With all of the recent rain this spring, a lot of water is running off the land. This runoff picks up pollution, and fouls our local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. But the community of Cambridge is working hard to reduce polluted runoff, and to cleanup the Choptank River and save the Bay.
As part of a Cambridge 10-year plan for clean water, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation has partnered with Shore Rivers, the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, and community members to reduce runoff from residential properties, and to educate homeowners. The partners are part of the Cambridge Clean Water Advisory Committee.
In the month of June, Cambridge residents and volunteers from the partner groups, as well as from Dorchester Citizens for Planned Growth (DCPG), gathered together to implement the plan. They dug and planted rain gardens on 10 different residential properties. Planting a rain garden is a great way to add natural beauty to a lawn as well as protect the environment. In the words of homeowner, Paul Harrison, “the gardens help filter the rain water that would normally carry excessive sediment and chemicals straight into the rivers.” With the 10 new rain gardens in place working to filter some of the spring rains, the Choptank river and the people around it will be benefitting greatly.
The Cambridge Clean Water Advisory Committee aims to educate Cambridge homeowners about runoff and flooding issues as well as implement projects that manage the water going into the river. This program is crucial to sustaining the health of the local water ways. If the committee can continue to find solutions to runoff and storm water, and involve the community in fun and interesting ways, then Cambridge, the Choptank River, and the Chesapeake Bay will be much better off.