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| Event Calendar |
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Annual Wade in and Joe Stewart's Swim
May 18
11:00 AM -
2:00 PM
Rocky Point Park
Joe will swim across mouth of Patapsco to raise awareness of water quality issues. For directions call 410-887-3873
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Gwynns Falls Trail Celebration
June 07
10:00 AM -
4:00 PM
I-70 Park and Ride and Winans Meadow
Celebrate opening of GF Trail from Leakin Park to I-70 Park and Ride. We will have fly fishing and on water quality sampling demonstrations.
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Stonybrook stream cleanup
June 17
10:00 AM -
12:00 AM
8737 Meadow Heights Rd. Randallstown, Md.
Join the Stonybrook Community Association and the GFWA to help clean trash from the Scotts Level Branch.
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Beyond the Boardwalk
June 21, 10:00 AM -
June 22, 3:00 PM
In front of the Nat. Aquarium in Baltimore
National Aquarium in Baltimore will be hosting our “Beyond the Boardwalk” on the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Waterfront Park. This event is designed to let folks know how their actions (in their own backyard) can affect Ocean/Bay health. In addition, there will be live music, sand sculpture contest and family crafts.
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| More Events |
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Water Quality
Water quality in our streams and rivers both affects and reflects the health of our regional environment.
We depend on water resources for nearly every aspect of our lives – drinking, food production, sanitation,
recreation, commerce, and industry.
In the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, population growth, related land use changes, and past water manage-ment
practices have been linked directly to the decline in water quality and the decline in environmental and
economic resources of the Bay itself. Past development in the Gwynns Falls Watershed has caused significant
deterioration of water quality in the streams. New construction changes the existing hydrology of an area.
Areas that were once open land are replaced by roofs, roads, gutters, and storm drains that quickly divert
water into streams. The increase in impervious surfaces greatly alters the volume and timing of runoff, and
thus the magnitude of stream flows. These conditions create abnormally low dry weather flows and abnor-mally
high storm flows. Rainwater traveling across urbanized areas picks up pollutants, including oil, sedi-ment,
fertilizers, and lawn pesticides, and often brings them, unfiltered, directly into the stream.
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Water Quality in the Gwynns Falls Sub-Watersheds based on Macroinvertebrate Sampling (by Maryland Save Our Streams)
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| Upper Gwynns Falls |
Fair to Poor |
| Red Run |
Fair to Poor |
| Horsehead Branch |
Fair |
| Scotts Level Branch |
Mostly Fair |
| Middle Gwynns Falls |
Fair to Poor |
| Powder Mill |
Mostly Poor |
| Dead Run |
Mostly Poor |
| Maiden’s Choice Ru |
Poor |
| Lower Gwynns Falls |
Poor |
| Gwynns Run |
No Data |
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Water Quality Definitions
| Good: |
Water quality generally supports designated uses and pollution is minimal. |
| Fair: |
Water quality is characterized by intermittent severe degradation or by continued low
level degradation. Waters are considered marginal with respect to designated uses. |
| Poor: |
Water quality does not support designated uses and severe degradation is often experienced.
Pollution-tolerant benthic macroinvertebrate species are dominant, if insects are present at all.
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