Pier / by Admin

What do we know about this pier?

You must be familiar with piers.

Pier is an elevated structure that rises above the water and help to provide above-water access to offshore areas. But this pier is different. It is a pier standing above the #Potomac River.

What’s the significance of Potomac River?

Potomac river’s watershed covers the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.  It provides 80 percent of the drinking water to the Washington, D.C. metro area for estimate 6.1 million (6,097,684) residents.

  • Back in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson called the Potomac River “a national disgrace”.

  • In 1972, the Clean Water Act started the resurgence of the Potomac River.

  • In 1998, President Bill Clinton designated the Potomac as an American Heritage River which allowed communities to access federal resources to help revitalize their rivers, river fronts, and local economies.

According to Regional Aquatic Monitoring Program,” Factors affecting Aquatic Ecosystem”: Human effects on aquatic ecosystems often result from pollution, changes to the landscape or hydrology systems and larger scale impacts such as global climate change.”

More sustainable credits:

[SITES]. Water 3.6: Restore aquatic ecosystems

  • The requirements apply to sites that contain only the following naturally occurring aquatic ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed, such as:

  1. Marine/Estuarine: Tidal wetlands, mudflats, shorelines, reefs, seagrass beds

  2. Riverine: Streams rivers

  3. Lacustrine: Lake, ponds

  4. Palustrine: Non-tidal

  • Ensure the site assessment section is complete and shows the locations of any existing aquatic ecosystems on-site that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.

  • Restore the geographic extent of the aquatic ecosystem within the SITES project boundary for a minimum of 30%, 60%, or 90% of the geographic extent.

  • Develop a restoration plan based on the nine attributes of restored ecosystems

  • Ensure the section of the site maintenance plan is completed and includes ongoing management activities to protect the integrity of the aquatic ecosystems.

[LEED ND]. SLL: Restoration of habitat or wetlands and water bodies

  • Using only native plants restore predevelopment native ecological communities, water bodies, or wetlands on the project site in an area equal to or greater than 10% of the development footprint.

  • Work with a qualified biologist to ensure that restored areas will have the native species assemblages, hydrology, and other habitat characteristics that likely occurred in predevelopment conditions.

  • Identify and commit to ongoing management activities, along with parties responsible for management and funding available. The restored area is maintained for a minimum of three years after the project is built out or the restoration is completed.

  • The project does not meet the requirements if it negatively affects habitat for species identified in endangered species acts or habitat flagged for conservation in option 1 of SLL site design for habitat or wetland water body conservation.

By the way…

  • Want to understand more of the economic and social benefit of improving our aquatic-ecosystem? Such as improved riparian buffers can increase property values of waterside properties by up to 15 percent. Dive in “Downstream Economic Benefits from Storm-Water Management“, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management 130,no 6.

  • Background music: Smetana/ “Moldau (river)” from symphonic poems “Homeland” (Má vlast).


Last updates: 7.7.2021