencing along waterways that feed the Chesapeake Bay. More than 500 trees and shrubs and 1,000 feet of fencing were installed this spring in the Beaver Creek and Antietam watersheds.

BERKELEY SPRINGS. W.Va. -- The Warm Springs Watershed Association believes that protecting Warm Springs Run is important to Morgan County in many ways. Association president Kate Lehman said the Run not only should be kept beautiful and clean for future generations, but it must be protected against flooding. The Run is more than 11 miles long from U.S. 522 south at Shirley Drive and runs north to the Potomac River. It's not just inside Berkeley Springs State Park, Lehman said.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - The Eastern Panhandle Conservation District was awarded a $654,800 grant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help alleviate flooding caused by storm water runoff. The grant will benefit residents living in the Inwood, W.Va., watershed, which encompasses 2,344 acres. The watershed has been subject to flooding because of extensive development and the watershed's problematic surface and groundwater hydrology. Although no streams are in the watershed, excessive storm water runoff causes significant flooding and has the potential to cause groundwater contamination.

The Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance is an organization made up of citizens concerned for the local watershed. The mission is to protect and promote Antietam Creek through education, preservation and hands-on projects. The alliance continues to maintain updated data on the sate of the watershed and other opportunities to improve its health for everyone's benefit. Service projects and all aspects of conservation go hand in hand with the Boy Scouts. On Sept. 13, Boy Scouts from Troop 62, Chewsville, joined forces with the alliance to clear trash and other items from Antietam Creek in the third annual rubbish roundup.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced this week it is seeking information from Eastern Panhandle residents to improve water quality in the Tuscarora Creek watershed. Workshops will be held Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. in Martinsburg to help the DEP prioritize pollution reduction projects, the agency said in a press release. The first session will be in the Dunn Building cafeteria, Room 200, at 400 W. Stephen St., and the second session will be in the boardroom at the Berkeley County Public Service Sewer District offices off Edwin Miller Boulevard behind The Daily Grind.

John Rodenhausen and Beth McGee of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation stopped for a rest day in Williamsport Thursday in the middle of a 1,300-mile bike ride around the Chesapeake Bay watershed. "We started in Maryland, went up to Pennsylvania and then all the way to New York, and we are now on our southern route going back through Maryland," Rodenhausen said. "We plan to go through West Virginia, Virginia and then head up the eastern shore on into Delaware. " Rodenhausen and McGee said they were making the bike trip to raise awareness and money for health and environmental issues.

By LAURA ERNDE Staff Writer The Tri-State area's watershed has no serious problems and is not especially vulnerable to pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday. But in its first national assessment of regional water quality, the agency did say the watershed has lost a high number of wetlands and is prone to contamination from farmland runoff. More than 2,700 miles of rivers and streams in a four-state area make up the Conococheague-Opequon watershed, or drainage area.

Maryland Natural Resources Police officials Friday warned against boating and other recreational uses of the Upper Potomac River watershed. Due to recent rainfall, river levels remain hazardous for recreational use along the main stem and the lower main stem Potomac River and at Millville on the Shenandoah River. The advisory will remain in effect at least through Monday. For more information on Potomac River conditions, call the National Weather Service at 1-703-260-0305.

A one-day seminar, titled: "Geosynthetic Best Management Practices for Stormwater Management," designed for engineers, planners, contractors, inspectors and watershed association staff, will be Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Garrett College. This session, presented by the University of Maryland's T2 Center, will offer insight into sediment control and erosion prevention, runoff control and site stabilization. To register, call 301-387-3069.

Antietam Creek Watershed will host a guest speaker Thursday at 7 p.m. at Funkstown Town Hall. The topic is Becoming Bay Wise: Creating Healthy Sustainable Gardens. The presenter will be Annette Ipsan, horticulture educator for the University of Maryland Extension in Washington County Attendees can learn how to improve water quality and conserve natural resources with environmentally smart gardening practices. They will also learn the best practices for planting, watering, fertilizing, mulching and mowing.

The Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance will host the following speakers at Funkstown Town Hall, 30 E. Baltimore St. The events are free and open to the public: • Thursday, May 16  - “Recreational Fishing Opportunities on the Antietam;” learn about fishing by wading or by boat on Antietam Creek; presented by Mike Dudash, environmental educator from River and Trail Outfitters; 7 p.m. • Thursday, June 13 - “Becoming Bay-Wise: Creating Healthy,...

The Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, recently extended conservation practices funding under the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Initiative to April 19. Funding selections are made at specific times throughout the year, with the next round of funding cycle deadlines set for May 17. Applications are accepted, ranked and prioritized based...

A bill that would free up $100 million for public sewer treatment plant upgrades to meet Chesapeake Bay cleanup requirements in eastern West Virginia was advanced Tuesday by state lawmakers. Senate Bill 596 was reported to the House floor Tuesday evening after clearing the House Finance Committee earlier in the day, according to an audio webcast streamed live on the state Legislature's website. The committee passed Senate Bill 596 with a title amendment, which Jefferson County state Sen. Herb Snyder, the bill's lead sponsor, said was technical in nature and “thankfully not significant.” Twelve plants in seven of the eight Eastern Panhandle counties that feed into the Chesapeake Bay Watershed will have access to the $100 million beginning in January, if the bill passes, Snyder has said.

The national outdoor magazine Field & Stream has recognized Doug Hutzell of Hagerstown as a Hero of Conservation for his restoration efforts on behalf of Beaver Creek as part of the Beaver Creek Watershed Association. On Saturday, Field & Stream will join the restoration association and local volunteers at Beaver Creek to help with the restoration work as part of the magazine's Hero for a Day program. “We need to take care of our streams because they are a living organism,” Hutzell said.

The Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance recently was awarded a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to repair a failing stone-lined stream in a homeowner's backyard, protecting the waters that eventually flow into the Chesapeake Bay. The unnamed stream flows through private lots in Sharpsburg and carries stormwater runoff from rooftops, parking lots and roads. Decades ago, the stream was lined with stone walls and concrete bottoms to help control the direction of the water flow. However, time and increased runoff caused the walls to fail in some locations, resulting in severe stream bank erosion, which muddies the stream carrying sediments to Antietam Creek, the Potomac River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. Homeowner Chris Mullendore lives along this small stream and was concerned that the erosion would progress to where the stream eventually would swallow up the outbuilding in his backyard.

Antietam Watershed Association will be planting 250 trees and shrubs at the Mont Alto Waste Treatment Plant along Pa. 997 just south of Mont Alto, Pa., from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 27. For more information, call 717-762-9417 or go to www.antietamws.org .

Faced with a large price tag on a government mandate, the town of Williamsport is trying to raise money through an all-day rock concert. Counties and municipalities across the state are trying to figure out how to pay for a new state Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) to help protect the Chesapeake Bay by reducing nitrogen and phosphorus discharges. The plan is expected to cost Washington County and its municipalities $1.1 billion in the next 13 years in stormwater, wastewater and septic measures.

The Hancock Town Council followed the example of some other Washington County governments, voting Wednesday night to send a letter to the county's Watershed Implementation Plan Committee stating it cannot afford to spend $31 million to reduce water pollutants entering the Chesapeake Bay. “These numbers were just so astonishingly ridiculous,” Mayor Daniel Murphy said of the costs of reducing nitrogen and phosphorous pollution in the bay's watershed....

Like those in most other municipalities across Washington County, Clear Spring officials Monday night acknowledged the federal nutrient-reduction targets aimed at cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, but called the estimated $1.3 million price tag for suggested improvements financially unfeasible. Clear Spring Town Council members in June reviewed a list of potential projects that the town could undertake as part of Phase 2 improvements in the county's Watershed Implementation Plan, or WIP, that would attempt to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that makes its way to the bay by 2025.