Columbia storm water management

   With April being Earth Month I thought I would post a few environmental blog posts.  Today I wanted to post on stream erosion.  We have all learned how damaging this can be for our lakes with the dredging efforts that the Columbia Association has been doing with our lakes.  Efforts are now directed upstream of our lakes to prevent the soil erosion from the stream banks that ends up in our lakes.

   The pictures below show the efforts initiated by CA to mitigate the soil runoff into Lake Elkhorn.

    The use of rocks in these streams slows down the speed of the stormwater and captures some of the soil that would have gotten into the Lake.   The capture of the soil in the stream bed is easier than dredging the Lake.

  The picture below shows the stream bank erosion that occurs without these measures being taken.

   During the GreenFest this past weekend at Howard Community College their efforts to address stream soil erosion were highlighted on a nature walk.

Trees planted to hold soil.

Head water of one of the branches of the Little Patuxent River begins at Howard General Hospital.  Storm pond below provide a location for otters, beavers and other wildlife

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