Blue Water Baltimore

Nursery:blue Water Baltimore's herring run nursery grows plants, trees and shrubs native to the chesapeake bay watershed. These plants are used in restoration projects and sold to residents and wholesale customers. Specialties of our landscaping program also include designing and installing rain gardens and low maintenance native landscapes to reduce storm runoff. Blue Water Baltimore's herring run nursery grows plants, trees and shrubs native to the chesapeake bay watershed. These plants are used in restoration projects and sold to both residents and wholesale customers. In 2022, we worked with 46 dedicated volunteers who collectively gave 870 hours of time to sell 35,306 native plants.

Greening:we planted over 1,058 trees in parks, schools, residents and along neighborhood streets in our watershed. We gave away over 950 trees to be planted in yards within Baltimore city and county. Our street tree program created 107 new tree beds while removing 4,517 square feet of impervious surface in 2 Baltimore city neighborhoods. If all trees were planted this is the equivalent of 6.7 acres of new tree canopy. This will expand as the trees grow and spread their limbs.

Watershed restoration:blue Water Baltimore's stormwater reduction efforts aim to reduce the volume of rain Water runoff, or stormwater, flowing into storm drains and streams from institutional properties, and is an overall effort to reduce flooding in streams, to reduce nutrient, sediment and other pollution from entering local streams and ultimately the chesapeake bay.in 2022, we worked with more than 20 partners including congregations, schools, neighborhood associations and hospitals to plan and construct green infrastructure projects that reduce and filter stormwater runoff. We managed the installation of 4 green stormwater infrastructure systems, containing pavement removal, rain gardens and conservation. These projects removed 0.3 acres of pavement and treat 0.74 acres of our watershed each time it rains. We estimate all restoration projects removed the following pollution each year: 4,015 lbs of sediment pollution, 20 lbs of nitrogen pollution, and 1.4 lbs of phosphorus pollution.

Waterkeeper:blue Water Baltimore maintains a rigorous long-term Water quality monitoring program in Baltimore's streams, rivers, and harbor in order to characterize the health of our local waterways, hold polluters accountable, and advocate for stronger laws for clean Water. In 2022, we collected thousands of individual measurements of Water health which we used to develop regional Water quality scores for our annual report card. The report card and all of the data we generate are available online at baltimorewaterwatch.org. Our data-mapping website is an invaluable tool for residents and visitors that helps them make informed decisions about how and when they can safely fish, paddle, and wade in our local waterways. Our waterkeeper team received and responded to 87 pollution reports from community members through various channels including social media, email, our pollution reporting hotline, and our online pollution reporting tool. These reports ranged from issues such as erosion and sediment control violations at construction sites, to sewage overflows and Water main breaks.in 2022 we continued our federal clean Water act litigation against Baltimore city for significant permit violations at both the patapsco and back river wwtps. We also continued negotiations with the city and the Maryland department of the environment on a consent decree to resolve the state enforcement action related to these matters.