Want to see bass fishing back in the Wicomico River? Want to be able to swim in the river? Want to restore the natural landscape to protect tourism, property values, and wildlife?

Here's how:

The city of Salisbury has teamed up with WET, the Wicomico Creekwatchers, and the Center for Watershed Protection to create a watershed plan to reduce pollution entering the Wicomico River. This effort is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. We are just beginning the effort and want to tell you more about it and get your feedback about what's important to you.

What: Wicomico River Watershed Plan meeting

When: Thursday, May 31, 5:30pm

Where: Teacher Education and Technology Center (TETC), Room 153, Salisbury University

Parking is available on campus in lot A off Route 13. Sandwiches and light refreshments will be available for participants.

A watershed plan is a roadmap that a community can use to protect and restore natural resources in a watershed and prevent water pollution. A good watershed plan needs the involvement of local watershed stakeholders, who can be citizens, agencies, business representatives, activists, elected officials, landowners, and so on. Please join us to help direct this important planning effort!

For more information or to RSVP, contact Karen Lukacs, Executive Director of WET, at karenjohnsonlukacs@yahoo.com or 443-614-6697.

 

Photo courtesy of the Clean Water - It's Our Right campaign

Several weeks ago, Maryland submitted its Phase II Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) to the EPA. The plan details how the state and local jurisdictions will reduce pollution. This is our best chance in decades to make a real, lasting difference to our local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.

Developed over a two-year period with local input, this plan will ensure that we have clean, healthy water in our rivers and streams, safe places to fish and swim, protection for local drinking water and local jobs that depend on fishing and recreation.

According to a recent poll, nearly two-thirds of Maryland voters support spending more money to reduce pollution in local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay through an increase in the Bay Restoration Fund. Over three-quarters of voters support the idea of “smart growth,” and 62 percent of rural voters support restricting new septic systems.

The Maryland General Assembly is now considering a suite of bills to fund the kinds of efforts that will help reduce pollution in the Bay and our local waterways – including upgrading waste water treatment plants, septic systems and putting more money into Bay restoration activities.

It is time for all us to speak up by letting the State know we support its Watershed Implementation Plan, and by telling our legislators that we are behind their efforts to fund pollution reduction.

Senate Bill 240 (HB446) will put more money into the Bay Restoration Fund in a progressive manner, with the burden falling across all users, to finish upgrading wastewater treatment plants all over the state, as well as provide local funds to upgrade septic systems and plant cover crops.

Senate Bill 236 (HB445) will limit and help manage the proliferation of septic systems by helping local governments identify where septic systems contribute to pollution and sprawl.

Senate Bill 614 will require local jurisdictions to create a dedicated stormwater utility fee to undertake activities to reduce stormwater runoff – one of the biggest sources of pollution in our local waterways and the Chesapeake for which there is currently no dedicated funding for upgrades.

Passage of these three bills will ensure that new policies and revenue for implementing the federally-mandated Watershed Implementation Plans – local and state – are in place. All would bring needed funds to local efforts to reduce pollution.

Your voice needs to be heard! The state is taking comments on its Phase II WIP now through March 9. Please let Maryland officials know you support the Phase II WIP by emailing wipcoordinator@mde.state.md.us.

 

The local county Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans are in, and the state of Maryland made its own submission to the Environmental Protection Agency this week. You'll recall that WIPs are the plans required to reduce pollution in our own backyards, which will reduce pollution entering the Chesapeake Bay. Each county in Maryland was required to outline steps it would take to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff, agricultural activity, septic systems and wastewater treatment.

The Wicomico County Phase II WIP -- developed under the direction of the county Planning and Zoning Department, with participation from local municipalities and the agriculture sector -- is an excellent start. Compared to many other county plans, the Wicomico WIP provides a thorough analysis of the current amount of pollution entering our local waters and where target reductions will have to be made.

The county staff that developed the plan should be commended for their work, which required using new online tools, gaining understanding of best management practices (BMPs) in pollution reduction, and navigating the sometimes changing demands of the EPA and the state. Where the plan falls short is on the commitment side. Many possible strategies -- for example, creating a tree canopy program or expanding sewer services to areas where septic systems are failing -- are mentioned, but often for "further consideration" or pending future funding. On one level, this is understandable, as the planners do not have the authority to commit local funds for new initiatives.

However, if we are serious in our desire to clean up our local waterways, keep our drinking water safe, reach a point where we are able once again to eat fish from and swim in the Wicomico River and to continue to draw visitors to our beautiful natural landscape, we need to find more imaginative ways to bring needed resources to the table.

While the WIP is a state and federal requirement, it is in our own best interest to develop local capacity to work on pollution reduction activities. One model is the public-private partnership, like Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton's Wicomico River Project. Others could include an economic development and educational initiative to train people (and companies) to work in this growing sector.

