Follow-up Water Quality Analysis at the Little Patuxent River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland and Impact to the Health of the Chesapeake Bay

In accordance with the federal Clean Water Act, it is of utmost importance to identify impaired water bodies and subsequently implement Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) as needed to achieve desirable water quality standards. One of these water bodies include the Little Patuxent River (LPR) in the Anne Arundel and Howard Counties in Maryland, which is the subject of this report. In the 1996, 1998, and then 2006 Maryland Integrated Report, the LPR was found to be impaired by nutrients, bacteria, suspended sediments, and cadmium (Cd). As a result, TMDLs were created to limit factors that were contributing to these problems (Maryland Department of the Environment 2011, December). But later in 2008 and 2009, water quality analyses (WQAs) found that the LPRs condition had improved. From a Category 5 Cd and phosphorus classification in 1996 it was reduced to Category 2 in 2008 for Cd and in 2009 for phosphorus (Maryland Department of the Environment 2011, December). However, it has been more than a decade since the last WQA and the environmental conditions may have changed. This lack of testing could result in untracked, accumulated damages to the overall health of the LPR. We present testing results for the 13 site locations on the LPR to evaluate turbidity, pH, phosphates, nitrates, water temperature, dissolved oxygen (D.O.), coliform bacteria, and cadmium concentrations in sediments. We will also present next steps including remediation strategies.