2nd Annual Community Clean Water Summit

Join the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as they host the 2nd annual Community Clean Water Summit

Saturday, March 3, 2012 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (snow date Saturday, March 11, 2012)

The Summit will take place at the Silver Spring Civic Building located at 1 Veterans Place, Silver Spring, MD, near public transportation.
Meet people just like you working to make Montgomery County a cleaner and healthier place. Interact with community organizations involved in the conservation of local streams. Learn how you can make a difference, make new friends, and have fun! Register for this free event at http:cleanwatersummit.eventbrite.com
Space is limited, a light lunch will be provided and you must be registered to attend. Door prizes include: an REI 3 season tent, rain barrels and more! (must be present to win).
The goal of the summit is to make people aware of their impact on water quality and stream health as well as what is being done to improve it. There will also be plenty of volunteer opportunities for residents to get involved in too. We want people to walk away knowing more about their environment and that by just changing a few habits they can make a big difference in improving the health of our streams and drinking water. This is the second year we are having the clean water summit. It brings together people from the community who may be unfamiliar with their local waterways with the people who study stream health and individuals who have taken upon themselves to complete watershed protection projects, among others. It provides an opportunity for watershed groups to interact more with the public and show firsthand some of the projects and initiatives they are working on and hopefully gain more volunteers/members. Some of the topics for this year’s summit include presentations by residents & professionals who:

• Adopted a pet waste campaign in their local community to get people to stop ignoring the effect pet waste has on water quality.
• Started a watershed group in their neighborhood to protect their local creek and has now empowered their community to think more holistically about stream protection.
• Created a green streets campaign to reduce the amount of pavement in their neighborhood
• Monitor the local streams for trends in aquatic life & habitat
• Created a county rebate program for residents to reduce their watershed footprint by simply planting native plants and products such as rain barrels.

You can register for the event by clicking on this link: http://cleanwatersummit.eventbrite.com. For questions, please contact: Ryan Zerbe, Watershed Outreach Planner Montgomery County
Ryan.Zerbe@montgomerycountymd.gov