Sending Out an SOS To Protect Waterways

Group Gives Tours of Damage to Raise Awareness

After two years of pressing Anne Arundel County officials to raise standards for protecting local creeks and streams from development and restoring ones that have been harmed, a county environmental network wants to set up a multimillion-dollar fund to help do just that.

With election season underway, the coalition of environmental, community and business groups, known as the Anne Arundel Watershed Network, says it has generated support from local candidates. The group has been taking politicians and other residents on bus tours to make them more aware of degraded streams.

"This election, more than anything else, is going to determine the future of water quality in Anne Arundel County," said Howard R. Ernst, a member of the coalition and author of "Chesapeake Bay Blues." "Scientists can tell you that a square foot of additional impervious surface will further degrade our waterways. You can develop in environmentally sensitive ways, but you can never dodge that fact."

Citing the damage that has already been done by development, Ernst and others in the coalition say the county must tackle the problem by restoring damaged waterways to their natural look and adopting higher standards for new development projects.

The Watershed Restoration Fund would not be part of the county's capital budget for environmental restoration projects, said Anne Pearson, the director of the Alliance for Sustainable Communities and coordinator of the network. By assessing county homeowners $5 a month, the fund would generate $36 million each year, Pearson said. Businesses would pay a proportionate amount. Coalition leaders are hoping a newly elected council this fall would determine the best way to raise the money. An increase in property tax is one possibility.

Pam Jordan, a spokeswoman for the county's Land Use and Environment Office, said a new administration should make a decision about whether to recommend such a fee. County Executive Janet S. Owens (D) is prohibited by term limits from running again.

"It's a whole new fee, and so much has to go into deciding how this would be imposed," Jordan said. "There's a lot of work to be done on it."

During the current fiscal year, the county budgeted $9 million for stream restoration and storm drainage projects, Jordan said.

The coalition wants the county to prepare a list of waterways that could be restored with money from the fund, Pearson said. Public hearings would be conducted before the money is spent, and a board comprised of community leaders would help oversee the fund.

The coalition wants the county to actively encourage more homeowners and businesses to use rain barrels, rain gardens, porous paving and driveways. Those who implement such measures could get their monthly restoration fund payments cut in half because they would be helping to manage storm-water runoff in their areas, Pearson said.

"It all helps the big picture," said Jan Holt, vice president for sales and marketing for the Brick Cos., based in Edgewater. The company's building on Braverton Street is outfitted with a living roof, made of sedum plants, that helps reduce energy costs and reduce storm-water runoff.

Holt said local development companies must have the vision to adopt environmentally sensitive business models. Although severe deterioration of the environment ultimately will force developers to change, for now economic incentives could be a motivating factor, she said.