The Fate of Hickey Run of the Anacostia Watershed
-Silent Movie Clip-

About Hickey Run

To learn more about Hickey Run of the Anacostia Watershed, click on this link:
http://www.anacostia.net/Empact/subwatershed_files/Profile_files/HickeyRun.htm

Why is Piping a Stream Bad? Piping a Stream Destroys it

Piping removes riparian buffers and the vital ecological benefits they provide to small streams. Excess nutrients enter waterways via small streams. If protected by riparian buffers, small streams are much more efficient at removing those nutrients than larger, deeper channels downstream. Riparian buffers help maintain biological diversity, the unique assemblage of organisms living in the small streams. They are a basic part of the food web, allowing small streams to export material that serves as food for fishes and other organisms living downstream. They provide natural flood control, slowing the downstream movement of water, allowing infiltration into the water table, and access to the flood plain. In watersheds where small streams have been eliminated, downstream flooding increases.

 Piping concentrates stormwater runoff. The speed and amount of the stream flow is accelerated, resulting in downstream erosion below the pipe. Piped streams also carry all kinds of pollutants directly into the waterway, without any filtration or treatment.

How Can I Help?

Remember that piping a stream is not good for the environment and oppose any project that pipes a stream that you can. Support “day-lighting” streams whenever possible. In order to mitigate the impact on streams, install rain gardens, green roofs, and other stormwater control measures. Also, don’t forget to be an AWS member to receive information about the Anacostia River and to support its work.

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Reference
C. Rhett Jackson, Associate Professor of Hydrology, Warnell School of Forest Resources, UGA, Considerations in Prescribing Riparian Buffer Widths With Emphasis on Georgia Warmwater Streams, available here: http://crd.dnr.state.ga.us/assets/documents/jrgcrddnr/ripbuffsum.pdf