July 11th Meeting Follow-Up

Thanks to the nearly 40 people who attended the combined Critical Area Advisory Committee and Potomac Regional Committee meeting on July 11th.  The draft meeting minutes are available for review here.

The draft CARP has been revised based on feedback received at the meeting.  Also included in the newest version of the draft CARP is an appendix on wastewater reuse in the CWPA.  The latest version of the draft CARP can be downloaded here.

Comments on the draft CARP are welcome and can be submitted via email (marshrockpa@gmail.com), phone (301.274.8116), or mail (ICPRB, 51 Monroe St. PE-08, Rockville, MD 20850).

The next CARP meeting will be a Potomac Regional Committee meeting, tentatively scheduled for mid-late August.  The date, time, and location will be posted as soon as they are confirmed.

Upcoming Meeting Reminder

A combined Critical Area Advisory Committee and Potomac Regional Committee meeting will be held next Wednesday, July 11th from 1-3pm at the Ag Center in Gettysburg.

The purpose of the meeting is to introduce and discuss the draft CARP (available for download here) and the document review process and timeline.  Revisions to the draft CARP are expected based on the feedback received.  The draft agenda for the meeting is available for download here.

The meeting minutes for the April meeting are available for review here.

Hope to see you there!

Draft CARP Selections, Management Recommendations

Section 3.4 of the draft CARP documents the management alternatives developed to address the seven identified water resources issues in the CWPA.   Management alternatives to be considered for inclusion in the CARP were compiled from CAAC meetings, communication with general stakeholders and advisory committee members, literature reviews, and written submissions by organizations and interested parties.

Evaluation of the management alternatives included feasibility and technical scoring, a qualitative evaluation, and a discussion of potential conflicts and adverse impacts.  The evaluation also included consideration of the environmental, economic, regulatory, land use planning, engineering, and social implications of the alternatives.

Utilizing the evaluation process, CARP management recommendations were selected from the management alternatives to assure “an adequate supply of water to satisfy existing and future reasonable and beneficial uses.”  Section 3.5 documents the methodology for selecting recommended practices from the evaluated alternatives, provides the lists of CARP management recommendations, and discusses implementation efforts including how the information contained in this report can be utilized for implementation of the management recommendations. 

Recommendations were divided into two categories – Tier 1 and Tier 2.  A total of 20 Tier 1and 19 Tier 2 recommendations are made in the draft CARP.  The recommendations range from installation of stream gages to creating a water management council to encouraging new developments to have additional water storage capacities.  The full list of recommendations can be found in Section 3.5.

Comments on the management recommendations and any other CARP section are welcome and can be submitted via email (marshrockpa@gmail.com), phone (301.274.8116), or at the upcoming July 11 combined CAAC and Potomac Regional Committee meeting.

Draft CARP Selections, Water Quality and Stormwater

Deterioration in water quality limits the availability of clean water for human and ecosystem use, thereby eliminating otherwise viable supplies or increasing treatment costs. Section 3.3.3 of the draft CARP focuses on the water quality issues in the CWPA. Water quality parameters of concern in the CWPA include, but are not limited to, those for which impairments have been noted (sediments, nutrients, dissolved oxygen, total phosphorus, and nitrite nitrate). The figure below shows locations of impaired waterways in the CWPA.

Causes for these impairments include agriculture, industry, development, and urban land uses. Water quality impacts from point sources are most notable during low flows, when concentration of contaminants peaks. However, non-point source pollutant transport is primarily driven by unmanaged stormwater which carries diverse pollutants across the landscape and into the waterways.

These water quality concerns do not appear to present immediate risks to human uses of ground- or surface-water in the watersheds; however, aquatic benthic communities are severely impaired at most CWPA sampling locations. Future growth and development may exacerbate these problems if not managed.

Stormwater and floodplain management are an important component of water resources management in the CWPA, analyzed in Section 3.3.4 of the draft CARP.  The table shows average seasonal storm-flows in inches from 1997-2010.

Stormwater management and reuse could aid in meeting current and future water demands.  When compared to the quantity of water available in the CWPA, the stormwater analysis demonstrated that sufficient quantities of stormwater typically exist to alleviate much of the potential water shortfall. A key to making this a reality will be selecting effective stormwater practices for implementation, both in terms of cost and amount of water made available. Management of floodplain areas would also protect water quality and enhance water availability.

Comments on the water quality, stormwater and floodplain management, and any other CARP section are welcome and can be submitted via email (marshrockpa@gmail.com), phone (301.274.8116), or at the upcoming July 11 combined CAAC and Potomac Regional Committee meeting.

Draft CARP Selections, Water Availability

In Section 3.3.2 of the draft CARP, water demand in the CWPA was shown to exceed the amount of available water under low-flow conditions represented by the 7Q10, a common low-flow indicator.  Seasonally, the deficits are highest in the summer, followed by the spring and fall.  Winter has the lowest potential deficit because demands are lowest and water availability is relatively high.  On an average daily basis, the largest deficits are found in the Upper Rock sub-watershed and the smallest deficits are found in the Upper Marsh sub-watershed.  Future growth is expected to exacerbate this problem.

Comments on the water availability section and any other CARP section are welcome and can be submitted via email (marshrockpa@gmail.com), phone (301.274.8116), or at the upcoming July 11 combined CAAC and Potomac Regional Committee meeting.