Site Specific Advocacy

• Angelica Nursery Success – in the summer of 2006, CRA approached Angelica Nursery owners about a significant sediment problem in the Chesterville Branch of the Chester River. Angelica is the largest nursery east of the Mississippi River. Its 3000 acres dominate the Chesterville Branch watershed. The owners were very cooperative and CRA was able to help secure federal funding to install two large sediment retention ponds and install drip irrigation on 300 acres of plant stock. The 2008 Chester River Report Card, done by the members of our Chester Tester program and staff, show that the Chesterville Branch was the most improved tributary in our watershed. Although we cannot 100% prove it, we believe this is a clear indication of the success of our advocacy program working in conjunction with our Chester Tester program. The Angelica success will be featured in the fall 2009 issue of our publication, Riverkeeper Almanac, which will be posted on our website under "Recent Publications".         

• Velsicol/Genovique Chemicals – as reported previously CRA successfully participated in a consent decree order against Velsicol (now called Genovique) to prevent the discharge of phosphorus and carcinogens into the waters of an unnamed tributary of the Chester River. Although we were praised for our success and received significant positive press coverage, our work continues. After much prodding, MDE has now begun to enforce the consent decree which has resulted in Velsicol/Genovique publicly protesting the effort.

• Privately owned waste water treatment plants (package plants) – these systems when installed at individual homes do not work as they are designed because they require significant maintenance and they allow land to be developed that could not be developed before.  After a series of appeals to MDE and the courts which were unsuccessful, CRA hired a representative in Annapolis to pass legislation preventing these systems. The Private Wastewater Treatment Act of 2009 was passed and will become law on October 1, 2009. This legislation will prevent the proliferation of these systems statewide.  

• In addition, CRA helped sponsor legislation in Annapolis that resulted in the passage of the Chesapeake Bay Nitrogen Reduction Act of 2009 requiring that all new houses and failing septic systems in the critical statewide area to upgrade their systems using nitrogen removal technology.

• CRA is continuing our wonderfully effective Chester Tester Program (noted in the Angelica Nursery section above) supporting advocacy. CRA will use the results of the work of the 50 Chester Tester volunteers as input for our 2009 Chester River Report Card which will be published next spring. To view the 2008 Chester River Report Card, please click on the link below.

2008 Report Card
2007 Report Card