Sturgeon, oysters, a wet 2018, government shutdown, pipeline plugged, and more in the Potomac News Reservoir.

The Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin has announced a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Pilot Study of Water Quality Data Collected under Maryland’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Phase 1 Permits. The submission deadline is December 31, 2018.

Summary

Monitoring data have been collected in Maryland under the MS4 program for over 20 years. Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is interested in using the data and has contracted with the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB) to perform statistical analysis to answer questions related to the water quality characterization of discharged stormwater and the effectiveness of BMPs and watershed restoration. ICPRB is seeking cost- effective proposals from qualified applicants to work with ICPRB to 1) investigate linkages between water quality trends and BMP implementation during watershed restoration, and 2) perform exploratory data analysis which forms a bridge between assembling and reviewing the available data and formulating statistical hypotheses and testing them. The full scope of work is available in Attachment 1 in the document below. It is expected that ICPRB and the Contractor will collaborate on all of the tasks in the SOW, with assistance from MDE, as explicitly noted in the description of tasks.

The full proposal and all attachments can be found in the Request for Proposal.

ICPRB will be holding it’s Quarterly Business Meeting on December 4, 2019, at the USGS Leetown Science Center in Kearneysville, West Virginia. The public is welcome to attend, but space is limited, so please RSVP. An agenda and more information can be found on the Business Meetings webpage. Commissioners will discuss the spill exercise held earlier this year, the Low Flow Allocation Agreement, and receive an update on the Potomac Basin Comprehensive Plan.