Twilight along Rock Creek Wednesday reminded me once again why I appreciate the national park that runs through this area. Last week’s oppressive heat was a fading memory. The evening breeze felt almost cool. A fox darted across the trail between the park ranger station and Broad Branch. Two women rode by on horseback, one on a gray, one on a bay.
The banks of the creek were a mess. Massive trees uprooted by July’s torrential rains were cantilevered over the water. Still, the creek sounded sweet and melodic as it cascaded over baby falls.
But what is that foamy stuff swirling in the eddies? What is that trail of suds sliding down the current? Somehow the grunge does not have that au natural appearance.
It is, unfortunately, Maryland’s gift to Rock Creek and to the Potomac River into which it empties. Much of the dirty water that flows into Rock Creek comes from our neighbor to the north, where it begins and through which it travels before crossing into the capital city.
I phoned Steve Saari, who founded the advocacy group FORCE, Friends of the Rock Creek Environment, to take the creek’s pulse.
“I’d like to say we’re holding our own,” he said, “but things are getting worse. We are at the mercy of Montgomery County.”
For the last 20 years, volunteers with the Audubon Naturalist Society have been monitoring Rock Creek’s health. They walk its stems and tributaries, take water samples andcheck for pollutants. Their report is due out soon, perhaps this fall.
“I think we’ll see a decline in the creek’s health,” says Saari, who now works as a watershed protection specialist for D.C.’s environmental agency.
The decline comes from trash, aging pipes and sewage that flows into the creek when storm water overwhelms the system. Maryland’s pollution contribution comes from storm water and every day runoff.
Runoff is not sexy, headline-grabbing stuff like the pesticide dumped into a drain in Silver Spring a decade ago that killed all the fish in the stream. But timing makes runoff sexy for the moment.
“We are reaching a crucial time,” says Saari.
Montgomery County’s storm water permit is up for review right now. If the county writes regulations that encourages developers to take simple steps — like surrounding parking lots with grass so storm water doesn’t rush into sewers — Rock Creek can heal.
“I do believe the county does want to do the right thing to protect the stream,” says Saari.
But like all county agencies, Montgomery County’s environmental group and its state counterpart might need some encouragement. Mayor Anthony Williams is eager to pose with the governors of Maryland and Virginia to talk about grand gestures that might improve the Chesapeake Bay, which is besieged by complex forces and sources. In comparison, by simply encouraging a change in Montgomery County’s storm water regulations, Williams could have a major impact on Rock Creek.
And when he walks the creek in a few years, perhaps he won’t see suds.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
