Stormwater Management Educates Students on Water Quality and BMPs

ELKTON, MD. -- Purple Cone Flower, Black-Eyed Susan, Great Blue Lobelia, Cardinal Flower, and Switchgrass. These are some of the familiar plants taking root at Elkton Middle School thanks to a crew from Cecil County's Stormwater Management Division and an eager-to-learn group of sixth graders.

On April 17th, Marshall McSorley and Brie Tulowitzky from the County's Stormwater Management Division gave a hands-on presentation to all four of Mrs. Rebecca Botha's sixth-grade science classes on water quality, plantings and the importance of Earth Day.

As an Earth Day Action Project, the students, along with McSorley and Tulowitzky, then worked together to construct a native plant garden adjacent to the school. The garden was stocked with plants all indigenous to Cecil County soil. The project also included the implementation of a rain barrel, a stormwater best management practice (BMP). The barrel will collect water from the roof of the school and provide a source for students and teachers to water their new garden.

"My students had an experience that they will never forget," said Botha. "They were so proud to go home with the saplings and were even more excited to tell everyone at home what they got to do for Earth Day. I cannot thank [the County] enough for providing this support to make our campus more beautiful and more environmentally friendly." Botha also welcomed the opportunity to work with the stormwater division on future projects.

Part of the mission of the Stormwater Management Division is to promote environmental guidance of natural resources within the county through educational activities to ensure the protection of those resources from the effects of sedimentation and stormwater pollution.

Reflecting on the experience, Tulowitzky added, "It was a day full of hard work, happy students, and a positive learning environment."

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This coming Tuesday, May 1st at 1PM, the Department of Public Works and Stormwater Management Division, will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at North East High School to mark the completion of a larger, more complex project on the school property. Representatives from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (MD DNR), Cecil County Public Schools and Cecil County Government will be on hand for the ceremony.

The project involved the construction of stormwater management practices ranging from a bioretention to the restoration of degraded stream segments and took more than three months to complete. The project was funded by the MD DNR Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, which funds water quality and watershed restoration and protection projects to reduce non­-point source pollution to the Chesapeake Bay as well as bays along Maryland’s Atlantic Coast. 

To learn more about Cecil County's Stormwater Management Division, visit http://www.ccgov.org/government/public-works/public-works-divisions/stormwater-management-division.

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Photo: Elkton Middle School's Native Plant Garden: before, during and after.