What’s a Watershed and Why care?
Watershed:
- An area of ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.
- An area or region drained by a river, river system, or other body of water.
Major and Sub Watersheds in Howard County
- Do you know where stormwater from your home and your neighborhood goes? What is YOUR river, or stream?
- Click Here to Link To a poster sized map of Howard County Watersheds
The Chesapeake Bay Watershed
The 64,299 sq mile area is the largest watershed of the Atlantic Seaboard of North America and includes much of Virginia and Maryland – but it also includes parts of West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York, as well as all of Washington, DC.
In 1607, Captain John Smith wrote: “neither better fish, more plenty, nor more variety for smal fish, had any of us ever seene in any place so swimming in the water”…
Once they were Healthy Piedmont and Coastal regions filtering storm-water flow to the Bay.
We are Losing Ground.
Look at this recent Baltimore Business Journal article.
The harbor’s water quality received an “F” on the 2013 Healthy Harbor Report Card, an annual study conducted by the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore Inc. and Blue Water Baltimore. The water quality took a step down from the barely passing C-minus it received the year prior.