This is your clean water plan. The Wicomico County Phase II WIP can be reviewed on the county's website (click here). Suggestions and revisions to the plan will be made over the next six months. You can learn more and see suggestions for ways to help on the website of the Wicomico Environmental Trust (click here). Let's work together to strengthen the plan and find ways to turn strategies into realities.

Reprinted from the Salisbury Daily Times, Dec. 14, 2011:

SALISBURY -- An ongoing effort to protect the Wicomico River from runoff has local environmentalists using trees as a first line of defense. However, urban sprawl makes finding ways to expand the city's tree canopy a daunting task.

Throughout the semester now coming to an end, a group of Salisbury University
students in George Whitehead's environmental psychology class have been
working to identify areas of the city where additional tree planting would be
advantageous.

Joan Maloof -- a SU biology professor, tree expert and member of the Wicomico
Environmental Trust -- directed the students in this effort.

"In the past, we haven't been as sensitive to tree planting as we should be, but I think that's getting ready to change now," Maloof said. "A lot of people, especially politicians, are realizing the connection between trees and the health of our waterways."

including the Salisbury Fire Department on South Division Street, the Wicomico County Library, Hebron Savings Bank on Riverside Drive and The Centre at Salisbury.

Maloof said students were not given strict guidelines regarding their chosen areas, apart from the land should be owned by the city and should not be near underground or overhead utilities.

The final report suggested 125 deciduous trees and 30 evergreen trees be planted in the proposed areas. Maloof said deciduous trees are ideal for stormwater runoff prevention because "they take a lot of water up through the roots and release it through the leaves and into the atmosphere. Some big trees can filter hundreds of gallons each day."

Because deciduous trees lose their leaves in the fall, evergreens can pick up the
slack.

These trees can range in cost from around $50 to more than $100, and it takes years for them to grow.

"A lot of the trees we are going to plant this year will be beneficial in the future, and a lot of trees we enjoy and appreciate today were planted by people who are gone now," Maloof said. "It's a very unselfish thing, to plant a tree."

John Groutt, a WET board member, said his organization is working to secure a
grant from the state or federal government to purchase trees, which will be planted by volunteers.

"Grants are out there, but we have to find them," Groutt said.

Whitehead said he has all of his classes complete a community service project, with most being environmentally focused. In the past, his students have installed bluebird boxes at Pemberton Historical Park and constructed a rain garden in Germantown,
Md.

"I like students to take a concept or two from class and go out into the world to
explore that concept," he said. "It's an opportunity for them to get to know their
community."

The tree canopy study will likely benefit the city in its effort to fulfill requirements set
forth by the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Implementation Plan, drafted by the
Environmental Protection Agency as a way to enforce the Clean Water Act. The WIP is filtered down from the EPA to the states, counties and municipalities located in the Chesapeake Bay drainage area. The municipalities draft methods they can use to implement the WIP.

Jack Lenox, director of the Department of Planning & Zoning, said aerial photographs of Wicomico County and its municipalities have been sent to a group at the University 

of Vermont, who will send back an analysis outlining how the local government can
undertake and pay for a tree canopy study.

"The study will determine what sort of tree coverage we have," Lenox said. "It will help us evaluate our goals and provide direction on how we can increase that tree cover."

Lenox added the state Forest Conservation Act will be used to cover some or all of the costs associated with the study. The law requires developers to protect a certain amount of forest or pay into a fund when trees cannot be retained on a construction site.

slake@dmg.gannett.com

410-845-4630 

In 1991, a number of local citizens became concerned when a developer started eyeing riverfront property near Tyaskin as a good site to build condominiums. Tyaskin is a small rural village located at the confluence of the Nanticoke River and Wetipquin Creek, surrounded by farmland, forests and marshes. The proposal was so out of keeping with the rural nature of the area and its traditional way of life that those concerned formed a citizens’ group to “protect and preserve the unique natural, cultural, and recreational resources of the Nanticoke River watershed.” The Friends of the Nanticoke River (FONR) was born.

In the twenty years since then, FONR – and in particular its president, Judith Stribling – has advocated for growth management to protect our natural landscape and traditional farming community, and to discourage sprawl development in the Nanticoke watershed. FONR has participated in county efforts at rural planning, land preservation, comprehensive planning, and parks and recreation planning. When necessary, it has mounted legal challenges to uphold and enforce laws protecting the river. It holds annual river cleanups, educational programs, tree plantings and more.

Yet this list, impressive as it is, does not quite capture the outsized impact that this small all-volunteer organization has had on the natural landscape and those who work to protect it. FONR was a founding signatory of the 1992 bi-state agreement that created the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, a unique partner organization that brings together representatives from industry, agriculture, business, community, environmental and government organizations to discuss issues affecting the health of the Nanticoke River and its watershed and to develop its mission through consensus.

