Liberty Reservoir Stream
Corridor Assessment Survey


The Liberty Reservoir watershed encompasses over 104,802 acres (164 square miles). Approximately 83% of the land in the watershed is in Carroll County, Maryland, with the remaining 17% in Baltimore County, Maryland. This survey focuses only on the area lying within Carroll County. In 1998, the Maryland Clean Water Action Plan identified the Liberty Reservoir watershed as one of the State’s water bodies that did not meet water quality requirements. In response to this finding, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Carroll County formed a partnership to develop a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy (WRAS) for the Liberty Reservoir Watershed. As part of the WRAS development process, a Stream Corridor Assessment (SCA) survey was performed on three sub-watersheds: Middle Run, Snowden’s Run, and the West Branch of the Patapsco River. The survey began in April 2002 and was completed by October 2002.

The SCA survey was developed by the Watershed Assessment Division of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to provide a rapid examination of the stream network in a watershed. The survey is done using specially trained field teams that walked the entire stream network and note the location of a variety of potential environmental problems. As part of the survey, field teams also collected some basic information about stream habitat conditions at regular intervals. This survey is not intended to be a detailed scientific evaluation, and the data collected about any specific problem is limited. Instead, the survey is designed to give an overview of the condition of the stream system so that future restoration efforts can be better targeted.

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