The ICPRB Second Quarter Business Meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, from 9:45 a.m. until noon. The ICPRB meetings are public, and guests can register by sending an email to info@icprb.org with your name and affiliation by Friday, February 26, 2021. A copy of the draft agenda is available.
The ICPRB staff and commissioners welcome William J. Willis as a Pennsylvania commissioner. Willis teaches at the Mercersburg Academy in Mercersburg, Pa., where he is the Director of Environmental Initiatives and an environmental science teacher.
Willis led the creation of an environmental master plan for the school, and chairs the environmental committee. His efforts cover environmental initiatives in all elements of school life, including facilities, student engagement, community outreach, residential life, administrative planning, and curriculum. He also conducts monthly stream monitoring with students and local citizens as a cofounder of the Johnston Run Revitalization Team.
Since coming to the academy in 2001, Willis has worked in many other aspects of the school, including director of International Programs, and alumni and annual giving.
Willis previously worked in education marketing and served as director of the nonprofit Bitterroot Ecological Resources, Inc., working to increase public awareness and engagement in the Bitterroot River Valley in Montana.
Willis past and current activities make him well-suited to help with similar efforts in the Potomac watershed, and ICPRB looks forward to seeing his science and outreach skills bring a positive impact. Welcome aboard!
White’s Ferry sold, D.C. flooding, road salt, environmental justice, and more in the Potomac News Reservoir.
The future Potomac, salt, eels, conservation, and more in the Potomac News Reservoir.
Road salt reductions, oysters, eelgrass, and more in the Potomac News Reservoir.
Oysters, pollution charges, cleanups, solar energy, and more in the Potomac News Reservoir.
Cleanups, road salt, plastics, navigation restrictions, and more in the Potomac News Reservoir.
Although the region’s streamflows currently are above normal, the region’s major water suppliers and the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin Section for Water Supply Operations on the Potomac (CO-OP) will exercise their ability to respond to severe drought conditions during a multi-day exercise beginning November 16-18, 2020.
The exercises are a way to practice operations under severe drought conditions, when the normally independent utilities work cooperatively with CO-OP so that each utility can meet the demands of their customers while minimizing the need for restrictions. The three major water suppliers draw the bulk of their raw water from the Potomac. A drought of record could drop the flow of the river below what is needed to meet high summertime drinking water demands. When riverflow and other data indicate a coming shortage, CO-OP can guide Potomac use among the utilities and manage releases of stored water to meet demands. The Jennings Randolph reservoir on the North Branch Potomac holds billions of gallons of water that can be released downstream to meet utility demands and environmental flow concerns. The much smaller Little Seneca Reservoir in Montgomery County, Md., is used to adjust river flow in the short term as a release from Randolph Reservoir can take about nine days to reach the metropolitan suppliers’ intakes.
The exercise uses simulated low flows that allow all parties to practice daily reporting procedures, internal communications, and releases of stored water.
This year’s exercise will focus on honing the communications channels between the utilities, CO-OP, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, divisions of which operate both as a metropolitan water supplier and operator of Randolph Reservoir. Another focus is the modeling that incorporates drinking water demand data and forecasts from utilities, precipitation, and stream flow data to determine the timing and volume of reservoir releases. In addition, the exercise will include an actual release from Little Seneca Reservoir, and improved data reporting systems.
These procedures are honed by the annual exercise, and have resulted in a very resilient drinking water system for the Washington metropolitan area’s more than four-million residents who rely on the Potomac as their primary drinking source. More information about the metropolitan water supply system and CO-OP are available on the ICPRB WEBSITE .
For more information on the exercise, contact Curtis Dalpra, info@icprb.org; 301.274.8107
A new study by ICPRB biologist Claire Buchanan and other authors has provided an improved method for assessing nutrient levels in the surface waters of the Chesapeake Bay and will provide an improved way to judge the effects of nutrient reduction best management practices. The regional Chesapeake Bay cleanup is based on reducing nutrients and sediments to restore the waterway’s health. Excessive nutrient levels contribute to algae blooms that cause a succession of water quality problems. Buchanan teamed with scientists from the University of Maryland, the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and the Chesapeake Research Consortium to produce Nutrient limitation of phytoplankton in Chesapeake Bay: Development of an empirical approach for water-quality management.
The model can help direct future efforts in nutrient reduction through improved modeling that can increase effectiveness and reduce costs. Future research will focus on the Potomac and other bay tidal tributaries.
The ICPRB welcomes the Statement in Support of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice signed on August 18, 2020 by the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) Executive Council, which includes all parties to the ICPRB Compact. As a longstanding CBP participant and partner, the ICPRB fully shares the commitments articulated in the above-referenced Statement, which echo and amplify references in the ICPRB’s Manual of Operations and the recently adopted ICPRB Revised Strategic Plan for 2020-2023 to a diverse workforce, broader outreach, marginalized/vulnerable communities and environmental justice.