Charles County Government

Department of

Planning & Growth Management

Mattawoman Creek Watershed

Management Plan

Mattawoman Draft Zoning Text Amendments:

The draft zoning text amendments minimize negative impacts from parking area impervious surface on water quality. A County Commissioner briefing was held September 11, 2007.

View slideshow

The County Commissioners will hold a Public Hearing on Zoning Text Amendment #07-93 on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. in the County Commissioner Meeting Room, 200 Baltimore Street, La Plata, MD 20646. Public comments will be taken at this time.

View the Report to the County Commissioners on Zoning Text Amendment #07-93

For more information see the Mattawoman Brochure

Mattawoman Roundtable Convening

Roundtable #1: February 8, 2007, 6-8 p.m. (View slide show)
Roundtable #2: March 12, 2007, 6-8 p.m.
Roundtable #3: April 5, 2007, 6-8 p.m.
Roundtable #4: May 31, 2007, 6-8 p.m.

If you are interested in participating in the roundtable discussions, please contact the Planning Division at 301-645-0540 or wiggenk@charlescounty.org.

Mattawoman Creek Stream Valley Delineation

View Mattawoman Creek Stream Valley (DNR 2007)

According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) computer modeling, of three management scenarios: regulatory compliance, enhanced regulatory compliance and stream valley protection; protecting the Stream Valley had statistically significant nutrient and sediment load reductions.

For computer modeling purposes, the Corps delineated the stream valley for the 2003 Mattawoman Creek Watershed Management Plan using visual interpretation of a 30-meter Digital Elevation Model. However implementing protection measures and programs on a specific area, such as the Mattawoman stream valley, requires a precise and reliable way of delineating the area.

In 2007, DNR increased the resolution of the stream valley based on the County’s 2' LIDAR topography, which became available in November 2005, and using Topographic Position Index software. The Topographic Position Index software takes out the visual interpretation and provides a uniform methodology.

View Slide Show presented to the Charles County Commissioners on April 18, 2007.

For more information on the Topographic Position Index software go to the following link:

http://www.jennessent.com/arcview/tpi.htm

2003 Mattawoman Creek Watershed Management Plan

A 13 member Citizens Advisory Committee(CAC) was appointed by the Charles County Commissioners in 2000 to provide comments and suggestions to the Plan and act as an advocate to the community. The following newsletters outline this process.

Newsletter # 3 - February 2002 through December 2003
Newsletter # 2 - January 2001 through February 2002
Newsletter #1 - June 2000 - December 2000.

On February 9, 2004 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presented the Plan to the Charles County Commissioners. View the Plan. Based on the analysis, three specific recommendations were developed:

1) The stream valley should be delineated and protected, through zoning category changes, acquisition, or ordinance changes. This area could be used to develop a greenway or park system designed to connect the Mattawoman estuary to the Waldorf Central Business District zone (CB).

2) Site planning on future development should implement low impact design techniques, minimizing the amount of impervious surfaces and promoting stormwater disconnects. New housing developments should emphasize many small-scale stormwater management practices, rather than one single stormwater management pond and emphasize tree cover as a main stormwater management component.

3) Existing developments should be examined for stormwater retrofit opportunities, including the retrofitting of existing commercial sites and housing developments in Waldorf. The technology exists to increase the stormwater management within small-scale housing and commercial areas. These techniques should be encouraged through ordinances, public workshops, and re-development projects.

To implement recommendation #2, the County Commissioners received a Coastal Communities Initiative grant through Maryland Department of Natural Resources in March 2006. A public kick-off meeting for implementing low impact design techniques on new development was held June 22, 2006.

View slide show from June 22, 2006 meeting

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources performed a code review of several sections of the Charles County Zoning Ordinance and made specific low impact design implementation recommendations. A Mattawoman Roundtable #1 is scheduled for February 2007 to discuss the proposals. If you are interested in participating in the roundtable discussions, please contact the Planning Division at 301-645-0540 or wiggenk@charlescounty.org.

History

The partners in this project were brought together by the gradual increase in public perception for the need of watershed management practices. Many occurrences over the past fifty years focused attention on the declined condition of waterways nationwide. Beginning in 1948 federal clean water legislation was passed to address point source polluters. By 1987 and after much water quality legislation in-between, the country came to realize that many waterways were still not safe for swimming and fishing and that non-point sources were also contributing to water pollution. Additional legislation was passed to address this. However, in 1997, realizing that the legislation still had not adequately solved the pollution problems the Federal Clean Water Action Plan was put forth. This plan proposed the watershed approach be used nationally to wholisticaly address the poor water quality situations. The Plan called for assessment of the condition of waterways and establishment of restoration priorities and strategies.

Maryland followed the federal model by assessing its watersheds and setting restoration priorities as published in the 1998 Maryland Clean Water Action Plan. Maryland's assessment concluded that the Mattawoman Creek deserves special attention in order to address degradation that is experienced in some areas before the pristine resources in the watershed are lost. This conclusion set the stage for local officials to take action.

In the mid-1990's the US Army Corps of Engineers(Corps) initiated a study of potential watershed projects in the Lower Potomac region. Eight priority watersheds were identified in the Draft Lower Potomac River Basin Reconnaissance Study(July 1997). The Mattawoman Creek was one of these, and noted as a particularly valuable ecosystem, providing environmental and economic benefits locally as well as to the larger Chesapeake Bay. The Corps began approaching officials of the identified watersheds to determine the need for and potential of joint watershed management projects. After subsequent meetings with local officials in the Mattawoman watershed, it was determined that a project was desired and needed to protect the locally valuable resource and a Joint Agreement was signed with Charles County in 2000.

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