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Trash-Free Potomac River

Clean up trash along streams, roads and trails to help us meet our goal of a Trash-free Potomac River.

Check out a Google map of the County’s trashy hotspots that we need your help to clean up! We have identified sites along roads, creeks, and trails that have been unfortunately marred by litter and trash. This is a serious problem because this trash is carried by rainfall runoff directly into our streams and into the Potomac River. Trash in the water is unsightly and unhealthy. Consider that the Potomac River is the County’s primary source of drinking water!

On April 4 2009, DEP is supporting the regional Annual Potomac Clean Up Day sponsored by the Alice Ferguson Foundation! Please register your group of clean up volunteers on their site, and choose one of the sites we have identified to clean up!

Talkback Line:
Tell us which site you are cleaning up!
Tell us about other trashy sites we should list for clean up!

Enlist your group in the County’s Adopt a Road Program to keep your neighborhood roads clean on an ongoing basis.

What is a watershed?

How can I help protect my watershed?

Public Involvement

Watershed & Community Action Groups

Watershed Restoration Homepage

Biological Monitoring
DEP has conducted an assessment of conditions in its 1,500 miles of streams through an intensive effort which evaluated data from over 200 monitoring stations.

Maryland Water Monitoring Council
The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection participates in the Maryland Water Monitoring Council, which consists of numerous local, State, and Federal agencies in Maryland, as well as universities, consulting companies, and non-governmental volunteer organizations. The main goal of the Council is to foster collaboration and cooperation among groups involved in water-monitoring activities in Maryland. The Council's annual conference is scheduled for December 4; information about the annual meeting can be found at http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/mwmc/

Watershed Restoration
Watershed restoration is the process of returning damaged streams to conditions that are healthier, cleaner, and more natural for wildlife and aquatic life and people. Better streams and rivers means an improved quality of life for those who live, work, and play in the community. Restoring and rehabilitating streams brings many benefits to the entire county as well as to neighborhoods adjacent to streams.

Special Protection Areas
Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are places where existing water resources or other environmental features directly relating to water resources are of high quality or unusually sensitive; and where proposed land uses would threaten the quality of preservation of those resources or features in the absence of special water quality protection measures which are closely coordinated with appropriate land use controls.

Watershed Studies

DEP’s stream monitoring program evaluates the health of all streams within Montgomery County watersheds. We do this by monitoring the fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in County waters. The animals we find in our streams have survived through all the many different impacts that have occurred during their life span. As such, they are a reliable measure of the cumulative impacts that have affected the stream they reside in. Simply put, these animals must survive or die.

By comparing measures of their community structure and function to those found in fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities in the best remaining, least impacted reference streams in the County and immediate vicinity, ecologists can measure the stream condition using four narrative classes: Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor. For example, Excellent is comparable to the 50th percentile condition of all reference streams.

DEP prepares Watershed Reports that present summaries of all monitoring data done in a watershed as part of the County’s rotating watershed monitoring and assessment program. The reports identify problem areas within the watershed, likely causes of the problem, and recommended follow-up actions to better identify and correct the problem. Each report will contain summary information about the fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities, stream habitat, some water chemistry, and some geomorphological information in an effort to describe the current condition in the watershed. While still a summary, these reports go into more detail than space allows in the Countywide Stream Protection Strategy, and are provided for those interested in more information on specific county watersheds.

Follow the links to available watershed reports. In time, reports will be provided for all county watersheds. For more information, please email askdep@montgomerycountymd.gov. Broad Run Watershed Study
Cabin John Watershed Study
Dry Seneca Watershed Study Great Seneca Creek Watershed Study
Horsepen Watershed Study
Little Monocacy Watershed Study
Little Paint Branch Watershed Study NW Branch Watershed Study
Upper Patuxent Watershed Study

Countywide Stream Protection Strategy
DEP has conducted an assessment of conditions in its 1,500 miles of streams through an intensive effort which evaluated data from over 200 monitoring stations. Click above to access a directory of documents pertaining to this initiative, including the original 1998 CSPS and revised 2003 version.

NPDES
In 1990, the EPA established the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit program to specifically control urban stormwater. These permits are part of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) established under the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972. The primary goal of the CWA was to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters.

Pet Waste: Know Your Pooper-Scooper Law
Pet waste left to decay on sidewalks, lawns, or common areas is a stinky mess! Rain and melting snow can wash feces into stormdrains, which flow directly into streams or ponds and cause a host of water quality problems. It’s not only a filthy situation, it’s also unhealthy for people and the environment. Pet waste can contain bacteria and parasites that severely sicken people, pets, and wildlife.

Stormwater Facilities & Pollution Prevention
Stormwater facilities must be respected and maintained to prevent flooding, stream erosion, costly repairs, and a decline in the health of our waterways and communities.

Stream Monitoring
County monitoring crews have been working to complete baseline monitoring of all county watersheds on a five year schedule. The data from over 200 monitoring stations were analyzed to provide coverage for each of the county's 22 major watershed groupings, and many of the component 200 subwatersheds.

Upper Patuxent River & Reservoirs
Interesting facts and figures regarding this watershed and its resources.