Clean Water Community Initiative

What is a Clean Water Community?Dale Hop

The health of our neighborhoods and the health of our waterways are connected.

Every time it rains, stormwater carries whatever is on the street (trash, oil, pet waste, fertilizers, sediment) to the storm drain inlets, down the stormwater pipes, and to outfalls in our streams, harbor and Chesapeake Bay.

Urban watersheds, like ours, require more care because we have:

  • more people (more garbage, more cars)
  • more pavement (fewer green spaces to soak in water and filter pollutants)
  • more problems (flooding, dumping, vacant lots, neglected infrastructure/pipes, pollution)

Projects that improve water quality also make more livable communities by cleaning up the streets, creating open spaces with trees and gardens, and getting people outside and engaged.

Clean Water Communities are taking action to improve water quality and quality of life. 

Leaders from around the city are working on Clean Water Community Plans that identify actions to take in our homes, on our block and in our community for healthier neighborhoods and a healthier Chesapeake Bay.  These plans build on community assets (schools, community associations, arts organizations, health centers) to integrate clean water projects into existing neighborhood programming.  Partner neighborhoods are eligible to apply for small grants to implement one of the projects identified in their plan.

In late 2012, the first four Clean Water Communities presented to city agencies and key partners to begin to work towards addressing some concerns at the next level.  Check out the presentations and plans here!  

For 2013, the initiative will be focused on addressing a key pollutant in our neighborhoods, TRASH.

stormdrain_trashed

For more information contact Lauren Poor, Clean Water Community Organizer, at (410)254-1577 x109 or lpoor@bluewaterbaltimore.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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