Maryland recently selected five watersheds in the state that will receive initial state grant funding as part of the Whole Watershed Act. These watershed-scale restoration efforts will contribute to both short-term and lasting economic benefits in the state of Maryland.
Maryland anticipates that restoration work in the selected watersheds will contribute to local economic development by making areas more attractive for businesses and creating new opportunities for outdoor recreation.
The state’s interagency management team selected Antietam Creek in Washington County, Baltimore Harbor, Newport Bay near Ocean City, the Severn River in Anne Arundel County, and the Upper Choptank River on the Eastern Shore.
Maryland’s Whole Watershed Act, passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2024, establishes a collaborative and science-based approach to watershed restoration. The act created a five-year program to target five Maryland watersheds for water quality improvements that best represent the state’s diverse land uses, geographies, and environmental challenges.
A watershed is a land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually to outflow points such as the Chesapeake Bay or Atlantic Ocean.
The selected watershed teams include partners from community organizations, local governments, private firms, and other groups.
The following program sponsors led the proposal process for each team that was selected:
- Catoctin Land Trust for Antietam Creek
- South Baltimore Gateway Partnership for the Baltimore Harbor
- Maryland Coastal Bays Program for Newport Bay
- Resilience Authority of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County for the Severn River
- ShoreRivers for the Upper Choptank River
The Whole Watershed Act aligns with the new strategy for Bay restoration in Maryland that focuses on improving shallow waterways such as creeks, streams, and rivers. These are areas where clean water goals for safe, swimmable, and fishable streams and rivers can be met through focused restoration.
Although specific projects are not finalized for funding, the watershed applications lay out varied plans for restoring waterways, uplifting communities, and enhancing habitat areas. Each selected application put forward projects located at various points of the watershed.
For example, the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, in its Baltimore Harbor application, outlined proposals for constructing wetlands to reduce flood risk and filter stormwater in South Baltimore; restoring shorelines to create new fish habitats on the Patapsco River; increasing waterfront access and spurring economic growth in neighborhoods like Cherry Hill and Gwynn Falls; planting trees and installing beautification projects; and supporting efforts to remove invasive fish.
The ongoing and proposed environmental work in South Baltimore is expected to attract new economic development to the area and provide local residents with access to the waterfront for the first time in generations.
In October, One Westport, a new $400 million mixed-use residential, retail, and office development broke ground on a long-vacant 43-acre site along the Patapsco River waterfront where the environmental restoration work is taking place.
The formerly industrial waterfront area sat vacant and inaccessible for years before community, environmental, and business groups partnered together to create a new vision for the future. Whole Watershed funding is expected to transform this often-overlooked part of the city into another waterfront asset.
Watershed-scale efforts in other selected areas include proposed trails to connect communities, projects to reduce stormwater flooding affecting homes, tree plantings to improve climate resilience, and new partnerships with agricultural producers to improve conservation efforts on farms.
The Whole Watershed Restoration Partnership’s State Management Team selected the watersheds. The management team includes experts from the Maryland departments of Agriculture, Emergency Management, Environment, Natural Resources, and Planning, along with the Critical Area Commission.
Each applicant’s program will receive five years of technical and financial assistance to design and implement conservation and pollution reduction projects.
During fiscal year 2026, the five programs will each receive at least $2 million in initial funding that the program sponsors can then leverage to secure matching funds outside of the Whole Watershed program.
In the coming months, the management team will be working with each watershed program to identify a prioritized list of projects. The management team will commit additional funding over the five-year time period to support the programs.
The management team issued a request for proposals in October 2024 and then evaluated the submitted applications based on their plans’ benefits for water quality, increased public access, wildlife habitat, environmental justice, and climate resiliency.
The team also weighed the cost-effectiveness of the proposed programs, applicants’ experience, and their ability to match state investment. This program represents a shift from previous restoration efforts, which generally funded individual projects throughout the state based on modeled pollution reductions without a targeted geographic focus.
To meet requirements of the law, the selected watersheds include one predominantly urban area (Baltimore Harbor); one in a predominantly suburban area (Severn River); at least two that reduce runoff in a predominantly agricultural area (Antietam Creek, Newport Bay, and Upper Choptank River); and at least one with a collaborative effort with an adjoining state (Antietam Creek’s watershed includes Pennsylvania and the Upper Choptank River’s watershed is partially in Delaware).
With Antietam Creek, the Baltimore Harbor, and the Upper Choptank River, the management team selected three watersheds located within and providing benefit to overburdened or underserved communities.
During the next five years, the State Management Team will oversee the watershed programs to help develop implementation and finance plans and find efficiencies in project permitting and funding. The team will also help measure project results and support monitoring at project sites.
The selection of watersheds starts the process for the management team to identify what it will fund and help develop. The Whole Watershed Fund will not fund every aspect of each application.
The law utilizes existing state funds to create a new Whole Watershed Fund for the program. The Whole Watershed Fund pools resources from multiple state sources, including the Maryland Cost Share Program (MACS), Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation (MALPF), the Bay Restoration Fund, the Clean Water Commerce Act, the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund, and the Waterway Improvement Fund.
Proposed agricultural best management practices within each watershed program that are ready to implement will be prioritized within the Maryland Department of Agriculture for cost sharing and receive additional funding based on specific practice eligibility.
The Whole Watershed Act provides implementation grants for up to 50% of the program cost, and each watershed program has been asked to secure additional funding from other state, federal, local, and private sources.
As required by the Whole Watershed Act, program sponsors will hold four public meetings a year and provide an opportunity for public comment on the preliminary design of each major or large-scale action proposed for the Whole Watershed program.
The State Management Team will hold six meetings a year with each watershed sponsor and participating local governments to review and facilitate progress within each watershed.
source: Maryland Department of Natural Resources
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