We can't clean up our watersheds without benchmarking and identifying where there are problems. Patuxent Riverkeeper provides training and water testing kits to citizen monitors. Volunteer monitors use a public web portal where water testing volunteers can post their results, compare their sampling data with others and empower themselves and others with knowledge about what and where the actual water quality impairments and sources of those impairments are. Volunteers will also identify and grade stormwater management practices at construction sites.

For more information about the program, visit the Patuxent River Monitoring Network website

There is much work to be done if we are to use this report to motivate action by elected leaders. You can make a difference in stimulating this action. I urge you in the next few days to send an email to your representatives in Annapolis and your county commissioners making the following points:

• I believe the Patuxent River is an invaluable resource, and the time is now to act to restore and protect our river.
• Please review Patuxent River 20/20, an extensive report released this week by the Patuxent Riverkeeper which calls for specific actions to improve our river. It can be found online at X.
• I support the recommendations in this report and hope you will also. It's essential that elected leaders in our state (or community) act to restore and protect this resource before it is too late.
• I urge you to contact Jennifer Bevan-Dangel at the Patuxent Riverkeeper for further information. She is an outstanding resource on the River, what is happening to it, and what we can do to ensure its health.
• I appreciate your support of the river.

If you need help in finding the name of your representative and his/her email address, use the mdelect.net tool below or please contact me at jennifer@paxriverkeeper.org

Finally, it would be very helpful to us if you could send a blind copy of your email to me. That will allow us to see who has been contacted by local citizens, and we can use that information in follow-up contacts.

• Official Fort Meade Site
• May 5 2005 Article, Maryland Newsline
• June 2005 Article, (Howard and Anne Arundel County) Business Monthly

If you see dumping or pipes pouring into the River, report it. Even the ones with permits are sometimes a huge problem! Click here for a list of local agencies.