Federation Blog

 The above picture was taken while water quality sampling under Rt50 bridge on the South River on May 29, 2009.  Notice the green-brown water color;  this happened to be a mixture of suspended sediment and an algae bloom.  The Secchi depth was only 0.2 meters or about 6 inches, meaning that sunlight could not penetrate below 1 foot.  The cause:  Stormwater runoff from the previous day's light rain bringing suspended sediment and nutrients from the headwaters (Bacon Ridge Branch and North River).   

I perform weekly water quality monitoring on the South River for dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, conductivity, water clarity, turbidity and nutrients.  Since early May I have seen a drastic drop in water clarity and dissolved oxygen, this is very disturbing considering the hot weather is not here yet- what are we going to see this summer? 

Diana

 This morning, over 25 Federation volunteers cleaned-up along Chesterfield Road, in the Bacon Ridge Branch area, and along the headwaters of Church Creek in Annapolis.  The picture below is of the haul at Church Creek, which included about 50 yards (over a full dumpster) of metal and other recyclables (including a couple of shopping cars), about 10 yards of trash, and between 50 and 60 tires.  Thanks to all the volunteers who came out and made the event a success and to the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works for providing the dumpsters.

 

Today over 30 volunteers from the South River Federation, the Anne Arundel Sierra Club, and the community-at-large worked in the headwaters of Church Creek to pull out tires, discarded road signs, and several tons of garbage from the stream valley.  Special thanks to all who volunteered and helped out.

 Thanks also to the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works who hauled all the garbage off to the landfill.