Helping Streams Help Themselves, Naturally The sights and sounds
of a stream running through your backyard or your favorite
neighborhood park can be a soothing antidote to the busy pace of
modern life. But when U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
scientists Paul Mayer and Elise Striz look at a creek bed, they
notice something that nature hadn’t intended. They observe the
negative effects of water running off the paved surfaces of the
urban landscape. “Water runoff is changing the flow of many
streams,” says Paul Mayer, Ecologist, U.S. EPA Groundwater and
Ecosystem Restoration Division, or GWERD. “Rapid runoff of rain
from pavement causes stream banks to erode and forces streams to
move laterally in ways that are impacting people’s homes,
exposing water and sewer lines, and negatively impacting both
ground and surface water quality.” The shifting streams are a
problem for municipalities like the Baltimore County Department
of Environmental Protection and Resource Management, which is
working collaboratively w