Anne Arundel County continues to engage local non-profit groups to undertake projects that implement state-of-the-art stormwater practices. This past year, the Anne Arundel County Watershed Restoration Grant Program awarded more than $670 thousand in funding for water quality restoration projects. Since 2015, the program has provided more than $2.8 million in grants to help local communities reduce flooding issues and enhance local water quality.
“The best way to clean up our waterways is to get our communities involved,” said County Executive Steuart Pittman. “By working directly with residents and local nonprofits, we are making real progress in reducing pollution and improving the health of our rivers, creeks, and streams.”
Currently, there are three major grant-funded projects under construction throughout the County. In Severna Park, the Berrywood Community Association and the Watershed Stewards Academy have teamed up to restore a section of Cattail Creek – a tributary to the Magothy River – and to replace the community’s bulkhead with a living shoreline.
The South River Federation is working to restore 4,350 linear feet of stream in the Bacon Ridge Natural Area in Crownsville using a low-impact log jam technique, which mimics the natural impacts of beaver dams.
Additionally, the Asbury Broadneck United Method Church near Cape St. Claire is working with the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to address erosion of a channel that feeds into Whitehall Creek – which feeds the Severn River – and to retrofit a stormwater pond at Broadneck Park. The project will also help protect the Church’s grave stones and grave sites, which have been damaged by flooding in the past.
Each of these projects has also leveraged grant funds from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, representing an innovative partnership between local and state government, non-profit implementation organizations, and private property owners.
The Anne Arundel County Watershed Restoration Grant Program was created in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Trust, to engage local nonprofit organizations, landowners, and communities in efforts to restore the County’s waterways, to provide resources to these groups, and to assist the County’s efforts to meet the requirements of its state and federal stormwater permit and local waterway restoration plans. The program has helped fund 21 community-based restoration projects since 2015. Individual project funding ranged from $15,000 to $377,000. In addition, grantees leveraged an additional $3,400,993 in matching or in-kind funding for these community-driven projects.
The Watershed Restoration Grant Program is currently open for applications through February 28, 2019. Find more information at www.aarivers.org.
The WPRP, a division of the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works Bureau of Engineering, is responsible for implementation of the County’s stormwater restoration project strategies that meet mandated federal and state water quality requirements. For more information about the WPRP, go to www.aarivers.org.
