Church Creek / Homeport / Water Restoration

[Lisa]

Hello all

Here's an article from The Capital about South River Federation's restoration of Church Creek, where Homeport Farm Park is located:

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/e...116-story.html

South River Federation website: http://www.southriverfederation.net/

South River Federation does good work.

FYI

Lisa

[J.A. Veil]

I read that article this morning and was quite surprised that the reporter called Church Creek "the most polluted creek on the South River". Given some of the historical problems in the upper South River watershed, this is quite a statement. Presumably the pollution in Church Creek is primarily sediment. From my three journeys into Church Creek, I have seen thick sedimentation in the upper reaches, but have not noticed any other water quality concerns in the rest of the creek. And I caught fish on each visit there.

[bunnielab]

I have a friend who does environmental research, focusing on water related stuff. He often has to take samples from upper Church Creek, where it is just a little trickle behind the businesses on Route 2. He has described it before as "struggling", but I have never pressed him for details. I will see if he has anything specific to offer and report back.

[DanMarino]

My experience is the same as Mr. Veil's. I've only launched there 3 times, but caught fish each time and seen plenty of aquatic life there. Stripers, white perch, some sort of minnows. Water was always had some clarity to it, but I paddled from the launch to where the creek dumps out in the main river.

[Mark]

Church Creek looks pristine. I’ve posted photos of it here in other threads to show its “fishy” shorelines of reeds, riprap, piers and fallen wood. I have paddled it from the South River toward its headwaters until I ran out of navigable water. The water clarity remained good even I as progressed far up the creek. I’ve had moderate success there with white perch and stripers. I had no idea Church Creek was once known as the most polluted creek on the South River.

Kudos to those involved with the project to revive the watershed.

[Lisa]

<snip> I had no idea Church Creek was once known as the most polluted creek on the South River. Kudos to those involved with the project to revive the watershed.

South River Federation finished some of the Church Creek projects around the time Homeport Farm Park opened and people were surprised at how quickly the creek started bouncing back. Here's the 2015 SRF Scorecard - a summary of the Church Creek projects is on the last page:

http://www.southriverfederation.net/...rtCard2016.pdf

SRF has done water quality monitoring for years on the South River and the test results let them target the most polluted creeks and get the most bang for the restoration buck. For years it was a toss-up between Church Creek and Broad Creek for most polluted creek, depending on which criteria you looked at. Now they're working on Broad Creek.

I heard a talk by the SRF project manager about Church Creek. It took him 4 years to assemble the Smith Island Cake of permits - local, state, federal - required for the project (one would expire while another was pending . . . ) and 4 months to build the main project.

Lisa