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From:  Tom Guay, WOS Stormwater Committee

Re:       Serious Stormwater Issues

I want to briefly bring everybody up-to-date on what we’re doing to resolve the stormwater runoff problems in our neighborhood. After the last community meeting, the WOS executive board created a Stormwater Committee to investigate runoff and erosion problems in the neighborhood. Committee members are: Art Libby, Eloise Ullman, Fletcher Bauman, Clark Thomas, Sue Knox, Amy Knappen and Tom Guay.

Raingarden, click for bookletThe committee identified many stormwater issues to be studied, but the main issues identified are two gully erosion problems. The first is a gully that was the topic of the last community meeting.  It’s between the Bauman/Libby and King/Ullman houses (aka, the Circle Dr. Gully) and is on community property. A second major problem, again on community property, has since come to light -- the area next to the Marcum house, across the street from the Knox house and behind the forest of bamboo trees (aka, the Winchester Gully).

We brought in four stormwater/engineering experts to review these gullies, and they all agreed that WOS faces some major problems. One the plus side, when we fix these areas, one contractor, Keith Underwood, said we’d end up with “Caribbean clear” water in Little Cove and a pleasant waking trail from Winchester Rd. to Little Cove.

These experts all agreed that these problems harm community and private properties, as well as water quality in Chase Creek, the Severn River and the Chesapeake Bay watershed. These stormwater experts, including Ron Bowen, Anne Arundel County’s DNR director, all agree that the best way to resolve our erosion problems is to build a series of small dams to slow and capture runoff.  They all agree that this can be done in both gullies, without removing trees, and that the slope of the hills is not a problem for this type of design. They all also agree that building pipes to transport runoff is no longer considered a viable, long-term solution.
Raingarden design from photo above

To remedy these problems, the WOS stormwater committee is organizing separate stormwater meetings to explain the problems in detail, come up with an action plan and figure out way to pay for the repairs.  The contractors we’ve talked to will help us get federal, state and county grants to pay for the work. But, we’ll be expected to match these grants with action on our part.  Some of this action will be to install rain barrels and rain gardens around our houses. Some of our matching effort will be in cleanup action, (such as removing all the branches and stuff we’ve thrown into the Circle Dr. gully over the years). We’re not sure if we will have to pony up with actual dollars just yet. 

So, soon we’ll be asking for neighbors to come to our stormwater meetings and lend a hand. We all hope you will join us in the first chapter of what we’re calling the Winchester Goes Green campaign.