Rain Gardens bloom in Annapolis, Maryland

The Spa Creek Conservancy (SSC) is an all-volunteer organization with the goal of restoring and conserving Spa Creek by mitigating heavily polluted stormwater runoff and educating concerned neighbors and businesses. Spa Creek is a major urban waterway that flows through the center of Annapolis. Its watershed is approximately 54% impervious surface and is completely within the City boundaries. SCC is a well-respected watershed organization with proven expertise in creating partnerships with municipal entities, local businesses, communities and neighborhoods, and other watershed organizations.

The Spa Creek Conservancy and St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and School have joined together on a major stormwater runoff mitigation project to be funded through grants from National Fish and Wildlife and the Chesapeake Bay Trust. The project’s scope will encompass 24 bioretention cells and trenches around the site, thereby creating infiltration areas to accept polluted runoff from impervious surfaces, and 25 canopy trees to improve air and water quality. The project falls into the highest priority watershed stormwater runoff mitigation projects required in the Spa Creek Headwaters Sub-watershed Restoration Plan and Spa Creek Master Restoration Plan. Churches and schools are identified as priority projects due to their large impervious surfaces.

All of the runoff from St. Martin’s is directed into Spa Creek. These stormwater runoff mitigation features will provide infiltration for approximately 2.74 acres of impervious surface. This project will provide significant pollutant controls and water quality improvement to the creek and the ground water table.

St. Martin’s has been a part of the Annapolis community for over 130 years. The parish is contributing volunteer hours and donations to the project. Its volunteers include church leaders, teachers, students, parents and parishioners. In its 5 years, SCC has enlisted more than 1700 volunteers from over 50 community organizations - Boy Scouts, the YWCA, elementary and secondary schools, the United States Naval Academy - and private businesses.

The St. Martin’s initiative will directly address the first four strategic focus areas of the Chesapeake 2000 Agreement:

• Protecting and Restoring Living Resources
• Protecting and Restoring Vital Habitats
• Improving Water Quality
• Managing Lands Soundly

The meeting of the goals in these four areas will allow the effective execution of the fifth goal:

• Engaging Individuals and Local Communities

For more information, please see www.spacreek.org.

This article written by Amy Clements, President, Spa Creek Conservancy.