Join us in celebrating #GivingTuesday! Thank you for supporting our efforts to protect water quality in the Gunpowder, Little Gunpowder, Bush, Bird and Middle Rivers!
Our year end letter and appeal celebrates what your support has helped us accomplish this year. Please give it a read!
In 2024, we need your financial support to maintain and enhance our River protection, monitoring, education and outreach efforts.
Please consider a year-end donation of support to amplify our advocacy in celebration of #GivingTuesday!
Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER® acknowledges that we protect land, water, sensitive species, and communities in the traditional territory of many nations including the Algonquin, the Susquehannock and the Delaware peoples.
First and foremost, thank you for supporting our efforts! Clean water is everyone’s right and a shared resource that must be protected for all.
Your support in 2023 resulted in:
Growing Our Capacity: This summer, we welcomed Madison McClusky, our third intern from Skidmore. Emily Chase, also from Skidmore, returned to provide remote outreach support. Wyatt Graham helped with Nature Center planning and both Cedar Stephenson and Taylor Rindal supported our water sampling and outreach. Erin Adams is an AmeriCorps member and Volunteer Coordinator for Sparks Nature Center helping to connect the center’s visitors to the Gunpowder Falls as the primary source of drinking water for 1.5 million Metro area residents by sharing the “forest to faucet” concept.
A precedent setting settlement with EPA on PCB’s in the Gunpowder and Bird Rivers: Our PCB settlement was approved by the Federal Court and received front page coverage from the Baltimore Sun and the Bay Journal. On July 29, 2020, Gunpowder Riverkeeper (Plaintiff) filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The result being a commitment from EPA to; undertake enhanced monitoring to identify legacy sources of contamination namely from Aberdeen Proving Grounds and the C.P. Crane site; provide for enhanced public participation elevating community voices concerned about PCB contamination, and to; provide for additional public notices to protect subsistence fisher people and their families.
Winning a partial remand to allow more public comments to make the 20SW stronger: We won litigation that challenged MDE’s new (20SW) industrial stormwater permit that covers over 100 facilities in the Gunpowder, Bird, Bush, and Middle Rivers. Under the old permit (12SW) only 25% of facilities statewide met their permit obligations.
Advisory: Theaux Le Gardeur is now a member of the OAG Environmental Advisory Council: He was invited and accepted an invitation by Maryland’s Attorney General Anthony Brown to support the work of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) as member of the OAG Environmental Advisory Council whose mission is to “protect and enhance the environmental well-being of our community…” The Council was put in place to “…position Maryland as a leader on climate sustainability and environmental justice…and to seek to identify and address environmental challenges, conserve natural resources, promote biodiversity, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.”
Outreach: We worked with DNR in distributing Bear Aware signage to educate the public and minimize Bear interactions within Gunpowder State Park.
Advocacy: We sent a letter in opposition regarding the Baltimore County Water and Sewer board plan to provide county and water and sewer outside of the Urban Rural Delineation Line (URDL) that would allow for housing at the C.P. Crane site.
Advocacy: We sent a letter in opposition about the redevelopment of the Lafarge Property at Ebenzer and Earls Rd into a warehouse/distribution center. The Planned Unit Development was reversed by a Bill David Marks in the 5th District introduced to represent community interests and opposition to the plan.
You can help us do more in 2024 to address these environmental threats:
Provide more legal capacity to save Abingdon Woods: We entered an appeal for the MDE Wetlands and Waterways Permit which is now before the Maryland Court of Appeals to protect Otter Point Creek and the last stand of intact mature forest in the pollution impaired Bush River watershed.
Provide funding for legal research to solve environmental problems: We are tracking noncompliant industrial and residential development sites that have continuous and pervasive sediment and erosion control violations that may have contributed in a loss of up to 30% of the submerged aquatic vegetation in the tidal Gunpowder, Bird and Middle River areas.
We need your financial support to maintain and enhance our River and community protection, monitoring, education, and outreach efforts.
2024 Terry Newendorp Scholarship Award: We are now accepting applications and your support could help us invest in more students who are passionate about the environment!
Continue Summer Monitoring Efforts on Bacteria: We are committed to protecting the Gunpowder and Bush Rivers, their watersheds, and surrounding communities by sampling E. Coli levels from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend in 2024.
We are part of an eDNA Brook Trout Research Team: ICARE fellow, Aiman Raza, a biology master’s student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is researching how environmental DNA (eDNA) can be used to monitor brook trout populations in the headwaters of the Chesapeake Bay. Aiman’s research team consists of UMBC professor Tamra Mendelson, scientists at the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center, and the Gunpowder Riverkeeper. She has been conducting research on how temperature, distance, and filter pore size affect brook trout eDNA detection and will be defending her thesis next spring.
In March of 2023, we moved to the Sparks Nature Center on the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail: Since then we have used the Nature Center for environmental outreach, including community service, streamwalks, programming, including our “Forest to Faucet” Speaker Series, and as our nonprofit headquarters.
Please consider a year-end donation to support our outreach, education and advocacy. You may donate at: https://gunpowderriverkeeper.networkforgood.com/projects/130365-everyday-giving or by sending a check to Gunpowder RIVERKEEPER®, P.O. BOX 156 Monkton, MD 21111.
Thank you for your support,
Theaux M. Le Gardeur
Please consider a year-end donation of support to amplify our advocacy in celebration of #GivingTuesday.
Gunpowder Riverkeeper has 445 supporters in 17 states, and is comprised of an Executive Director/RIVERKEEPER, up to nine board members and 27 committee members. Please let us know if you’d like to be more involved at gunpowderriverkeeper@gmail.com
GRK is a 501(c)(3) non-profit categorized by the IRS under Natural Resource Conservation and Protection. Your charitable contribution is tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. A copy of the current financial statement of GRK is available by writing P.O. BOX 156 Monkton, MD 21111 or calling 410-967-3526. Documents submitted under the Maryland Solicitations Act are also available, for the cost of postage and copies, from: The MD Sec. of State, State House, Annapolis MD 21401 (410) 974-5534.First and foremost, we wish all of you and your family members continued good health and peace during these challenging times. Thank you for supporting our efforts! Clean water is everyone’s right and a shared resource that must be protected for all. This year, we’re sending out our year end letter on #GivingTuesday. This global initiative shows the power of shared generosity, focusing on the core values of service.