Lower Western Shore Trib Team

Last night, December 3, there was a public hearing for the Lower Western Shore Tributary Team, an organization whose mission is ostensibly to "reduce nutrient and sediment inputs and to restore habitat in the Lower Western Shore Watershed through community participation." What became clear, relatively shortly after an informative presentation on the Team's goals was given by Jamie Baxter of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, was that without significant innovations in dealing with increasing loads of nitrogen and phosphorous, and without a ton of money to implement those innovations (the Trib. Team estimates $3 billion through some rather archane formula), we're going to be up the Bay without a paddle. And that's the good news. As of right now, the Team has neither the creative solutions to bring down nitrogen and phosphorus loads to the level required by the Clean Water Act, nor the money to put them into place if they did. That's where you come in.

Know of innovative solutions or potential funding streams¹, drop Mike Bilek of DNR a line, I'm sure he'd love to hear from you.

In the meantime, some steps homeowners and business owners can take themselves are: upgrade your septic system to one which denitrifies, build rain gardens on your property to contain runoff, and use less (or no) fertilizer on your lawn.

¹ [Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), says it will run between $5-14 per household in Maryland]