After so much bad news about the fecal bacteria levels in the Little Falls Watershed - especially the out of the ballpark numbers on the Willett Branch where it runs behind the Bethesda Pool -Little Falls Watershed Alliance is happy to share some good news. We just heard from Montgomery County DEP that “recognizing that the source of these high numbers is human fecal matter”, they have hired a contractor to investigate the upstream area with the intent to "isolate the trunk line(s) with potential sources of bacteria . . . then DEP will work with WSSC to see if an illicit connection can be identified." They further say that "This process is time intensive and could take up to 60 days to isolate the source(s)." So the timing is good. Hopefully, this will be solved by next summer when the weather is tempting for water play.

The county has also created a bacteria page on their website and will post updates on the Willett Branch there as well as other information about fecal bacteria. https://montgomerycountymd.gov/water/streams/bacteria.html And, of course, LFWA will keep you informed about progress.

After three years of testing and letter writing, we did it! We couldn't be more pleased with the outcome and appreciate all the results forwarding that neighbors did to get the word out. Thank you to everyone for your efforts and to our bacteria monitoring team for their dedication to the environment.

Visit our bacteria monitoring page to learn more about the program and the fecal bacteria problems in the Little Falls watershed.