Tell the County Council - Sewers Don't Belong in Ten Mile Creek
Emails and testimony needed (by Monday) to protect backup water supply for 4.3 Million
This is a correction to our earlier email. The Friends of Ten Mile Creek endorse(s) only WSSC's Alternative 12, not Alternative 11. We have learned that that Alternative 11 would delay sewer service to the Clarksburg Historic District and properties along Route 355 indefinitely because it would align sewers along the proposed Route 355 bypass. No one knows when the bypass will be built. The Friends of Ten Mile Creek support(s) these property owners in their effort to obtain sewer service in the very near future. Even though both Alternatives 11 and 12 both minimize impacts on Ten Mile Creek, we endorse only Alternative 12.Sorry for the confusion.
The County Council has provided a strong framework protection for fragile Ten Mile Creek through the Clarksburg Master Plan process. But the devil is in the details. The WSSC has been working on a Sewer Facility Plan for Clarksburg since December 2014. At the start of this process WSSC plans had sewer lines running through protected buffer areas and even in the protected creek bed. Friends of Ten Mile Creek worked doggedly to provide data and testimony, joining the WSSC Citizens Advisory Committee in order to convince WSSC that other options for sewer lines would better balance water needs and protection of the Creek.
We were successful - an option in the plan on the way to approval by the Council offers more protections to the Creek (Option 12). Learn More Here.
Now we need your help to make sure Councilmembers continue to stand up for the Creek by choosing these more protective plans.
Please use the talking points below and send in your emails by COB Monday and consider joining us on Tuesday (June 28 1:30-3:30pm) to speak up for the Creek sign up and more info here .
I appreciate the strong position that the Montgomery County Council took to create a framework to preserve the cleanliness and quality of Ten Mile Creek. Now that the WSSC sewer study is completed, I strongly urge the Council to adopt Alternative 12 in the Sewer Facility Study. This is the most satisfactory one to preserve the creek and the region’s drinking-water system.
As a mandate for this process, the Montgomery County Council drafted Resolution 18‑66 that stipulated that “the Council expects that Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission’s comprehensive sewer study of the Ten Mile Creek Limited Master Plan Area to review all feasible alternatives for the maximum environmental protection of the area. Sewer infrastructure should avoid Ten Mile Creek, its tributaries, and other resources . . . “
We expect that the Council will continue to stand strong in its position of water protection for Ten Mile Creek. Failure to do so will jeopardize the 4.3 million people in the DC Metropolitan area who rely on the reservoir as a back‑up drinking water supply.
Many Thanks,
[Your Name Here]
Friends of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir was founded to give long term protection to this backup water supply for 4.3 Million in the DC area- please become a member today.
Your support is more important than ever as FoTMC (along with 17 other civic groups) has been served a subpoena seeking documents dating back to 2003 (!) as part of the Pulte Homes lawsuit against Montgomery County challenging the limit imposed on their development on several properties in the Ten Mile Creek watershed.
The protections for Ten Mile Creek are sound and we are not deterred by these developments. With your support we can continue to be the guardians this watershed needs for the long term. Thanks for your support.
