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The Maryland Department of the Environment and Volunteer Maryland, an AmeriCorps program of the Governor’s Office, have developed MDE’s first long-term volunteer program to focus attention on a region-wide environmental need: the preservation of the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland’s waterways. MDE is seeking talented, energetic students and citizens to join the innovative Volunteer Enforcement Corps program to fight sediment pollution.
Volunteer Enforcement Corps participants will work with MDE to monitor and prevent sediment pollution caused by stormwater runoff, one of the major contributors to the degradation of Maryland’s waterways. Corps volunteers will audit construction site inspection logs, required under the MDE’s General Permit for Stormwater Discharge Associated with Construction, to ensure the logs are in compliance and not allowing pollution into local waterways.
The program is using online mapping systems to produce an easy-to-interpret, colorful, and interactive way of displaying data that ties all of the data sources together in one easily accessible location. This will turn a time and resource intensive task into a streamlined process allowing for swift enforcement action and remediation of any pollution. Reductions in sediment pollution will help to improve Maryland’s waterways for people and for native wildlife, including the iconic blue crab.
The Volunteer Maryland Coordinator and MDE are building partnerships with local high schools and colleges so students can use their time spent volunteering with MDE to fulfill their schools’ service requirements.
This new volunteer program is an exciting opportunity for Marylanders to work with MDE and to better understand how their government works for them. It also helps MDE be more efficient and timely with our work and gives volunteers a chance to make a real difference in protecting our waterways.
This page has been edited since publication.
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