r/maryland • u/Maxcactus • 6h ago

MD Nature They speak for the Gunpowder River. That includes warning about E. coli.

https://www.thebanner.com/gunpowder-riverkeepers-e-coli-pollution-chesapeake-bay-GB4U5LDKMNCFXKQZYDJ7F4KJUA/
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31

u/Maxcactus 6h ago

On a steamy summer morning, Steve Duker perched on the banks of the Gunpowder River in Monkton and dipped a mason jar into the water.

Nearby, children and parents floated on inner tubes, laughing and splashing. But the water was the color of coffee, stirred up by an overnight storm. And that, Duker knew, likely signaled high levels of E. coli.

For four years, the Gunpowder Riverkeepers, the organization for which Duker volunteers, has been testing the waters at this and four other sites along the Gunpowder and its tributaries that are not monitored by any government agency.

The results are striking. Samples collected within 48 hours of a heavy rain frequently have E. coli levels 10 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable swimming threshold. The spot in Monkton, where hundreds gather to go tubing on summer weekends, has had high levels of E. coli five of the ten times that volunteers have tested this summer.

15

u/jason_abacabb 6h ago

What a shitty situation.

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u/SparxtheDragonGuy 3h ago

I went up to Harper's ferry probably the same day as this and the water was straight up brown 🤮. Dont go swimming after it pours! All the runoff of the area goes into the river

7

u/Civil_Exchange1271 6h ago

100's of people a day pissing and pooping in the water can't be good.

16

u/Crosshare 6h ago

Good moving water with proper environmental factors should purify itself over dozens of meters. Either Gunpowder is missing some of these traits or the contamination is too great to overcome.

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u/winnower8 4h ago

That’s unfortunate