Report Details River Damage From Suburban Runoff
Group Calls for Action To Heal Patuxent

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007

Quick action is needed to control the suburban sprawl that is worsening the health of the Patuxent River, according to a study released this week by a nonprofit environmental group.

In its first "Patuxent 20/20" report, Patuxent Riverkeeper said the spread of suburbs in the watershed has resulted in a tide of pollution. The 72-page study, whose name is an allusion to perfect eyesight, was intended to be the most comprehensive picture to date of the 110-mile-long river's health.

Overall, officials at Riverkeeper said, the picture was not good. The study found that after a period of improvement in the 1980s and early 1990s, caused by cleanups at sewage plants that dumped into the river, the Patuxent's health has been declining.

"This is a dying estuary, if we don't do something," said Fred Tutman, a leader at the group.

The Patuxent is the longest river contained within Maryland, touching Anne Arundel, Charles, Calvert, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and St. Mary's counties on its way to the Chesapeake Bay. Half a century ago, scientists say, it supported healthy populations of crabs, oysters, fish and underwater grasses.

But today, it is a different river. During one recent research trip, University of Maryland scientists dragged a net along the bottom of the Patuxent, expecting to scoop at least 15 animal species.

"What we pulled up was, I think, three species. Period," said Margaret Palmer, who helped with the study and is director of the university's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, in Solomons.

There were empty oyster shells, a few fish and a lot of sea squirts, spongelike creatures especially tolerant of pollution, Palmer said. "Most of what we got was mud."

The river's problems include dirt that runs off construction sites, clouding the water so that sunlight cannot reach the plants. There are also pollutants from human waste, which pour out of sewage plants and septic tanks. Other contaminants come from tainted storm water, which rushes off roofs, parking lots and other man-made surfaces and carries things such as grease and animal waste.

All of these issues get worse with development, the report found. And there has been plenty of development around the Patuxent: From 1970 to 2000, the population of its watershed jumped 136 percent.

"That growth has seen the health of the river backslide tremendously," said Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, executive director of the Riverkeeper group.

To limit damage caused by growth, the group's report recommended that local governments concentrate development and preserve large tracts of open land. It also recommended that local jurisdictions better protect the "critical areas," space within 1,000 feet of tidal shoreline, in which development is supposed to be limited.

Both measures would allow rainwater to be naturally filtered by passing through vegetation and dirt, instead of flowing over asphalt.

It also recommended that new developments take steps to limit polluted runoff. These might include "green roofs," covered in vegetation, or "rain gardens" that absorb storm water instead of shunting it elsewhere. The state's Stormwater Management Act, passed this year, called for more such measures, but final details have not been worked out, Riverkeeper officials said.

"The good news is, we know how to fix this," Palmer said at a news conference in Upper Marlboro on Monday. "It's not something that can't be done."