Published in the Annapolis Capital this week:

Projects aim to reduce sediment entering West, Rhode rivers

By Megan Brockett

West & Rhode Riverkeeper, Inc. and its partners are set to wrap up two streambed restoration projects this month that should lessen the amount of stormwater pollution entering the two rivers.

This week, contractors will put the finishing touches on a restoration project at Muddy Creek in Harwood, installing native plants there, West/Rhode Riverkeeper Jeff Holland said.

Work on the $118,625 project began in June, with the help of the South River Federation and contributions from Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE), Holland said.

Water from the streambed, located on the southeast side of Warthen Drive, had been undercutting a landbank where a BGE pole stood, putting the pole in danger of toppling over and also sending sediment into the Rhode River, Holland said.

The restoration project included building about 300 linear feet of new stream channel and creating a wetland area. Holland said the water can now overflow into the wetlands instead of continuing to gouge out the landscape.

The Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, funded the main part of the work.

Later this month, volunteers will help plant at the site of a restoration project in Shady Side's Avalon Shores community.

The work is aimed at addressing a ditch near the Avalon Shore fire station that overflowed during big rains, flooding some of the properties in the community and causing sediment to flow into the West River.

The $81,513 project eliminates about 2,000 square-feet of an unused asphalt parking lot and creates more than 4,200 square-feet of wetland to capture and treat stormwater from nearby impervious surfaces like the fire station parking lot and county roads, Holland said.

The project received funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, Unity Gardens and Patagonia.