Newport and Sinepuxent Bays
Stream Corridor
Assessment Survey


In 1998, the Maryland Clean Water Action Plan identified the Newport Bay 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 (DNR) and Worcester County formed a partnership to develop a Watershed Restoration Action Strategy (WRAS) for the Newport Bay watershed and the neighboring Sinepuxent Bay watershed. The following Stream Corridor Assessment (SCA) survey is part of the WRAS development process.

The SCA survey provides descriptive and positional data for potential environmental problems along a watershed’s non-tidal stream network. Developed by DNR’s Watershed Services Unit, the survey is a watershed management tool to identify environmental problems and help prioritize restoration opportunities on a watershed basis. As part of the survey, specially trained personnel walk a watershed’s streams and record data and the location for several environmental problems that can be easily observed within the stream corridor. Each potential problem site is ranked on a scale of one to five for its severity, correctability, and access for restoration work.

Note: (Documents are in PDF format and require Adobe Acrobat Reader which can be downloaded free from http://www.adobe.com)