The startling green stream at 5:30pm.

Slightly further upstream.

Once again, a company upstream dumped a whole bunch of stuff down the storm drains that flowed directly into our stream. This seems to happen every couple of months, which is frustrating (to put it lightly) to those of us working hard in town to clean up the stream and reestablish a viable ecosystem. Yesterday, people walking home through the park were treated to a neon green stream, full of what initially looked like a heckuva lot of antifreeze. Three hours later, the County hazmat team determined that it was “only” dye. Dye used to test the boiler system at “Building 4” of the office buildings two blocks away, apparently. How that dye was dumped into the storm drains rather than legally disposed of remains a mystery; the company seems to be claiming “faulty valve,” but I find it hard to imagine the location of a valve between the interior sewer system and the exterior storm drains. The Department of Environmental Resources is looking into it, and we hope to have more information soon. At the least, the NO DUMPING signs need to be touched up on the storm drains in the area.

The view from Adelphi Road, the entry point.

The view from two blocks downstream.

Although the dye is categorized as “non-toxic,” it’s still no small matter for the stream. After being in the water less than an hour, the dye lowered the stream pH from its normal (healthy) level of 7 to a much more acidic level of 4. At that level nothing but bacteria can live in the stream: adult fish die and the smaller invertebrates on which they depend die as well. It’s not clear how long it will take the stream to revert to normal: while the dye wasn’t as neon, the stream was still dark green at noon today at a point about a half mile downstream. Having just seen several pairs of ducks returning to the stream (not to mention grackles, thrushes, flickers, several kinds of sparrows, and phoebes), I’m hoping the rainwater will wash things through and the streambed will recover quickly.

It’s events like this that make us unlikely to just trust local developers to put adequate stormwater management and waste disposal plans in place when they propose to build highrises just upstream from our town. As the boy I encountered in the park last night said, “This goes to the Chesapeake Bay, right? Isn’t that really bad for the Bay?” Yes. Yes, it is.

Town Council Members Mickey Lucas and Margaret Mallino talking with Stream Committee Chair Tom Stickles.