The planned restoration of a stretch of Taylor Run drew widespread community concern at a virtual project update on Jan. 28, as environmentalists and residents questioned how effective and harmful the project will be.
City staff’s plan is to implement a natural channel design in a 1,900-foot section of Taylor Run from a sewer outfall near Chinquapin Recreation Center to First Baptist Church on King Street. The city’s stated goal with the project is to stabilize the degraded channel and exposed, at-risk sewer infrastructure, preserve the local ecology and improve water quality by slowing the downstream flow of phosphorous, nitrogen and sediment caused by erosion.
Worried about mounting conservation mandates and their prohibitive costs, local stakeholders continue to raise concerns about the development of a plan to clean previously overlooked pollution piled up behind a Maryland dam.
The strategy, which is in its final planning stages, is likely to have an impact in Lancaster County, especially its farmland, which contributes pollutants to the downstream Conowingo Dam.
Now, officials in the county and across the state are concerned about the Conowingo project s costs, as well as its potential to draw resources away from other local clean-water efforts.
There are a couple of âpotential pitfalls,â according to Allyson Gibson, coordinator at Lancaster Clean Water Partners, a countywide group of organizations working toward clean water.
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Concerned about infrastructure standards not keeping up with the reality of climate change, Sen. Sarah Elfreth has introduced a bill that calls for updating the data used to inform regulations and updating it every five years.
To the editor:
We propose that city leaders consider achieving Chesapeake Bay pollution reduction credits through a major tree planting program rather than through the reconstruction of Taylor Run that is currently planned.
The program would not only help meet Alexandria’s Chesapeake Bay pollution reduction obligations, but would also advance several of the city’s other environmental goals, including its aspiration to be an “Eco-City” that in the words of the Eco-City Charter, “embraces natural beauty,” “improves water quality,” “clears the air” and “supports healthy living.”
Tree planting can provide Chesapeake Bay pollution reduction credits. A 2018 report by the Forestry Workgroup of the Chesapeake Bay Program states that “forests are a less-intensive land use and well known to be the best for protecting water quality.” The report states: