Port Tobacco watershed plan gets boost from town’s OK

Approval is key to county receiving $3.7 million grant

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008

The La Plata Town Council adopted the Port Tobacco River Watershed Restoration Action Plan last week. The plan, adopted by the Charles County commissioners in 2007, identifies ways to improve the watershed and bring it back to the pristine conditions found in the waterway prior to the 1950s.

Getting La Plata on board with the plan is an important step in the county receiving a $3.7 million Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust Fund local implementation grant from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said Debra Zimmerman Murphey, executive director of the Port Tobacco River Conservancy.

The nonprofit group, established in 2001 to find ways to restore the health of the river, worked on the plan for the last couple of years with assistance from several sources, including the Charles County Department of Health, Charles County Soil Conservation District, the town of La Plata, University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service and the Charles County Chamber of Commerce.

‘‘It’s phenomenal that the town has adopted the plan,” Murphey said last week. ‘‘We’re going to have to work together to find solutions to some of the problems in the watershed. We have to look at everything. We need to take a multifaceted approach.”

‘‘It’s fantastic that the town council adopted the plan,” said Mark Stancliff, president of the conservancy’s board of directors. ‘‘It’s really promising to see the town council and the county work toward the same goal.”

‘‘It’s great that the town of La Plata is working with the county government, the conservancy and other organizations to improve our watershed,” said David Gardiner, the conservancy’s technical director. ‘‘The town has been very proactive in addressing wastewater treatment and infrastructure problems in the watershed. ... I’m very, very pleased with the council for adopting the plan. It’s something that our watershed needs.”

If the county receives the grant, the money would be used for specific projects in the portions of the watershed that are located within the town limits, said Karen Wiggen, a senior planner with the county. The projects include eight stormwater retrofit projects, three areas identified for stream restoration, buffer enhancement or agricultural best practices, two communities that have failing septic systems and water quality monitoring.

The PTRC has so far received $975,000 in grants — $1.3 million including matching funds — to perform water monitoring, stream wading and community volunteer programs, Wiggen told the town council during a recent work session.

Citizens also played a part in the development of the plan, Wiggen said, adding that a public work shop held in 2006 netted several things that residents would like to see happen in the watershed, including the production of safe seafood and more navigable and safe water for boating and swimming.

It is hoped that methods outlined in the WRAS will help lower the consistently high levels of bacteria found in tributaries of the river during routine water testing in the summer, Wiggen said. Some suggestions to help reduce bacteria levels and high amounts of nutrients in the watershed include the installation of nitrogen removal technology on failing septic systems, elimination of overflows from the La Plata sewage treatment plant and reduction of the volume of stormwater runoff from new development through better design codes.

The plan also recommends that livestock be kept away from areas that border streams in the watershed and sediment and erosion control regulations should be better enforced.

The council’s adoption of the plan moves the project a step forward in cleaning up the watershed, Murphey said.

‘‘La Plata is obviously an area that is going to see a lot of growth in the future,” she said. ‘‘It’s a good area to focus some of our resources.”