FONR has supported and championed the work of other local environmental organizations, including my own. Dr. Stribling, a biology professor at Salisbury University, has been instrumental in creating and maintaining water quality monitoring programs on both the Nanticoke and the Wicomico rivers. Her scientific background and insistence on fact-based solutions to environmental problems have made her, and her organization, valued and trusted participants in a great variety of local initiatives, including the Mayor’s Wicomico River Project.

Many small citizens’ groups do not survive long, much less accumulate such a long list of accomplishments (see more of them at friendsofthenanticoke.org). So, as we approach Thanksgiving, the only American holiday that celebrates our connection with the land, I would like to give thanks and say “Happy 20th Birthday” to the Friends of the Nanticoke River! 

 

 

 

Editorial July 31, 2011 Salisbury Daily Times

Like all Maryland counties, Wicomico County is currently drafting a Watershed Implementation Plan, known as a WIP. The plan is required of all counties in the six-state Chesapeake Bay watershed under a new set of pollution guidelines from the EPA.

Although the overall effort is designed to improve the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay, each local plan will be a valuable blueprint for improving water quality in our own backyards. Working with representatives from Wicomico municipalities and agriculture, the county’s Department of Planning and Zoning will be considering how to reduce pollution from farms, septic systems, wastewater treatment plants and stormwater runoff. They will decide which “best management practices” or BMPs – stream restoration, the use of cover crops, planting trees, etc. – will improve our water quality. The idea is that those who know best about what will work are the ones doing the work.

We have a lot to gain from this important effort! Our drinking water will be safe and clean. Our farm produce will be safeguarded from pollution. The things we love to do – swimming, fishing and boating – will be protected. Our property values will be stable. Commercial fisheries will benefit. Tourism, based on our beautiful natural resources, will rise. We will, in short, be improving and securing our quality of life.

It’s true that we’ve been working to clean up the Chesapeake Bay for a long time, without much success. Since the Chesapeake Bay Foundation started issuing its report card in 1998, the Bay’s score has barely risen, from 27 to 31 out of 100 possible points. But we also have to consider that the Bay area’s population has doubled in the past 50 years, and 68% of that new population lives in Maryland and Virginia. Our cleanup efforts have to take this into account. The development that has accompanied that population growth has fueled our local economy for many years. It has also increased pollution levels, and now that problem needs to be addressed.

The long-term economic health of our county will be endangered and diminished if we allow our streams and rivers to become more polluted. If you want clean water – for fishing, swimming, boating, drinking, and gardening, and to preserve the natural resources and landscapes that we enjoy and depend on – let the Wicomico County Council know that you support its efforts to put together a good watershed implementation plan.

 

Karen Lukacs is the executive director of the Wicomico Environmental Trust.

 

 Editorial, June 19, 2011 Salisbury Daily Times

By Karen Lukacs

$1.2 billion is the amount that PJM and Pepco Holdings (the regional electric transmission organization and the owner of Delmarva Power, respectively) want to spend on a transmission line from southern Maryland to the Indian River power plant in Delaware. The new line -- called the Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway or MAPP -- would cross the Chesapeake Bay, travel up the Choptank River, cross Dorchester County and the Nanticoke River to a converter station in Wicomico County and on to Delaware.

PJM and Pepco insist that the new line is needed to increase the reliability of electricity delivery to the Eastern Shore. This assertion is based on earlier projections of an increase in demand for electricity -- which have not materialized -- and an analysis suggesting that some lines will fail by 2024. These potentially failing lines can be fixed for $1 million or less.

PJM and Pepco suggest that the cost of the new line will not cause an increase in rates consumers pay for electricity, because production costs will go down and the $1.2 billion price tag will be shared by all consumers in its thirteen-state region. In fact, PJM has nothing to do with production costs (it is a power transmission "grid" and does not produce power). Further, consumers will lose an invisible "congestion rebate" passed onto them when use is high. It's hard to imagine how the 20 percent per year ratepayers must absorb -- $240 million -- won't show up in our electric bills.

This is all before we consider the extensive environmental disruption and potential damage to the Chesapeake Bay, the Choptank and Nanticoke Rivers and the location of the proposed 12-acre, six-story converter station on currently undeveloped land in Wicomico County near rural Mardela Springs.

Further, the MAPP line is designed to bring more power from west to east. West is where coal is mined and burned, sending air pollution eastward.

What could $1.2 billion get us? Imagine if this amount of money were invested in the development of local biofuels, solar or wind energy instead.

The bottom line is that the MAPP project is not needed, will cost the county taxpayers money, and will defile our natural landscape. Wicomico County citizens should ask their County Council representatives why this project has been endorsed and what the county will get out of it.

» Karen Lukacs is executive director of the Wicomico Environmental Trust.

 

 

 

 

Salisbury Daily Times by Sarah Lake June 11, 2011

SALISBURY -- The Wicomico River is going on a diet.

"The Chesapeake Bay, the Wicomico River and all other rivers in the bay's watershed are going on a pollution diet," said Erik Fisher of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "When we hit our goal, we will have pollution levels that mean our rivers can be fished and swum in without worrying or caring about what you're eating or getting yourself into."

City officials, along with representatives from various local and state environmental groups, unveiled several initiatives Wednesday designed to reduce Salisbury's carbon footprint, reduce energy costs and improve the health of the Wicomico River.

Judith Stribling of the Wicomico Creekwatchers presented the group's 2010 annual report, which shows water quality improved slightly compared with previous multi-year averages in most river sections. The report states only Wicomico Creek showed no improvement over previous years.

"There was a slight improvement in just about everything, in just about every place," Stribling said, specifically referring to nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll levels, as well as water clarity.

Stribling said 2010 was the first year her group was able to conduct a clear comparison with a long-term data set; however, some results are still a little unclear.

"Schumaker Pond is one site that improved substantially over last year," she said. "But we're suspecting improvement may have more to do with the fact that (2010) was a drought year and there may not have been quite as much runoff. That's why we do these long-term monitoring studies; because over five to 10 years, you begin to see patterns."

Creekwatchers has been conducting its annual testing since 2002. The full report, as well as reports from previous years, can be seen at www.salisbury.edu/wicomico creekwatchers.

Kelly Shanahan, an intern with the Sierra Club, presented her findings after spending a semester analyzing the city's carbon dioxide output in 2009. Energy consumed by seven city entities -- buildings, streetlights, the city's vehicle fleet, the wastewater treatment plant, water delivery facilities, the marina and the daily employee commute -- was measured and analyzed by data software created by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

"It was a six-month-long math problem," Shanahan said, adding Salisbury did well compared to cities of comparable size.

The city will host another Sierra Club intern to analyze output from fiscal year 2012. The goal, according to Mayor Jim Ireton, is to reduce the city's carbon footprint by 7 percent during the three-year period.

Lori Lilly, an ecologist with the state Center for Watershed Protection, said she's been working with city employees on an Illicit Discharge Protection and Elimination Program -- an initiative aimed to find and remedy non-stormwater discharged from outfall pipes.

"From our studies, particularly on the western shore, we've been finding that illicit discharges are very significant components of the nutrient and bacteria we find in local streams," Lilly said. "If we see waterflow coming out of an outfall pipe, and it's not been raining, we try to figure out where the water came from and if it's polluted."

In partnership with the city and the Wicomico Environmental Trust, Lilly said her organization has submitted a grant to create a watershed plan for the Wicomico River. The grant, which totals $133,000, is distributed by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation.

"The plan will include a characterization of the whole watershed, then we'll focus our efforts on one, small sub-watershed, like here in the city," she said.

Karen Lukacs, executive director of WET, said one of the great barriers of doing work on the Wicomico River is there is no baseline information.

"We have to start somewhere," she said. "So this plan will provide us with a baseline of information and then, for the city itself, it will provide watershed planning and restoration activities."

Ireton presented a new program involving netting devices that will catch trash from convenience stores before it ends up in the river. The devices are similar to ones installed earlier this year on outfall pipes in the East Prong. However, the new devices will be fitted to stormwater inlets at every convenience store in the city.

"We're finding a heck of a lot of trash (from these stores) gets thrown on the ground and ends up in the river," Ireton said. "This is the type of urban environmentalism we practice in Salisbury."

Ireton also touched on the overall effectiveness of the defective wastewater treatment plant.

"Even though it doesn't do what it's supposed to do in bringing those nitrogen levels down to virtually untraceable, it's still ... a lot better than ever in the history of Salisbury," he said, adding that each day, the plant produces 1,000 pounds fewer solids than the old plant.

 

Join WET on a field trip to Slaughter Beach, Delaware, to observe the fascinating 350 million-year-old spawning ritual of the horseshoe crab. The trip takes place at the period of maximum activity, at high tide during the full moon.

When: Tuesday, May 17, departing 8:00 pm from the parking lot of the Guerrieri Center at Salisbury University (entrance from Dogwood Drive).

Cost: Salisbury University students and WET members $5; nonmembers $15

Bring: Flashlight, bug repellant, boots or waterproof shoes

Information: Contact Karen Lukacs at wet@wicomicoenvironment.org or 443-614-6697.

 

The Daily Times had an excellent article about the important victory for nature handed down by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on March 2, in deciding a lawsuit WET brought as part of our opposition to a proposed sprawl development in the southeastern corner of Wicomico County. Click here to read the article.