G.M. Corrigan, The Examiner
2007-07-31 12:58:48.0
Current rank: Not ranked

Ellicott City -

Watershed protection may not be an intuitive issue with most people, but Hye Yeong Kwon would like to make it one.

“If you enjoy [local] resources — both as drinking water and for recreation — everybody should be concerned with it,” Kwon, executive director of Ellicott City’s Center for Watershed Protection, said of the interplay of local behaviors and Chesapeake Bay health.

The connection between the two?

Kwon defines watersheds as “a network of streams and lands that meet at a particular point” and that place where raindrops anywhere ultimately collect to make their way to the Bay. Watersheds, then, according to Kwon, are everywhere, and her 20-employee, $2 million nonprofit is in the business of keeping them healthy.

“The center works with communities to help them either protect or restore their water resources, and that includes local streams, lakes and estuaries,” she said. “We basically provide them with the tools to do that.”

The Center for Watershed Protection does this through a variety of “best practices” publications, fieldwork and technical assistance to like-minded groups that help jurisdictions, homebuilders and homeowners mitigate bay-degrading excavation, erosion and pollutant run-off into local watersheds.

Kwon said the center primarily works with Chesapeake Bay-reclaiming groups and has more work than it can handle. However, she is excited about a Baltimore City project called Watershed 253 that is designed to reduce the city’s pollutant contribution to the Bay.

Another Baltimore project, she said, will detect and eliminate “illicit discharges.”

“The Center for Watershed Protection is an extraordinary organization,” Baltimore Green Construction Co. co-owner Brad Rogers said, “because it bridges the gap among three policy areas — [cutting-edge] technical research ... implementation [consulting] and advocacy.”

Mary Sloan Robey, executive director of Baltimore’s Herring Run Watershed Association, agreed. “They’re an effective technical service provider that helps watershed organizations.”

Kwon said that the Chesapeake Bay’s condition recently rated a D grade from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. She added that the natural resource is still recoverable but that it will take a lot of work.

Part of that work, she said, involves sensitizing average citizens to the effects of their actions, such as their use of pesticides and fertilizers on their lawns.

“A lot of people don’t understand how their activities at home have an impact,” Kwon said. “That’s probably one of the biggest hurdles that we have to overcome.”