Get Your Free Lunch

Water running off your roof, downspouts and parking lots into the roadways and storm drains is bad for the Bay. So bad that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks urban runoff and storm-sewer discharges as Public Enemy Number Two for America’s estuaries.
    Stormwater runoff could be bad for your business, too.
    In economically sound and environmentally attractive areas like Annapolis, customers make buying decisions on quality-of-life issues. What urban businesses do or don’t do to keep Chesapeake Country healthy can be a turn-on or turn-off to customers.
    That’s why the Spa Creek Conservancy — whose watershed covers most of urban Annapolis — wants to buy you lunch.
    Lunch is free. So are Bay-friendly improvements to properties of business owners who sign on as stewards. Free, too, is the creation of the plan to help you get from problem to solution.
    “In an urban environment like Annapolis, we need business partners to meet our goal of reducing the polluting flow of stormwater into the Bay by way of Spa Creek,” says Amy Clements, president of the volunteer conservancy of Annapolis neighbors.
    The goal is getting you to join other Annapolis businesses, churches and schools in making changes that can be as small as rain barrels or as big as retrofitting your whole stormwater flow.
    The Spa Creek Stewardship Program was originally funded by Chesapeake Bay Trust. The workshop is funded by a Constellation EcoStar grant and the lunch provided by local restaurants.
    Thurs. Oct. 25 noon-2pm at the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program Office Fish Shack, Annapolis City Marina, Eastport. rsvp: [email protected].