January 11, 2018

I went for a run today - the first run in a month.  It had warmed up to 50 degrees F, and was more like a spring day than a winter one.  When I got to the end of the street and entered the park, I saw the dirty water pouring into the Edgevale tributary of Sligo Creek.  In the picture below, that's the branch to the right.  A similar event had happened on January 3 due to a water main break, and another event on the 8th a quarter mile downstream from here.  I was surprised to find the main creek (on the left in the picture) was also full of yellow dirt. 

I ran on upstream from here.  About a half mile up there's another tributary we call the Flora Lane tributary.  It usually runs clear and cold, and has good water quality compared to the rest of the system, because it receives deep groundwater pumped out of the underground Forest Glen metro station.  But today, it was a dirty mess as well.  Upstream of that, the creek was clear. 


After my run, I got my phone and walked back to the creek where I took this picture and sent in a report to a group that monitors stream water quality. 

Later in the morning I walked to downtown Silver Spring, and found this sight.  Dirt laden water was flowing out of the pavement on Cameron Street and into the storm drains.  County workers were probing with some kind of monitoring device - I expect trying to find the location of the break before digging up the street. 

I don't know how much the silt from these water main breaks affects the ability of things to survive in the creek, but it concerns me that we've had four events like this in just a couple of weeks in the area that I frequent in my daily walks.



Sunrise 7:26 am, sunset 5:06 pm