A ratio of more than 20 students per teacher is generally considered undesirable.  In fact, 12 states have adopted laws requiring a ratio of 20 students or less per teacher.

• Flooding & Watershed Development; and
• Traffic, Development & Neighborhood Quality of Life.

• Protecting Wetlands, Streams, Lakes, Tidal Waters & Wells from the Impacts of Land Development;
• Politically Oriented Advocacy: Winning More Battles & Expanding Your Base of Support; and
• Preventing School Overcrowding & Other Development Impacts.

April 23^rd:  get some photos of stream bank erosion, free pizza and a t-shirt

 A new campaign to raise awareness about how sediment can affect water quality has launched in Frederick County. “Is This Erosion?” encourages community members of all ages to use a website and mobile phone application to share your photos of places where stormwater runoff is wearing away banks and depositing sediment into rivers and streams. Friends of Frederick County (FoFC) is calling on volunteers to participate in celebration of Earth Day 2016!  Show us your photos, win a free t-shirt and join others for pizza and to share your photos!  We will use your photos to help us determine stream protection actions to take, such as riparian plantings.

“River and stream erosion can degrade the quality of our drinking water and deprive fish, frogs and other animals of the habitat they need to live,” said Brent Walls, Upper Potomac Riverkeeper. “By participating in the #Isthiserosion? campaign, residents can learn how to recognize erosion and report it to others who can address its effects.”

Water Reporter documents and maps volunteer reports through a simple mobile app and website. Each new report help builds a comprehensive library of observations about the state of rivers and streams, including potential water quality threats or progress at correcting problems. Because volunteers are outdoors at different times and places, they can provide information that environmental groups and government officials can use to monitor river and stream health.

FoFC has had success using this mobile app to alert government officials about water pollution sources, and over 25 have been addressed with cow fencing, silt fencing, tree plantings and stream clean ups.  A FoFC partner organization, Stream Link Education (streamlinkeducation.org), raises native tree and shrub seedlings at the Scott Key Center and at Mount St Mary’s University for planting along eroded stream banks throughout the county, and has planted thousands of trees. Now, citizen reports sent through Water Reporter system provide important information on new sites that need vegetation to protect streams from erosion.

RSVP to be on Earth Day Water Reporter Volunteer Team by sending an email to [email protected] and get your instructions on how to participate and where to meet on April 23^rd 4-6pm for pizza (note no photos, no pizza!).  We need at least ten dedicated volunteers, so engage your friends and family with smart phones to use the app and take some photos.  Email us now for instructions.

We need your help!

Executive Summary

When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (Bay TMDL) out of local TMDLs for 92 individual Bay segments in 2010, reactions were polarized. Supporters of Bay restoration hoped this unprecedented, legally enforceable, multi-state approach would break the gridlock and compel compliance with a “pollution diet” that would restore the world-famous estuary from its continued state of degradation and ever-present dead zones. After all, billions of dollars in state and federal funding and decades of previous “cooperative” efforts had repeatedly failed to reach their stated goals, rendering an enforceable TMDL framework the only remaining option. Even opponents of the significant expenditures required to meet the Bay TMDL pollution reduction goals seemed to share the view that this time would be different. As EPA, the seven Bay jurisdictions – Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia – and the Chesapeake Bay Program began work on implementing the Bay TMDL in 2010, affected industries hurried to the courts, legislatures, and media, seeking to overturn the TMDL and obstruct EPA and state regulators from pursuing their commitments under the new framework. To its credit, EPA vigorously defended the TMDL in federal court, twice triumphing. The agency also deflected the most destructive legislative efforts to undermine implementation of the TMDL. However, EPA has no time to rest on its laurels. Instead, EPA must recognize another, equally potent threat to Bay restoration. The seven Bay watershed jurisdictions are lagging far behind in implementing the Bay TMDL….

Read the report, and the recommendations.  In summary, they are:

1. Pennsylvania’s failure to uphold its commitments jeopardizes the entire Bay TMDL.

2. Agriculture is the largest pollution source and the most promising and cost-effective sector for future reductions. Accelerating progress means solving the manure crisis.

3. The Bay TMDL is vital to water quality for communities located far from the Chesapeake Bay.

4. The model is not perfect, but is good enough to show where more progress is needed.

5. Too much Bay pollution is unregulated or under-regulated. States must close this gap.

With generous support from Wells Fargo, Friends of Frederick County has launched the “Clean Water – Healthy Kids” campaign to clean streams, plant trees and help residents understand the connection between clean streams, drinking water, health and civic pride.

We invite you to be part of the Rock Creek clean up team.  

There will be four  2-hour clean ups this Fall.  Please choose one that works for you, your family, your friends, your church group, club or affiliated organization. Working on this campaign is a great way to get community service hours.   

Posted: Thursday, September 5, 2013 2:00 am

While Farrell Keough makes some good points on environmental decision-making authority in his Aug. 19 letter to the editor, I would add that the general public can also contribute to making our environment cleaner and healthier.

Recently I learned about a Friends of Frederick County project that engages citizens to take a look at streams and their condition (where visible, from public roads); if there is a problem with the stream such as trash, an erosive hillside, farming up to the stream bank or cows in the creek, the individual snaps a photo and sends it in.  Read the rest.

“Far too much nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution choke the Chesapeake Bay, making it impossible to sustain a healthy watershed. To restore the Bay and protect aquatic life, users will have to meet a pollution diet – a diet that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already set by establishing “Total Maximum Daily Loads” (TMDLs) to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loadings to the Bay by 25% by 2025, and sediment loadings by 20%.1 Measured in pounds, that means decreasing the nitrogen that flows to the Bay by more than fifty million pounds a year; phosphorous by more than three million pounds; and sediment by more than one and a quarter billion pounds.”