Baltimore's Inner Harbor

Greetings from Baltimore! This is HRWC Watershed Planner, Elizabeth Riggs. I’m fortunate to be talking about HRWC’s work in the Huron River watershed at a conference this week about Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), or pollution reduction diets for rivers, lakes, and bays. More than 100 people from the U.S. and abroad are attending ASABE’s TMDL 2010: Watershed Management to Improve Water Quality. Yesterday, we were greeted by Rich Batiuk with the US EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program and Dr. Bob Summers with the Maryland Department of the Environment.

HRWC has a good deal of experience using this tool of the Clean Water Act to reduce pollution, starting with the TMDL for phosphorus in Ford and Belleville Lakes that spurred creation of the Middle Huron Initiative. Tomorrow morning, I’ll share with the conference attendees the story of that TMDL and HRWC’s efforts to measure impacts on phosphorus levels in relation to the City of Ann Arbor’s manufactured fertilizer ordinance.

While I’m in Baltimore, HRWC’s other watershed planner, Ric Lawson, also is sharing this story with conference attendees in Milwaukee. Check back here for a forthcoming blog from Ric about his experiences.