The Grass Might Seem Greener, but the Streams Aren't Always Cleaner

Every once a while you get a little piece of information that proves that even the glossier, more upscale neighborhoods struggle with environmental problems.

I got one of those earlier this week, from the Little Falls Watershed Association. The Little Falls is located right in the heart of Bethesda and Chevy Chase, where lovely luxurious homes border lush green streets and even the public school grounds look like private academy campuses to my eyes.

It would be easy to assume that the creeks there are very clean, if all you went on was the lack of litter or graffiti around the neighborhoods. I’m sure a lot of people do assume that the creeks there are completely clean, based only on such appearances.

But LFWA just got back the results from some water quality testing conducted by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission last September, revealing that upstream in the Little Falls, the measurement of Enterococci (fecal) bacteria was 435; downstream 237.

To put this in perspective, the state standards are as follows:

All Areas: 33
Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation: 61
Moderately Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation: 78
Occasional Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation: 107
Infrequent Full Body Contact Recreation: 151
(All numbers are counts per 100 milliliters)


This is waste we are talking about here. Poop. Doo doo. Dung. Call it whatever. Its gross and its in our streams in very high amounts. Some of it comes from wildlife, some from pets. But a lot is also from human waste. (Detailed percentage breakdowns are available for those who are interested.)

One resident who responded to the email that went out from the LWFA called the numbers shocking. Another cautioned that everyone should wash very well if they visit the creek. Someone else said he found it appalling that any sewage could be found in the creek whatsoever.

Of course the Little Falls numbers still pale in comparison those taken in my own beloved Sligo Creek, which test in the 800s both upstream and down. (Those involved with monitoring water quality caution that the numbers may not represent a continuous flow of fecal pollution; rather, the sites were tested on one day and these were the results. A second test seemed to put the Sligo upstream numbers in the 600s.)

In general, when people find out about fecal pollution, they want to know where it comes from, and why it is there. In aging urban neighborhoods sewer pipes can form one potential source. The pipes are sometimes next to or actually under the streams, and as they age they begin to leak.

I guess it is just one more example of the fact that we all live downstream, no matter what neighborhood we call home. Even the places that look really nice need stewardship and attention.

(To see a detailed break down of the creeks which were tested in Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland, visit the Friends of Sligo Creek’s page on Water Quality monitoring at: http://www.fosc.org/WSSCMonitoring20090921.htm)