The Montgomery County Council adopted a plan today for Ten Mile Creek that is a considerable step forward in the long journey to protect this regionally-important drinking water supply and treasure of biological diversity.    

Save Ten Mile Creek Coalition leaders noted their appreciation for the most vocal supporters for Ten Mile Creek protection on the Council:  Council members Roger Berliner, Marc Elrich, Phil Andrews and Hans Riemer. Seven joint committee sessions were held to ensure a plan is based on a set of imperviousness caps: a 6% cap on the Pulte parcel, and 15% caps for each of the Miles-Coppola/Peterson, and Egan parcels; all would be subject to a minimum open space protection requirement of 80%.

County Executive Isiah (Ike) Leggett showed strong leadership in the effort to protect Ten Mile Creek by committing to forgo any further development of two county-owned parcels totaling 400 acres in Ten Mile Creek. He had also committed to assigning his administration's best scientists to contribute to the land use plan.

"The Leggett administration's contributions have been enormously helpful in crafting this plan to keep more land under forests and farms in Ten Mile Creek; this helps us to maintain its high-quality waters," noted Diane Cameron, coordinator of the Save Ten Mile Creek Coalition, Director of the Audubon Naturalist Society and a founding board member of Conservation Montgomery.

Diane Cameron at left with ANS Board Member Mike Gravitz in the background

Even though Council members and the County Executive sought to limit the damage with development restrictions, the plan still allows a large increase in development and urbanization in Ten Mile Creek. All scientists who testified in hearings acknowledged that there will be degradation and loss of biodiversity in this irreplaceable reference stream.

"This plan is an improvement but is not the full protection of Ten Mile Creek that the Save Ten Mile Creek sought," said Ginny Barnes, Vice Chair of Conservation Montgomery and one of the Coalition leaders.  "By full protection, we mean that no further degradation of the sensitive aquatic life and cold, clean, oxygen-rich waters of Ten Mile Creek will occur."

Leaders from the entire metro Washington region weighed in on the decision.  District of Columbia Council Chair Phil Mendelson and Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette wrote to the Montgomery County Council urging protection of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir of which Ten Mile Creek is one of three tributaries. Mendelson and Fisette both noted their constituents' reliance on Little Seneca Reservoir for drinking water supply in times of severe drought. A total of 4.3 million DC-area residents drink the waters of the mid-Potomac when they turn on their taps.  In addition, Prince Georgians also rely upon Little Seneca Reservoir to augment the mid-Potomac during severe drought - which experts say will be more frequent in the future due to climate change impacts.

With the support of the four Council members and the County Executive, top watershed scientists participated in the Council's Ten Mile Creek work sessions.  Department of Environmental Protection Senior Aquatic Biologist Keith Van Ness and UMBC professor Dr. Matt Baker addressed how urbanization quickly degrades high-quality streams, and how degradation is linked to imperviousness - hard, paved surfaces that funnel runoff at high volumes and velocities.  Imperviousness caps are therefore key science-based methods to limit the harm caused by development and urbanization. These experts also explained the scientific value of Ten Mile Creek as a reference stream used by scientists to assess the health of all other streams in Montgomery County and the larger region. 

Given the rarity of a reference stream of the quality Ten Mile Creek, combined with its sensitivity to the multiple harms caused by development, the council decided to place the most restrictive imperviousness caps on the portion west of I-270, the so-called Pulte parcel.  The imperviousness cap on this area of Ten Mile Creek will allow no more than 6% of the area to be covered with hard paved surfaces.  Coalition leaders noted that while this plan is not the full protection sought by the Coalition, it is an improvement over previous proposals, and will allow only about one-half of the development "pavement footprint," compared to the Planning Board's October 2013 recommendation.