Anacostia Watershed Society
Stream Corridor Assessment
Bonifant Road

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Anacostia Watershed Society

The following information was provided by Masaya Maeda of the Anacostia Watershed Society.

AWS has decided to conduct a SCA (Stream Corridor Assessment) survey on the Northwest Branch and has already conducted it on a small portion of the stream. We would like to identify environmental problems such as eroding stream banks, inadequate stream buffers, exposed pipes, altered stream channels, fish migration barriers, pipe outfalls, in-stream construction sites and trash dumping locations along the branch. The major findings will be reported appropriately. The data will be also used to raise people's awareness of stream problems and eventually it will be incorporated into WRAS project by State Government.

The graph shows daily streamflow (cubic feet per second, mean value) for 2000 in pink color and for 1939 in blue color. You can see higher values of streamflow amount (volume and velocity) and can also see more frequent high flow events. Using a boxing analogy: too many jabs in the year 2000 so the stream bank vegetation has little time to recover from the damage; too strong straight punch around 9/25 to 9/28 in the year 2000 so the stream bank vegetation is knocked down after too frequent jabs. Increasing impervious surfaces are increasing the volume, velocity, and frequency of high flow events.

Survey Date: 9/9/2005

242102 Erosion Site

Approximate length: 950 ft Approximate height: 7.5 ft

242106 Erosion Site

Approximate length: 40 ft Approximate height: 6 ft

242108 Erosion Site

Approximate length: 40 ft Approximate height: 6 ft