ANNAPOLIS, MD (October 24, 2001) – Continuing the Glendening- Townsend Administration’s historic support of environmental protection, Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend today announced Board of Public Works approval of $175,000 to shore up the banks of a tributary in Montgomery County that leads to the Anacostia River. The funding will come from the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Water Quality Infrastructure Program.

“We are taking aggressive steps to protect our environment and preserve the State’s natural resources,” said Governor Glendening. “The mid to lower sections of this watershed were developed prior to requirements for stormwater management. These new protective buffers will help filter out pollutants and other unwanted contaminants and ensure cleaner water and a safer ecological environment.”

The 6,600 foot unnamed tributary to the Northwest Branch, which crosses the Colmar Manor and Sherwood Forest subdivisions, has experienced moderate to severe erosion. The proposed project would correct stream bank erosion using a mixture of rip-rap and bioengineering techniques. Where appropriate, habitat features such as wing deflectors will be used to improve stream habitat. A streamside forest buffer will be created and another expanded as part of the project.

Excess sediment, caused by erosion, is a pollutant and can carry unwanted contaminants, like nutrients, into a stream. Extra sediment in a stream can cause a loss of habitat, aquatic and other wildlife. Over time, erosion changes the flow of a stream leading to the destruction of the natural floodplain. Erosion can be accelerated in areas of high impervious surfaces because storm water runoff can move freely and quickly to the stream. The velocity of that runoff can cut away stream banks causing the types of erosion problems exhibited at the Northwest Branch tributary.

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