• View a table that lists the original ten goals of the Patuxent Policy Plan (filename:2000_matrix.pdf) and each county's activities that speak to that specific goal. (*You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.  If you do not have the reader, you can get a free copy at http://www.adobe.com.)



• Patuxent River Watershed Monitoring Inventory



• The Maryland Department of Planning has additional information on related projects such as the Patuxent Paddling Trail, Patuxent Policy Plan and the annual Wade-In.

The Patuxent River Basin
The Patuxent River drains about 900 miles of land in portions of St. Mary’s, Calvert, Charles, Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Howard, and Montgomery Counties. The Patuxent is the largest river completely in Maryland.

Large water bodies include the Western Branch, Little and Middle Patuxent Rivers, and two large water supply reservoirs on the mainstem river above Laurel, which supply water for the Washington metropolitan area.

The Patuxent River, along with all tributary basins in the Chesapeake, contribute to and are impacted by nutrient pollution. Nutrient pollution can be divided into two major categories – point sources (pollution that comes from a single, definable location, such as a wastewater treatment plant or industrial discharge) and nonpoint sources (pollution that cannot be attributed to a clearly identifiable, specific physical location, such as runoff from land and atmospheric deposition). Runoff from different land uses, point sources, and atmospheric deposition are the major sources of nutrients within the Bay watershed.

In the Patuxent River basin, land use is very mixed, and consists of high density and low density development and agriculture lands. While forests and wetlands are also a land use, they release few nutrients to rivers and the Bay. Baywide, approximately 33% of nitrogen loads come from atmospheric sources, however, that varies from basin to basin and is included in land based loads.

Because of the developed nature of the Patuxent River, urban non-point and point sources both account for approximately one-third of the nitrogen and phosphorus, while agriculture contributes roughly one fifth of the nutrients. The nutrient loading from these sources threaten to increase with population growth. Population in the Patuxent River has increased by 136 % between 1970 and 2000, and is projected to grow by another 22% by 2020.

Download the complete Basin Overview to learn more about the Patuxent River Basin. See the latest Upper Patuxent (at Nottingham) or Lower Patuxent (at Jack Bay) water quality data (charts for water temperature, salinity, water clarity and dissolved oxygen) or see water quality for other Bay tributaries. For water quality status and long-term trends, see our status and trends maps. Also, please check out the Basin Summary for the Patuxent River Tributary Basin.

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