Blog
Want to know the hot topics in Howard County stormwater? Click here to have our blog sent to your inbox every 2 weeks—we’ll give you the rundown on runoff. Learn about people, places, and things in Howard County stormwater management. Don’t be impervious to the stormwater facts!
July 31, 2014
Watershed Protection and Restoration Fee
Why Inspections Are Important
Some ask us why it is important to inspect stormwater infrastructure on an annual basis. For owners, inspections are the best way to ensure their facilities are functioning correctly. Inspections can also reduce the cost of maintenance by catching small problems before they grow into more expensive issues.
We recently encountered a situation that illustrated a more urgent reason to inspect — to... Read more
July 31, 2014
Trees
2,010 Trees – Actually Planting Them Green
If you read the Howard County Commission report or, many of the pages on this site, you will have heard from us that we think planting a tree is probably the single greatest thing you could do to help our environment. Trees help us with clean air, clean water, shade trees in our yards help keep our energy use low and they provide us with higher aesthetic environment and better quality of life.... Read more
July 31, 2014
Stormwater in Schools
Back To Green School
Congratulations to Howard County’s newest Green Schools! Howard County now has 42 official “green” schools, the most recent 9 being selected earlier this year. What does it mean to be a green school? In Maryland, it means that these schools have completed a 2-year process of integrating green practices and education into the way they do things. Then they put together an application that was... Read more
July 31, 2014
Howard County Initiatives
GreenFest: Tales From Beneath The Leaf
GreenFest began long, long ago in a far off land as an idea cooked up in someone’s cubicle on a rainy day in March 2007 (before I arrived in Howard County). With only a month to plan an Earth Day event, Laura Miller (then of DPW) and Sue Muller (DRP staff) somehow pulled together an event in the parking lot of the Howard County Dorsey building on a spring Saturday in April. The event included... Read more
July 31, 2014
How You Can Help
Workin’ At The Car Wash
It’s hot, it’s dusty, it’s perfect weather to get out there and wash your car! But think about this before you suds up your lovely vehicle: where does all of the dirt, oil, and soap from your car go after you wash it?
….Are you stumped?
It gets dumped down a storm drain. Why does that matter? Because, unlike the water that you flush down the toilet, water that’s swept into a storm drain isn’t... Read more