Healthy Environment, Healthy Communities

Jones Falls Watershed

Turning a Settlement into Repair, Led by the Community

For years, the Jones Falls carried more than rainwater on its way to the Baltimore Harbor. When a federal consent decree resolved a case over an industrial facility’s alleged unauthorized discharges of pollutants, including acetic acid, into the watershed, it created a rare opportunity: to turn a penalty into repair, directed by the people who live along the river.

Through the Healthy Environment, Healthy Communities (HEHC) grant program, the Chesapeake Bay Trust directed more than $535,000 to nine community organizations working across the Jones Falls watershed, from Baltimore City into Baltimore County. The program was designed and led by the community, with projects chosen to improve water quality, restore habitat, and reconnect neighborhoods to the river running through them.

“This is an important effort to restore water quality, improve public health and strengthen the communities directly impacted. The funding is going right back into the hands of the community members ready to lead the on-the-ground restoration projects that will protect the long-term health and sustainability of their neighborhoods.” — Alice Volpitta, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper, Blue Water Baltimore

The Jones Falls program is closed, but the mission continues. At the Chesapeake Bay Trust, we engage and empower people across the region to take actions that enrich our natural resources and the communities that depend on them. Explore how you can be part of restoring and protecting our shared natural resource treasures at cbtrust.org/grants.

The Jones Falls program set out to do more than clean up a waterway. It aimed to protect public health, deepen public understanding of how pollution harms the watershed, and put solutions in the hands of the people closest to the problem. Every award answered a need that residents themselves identified, reflecting the priorities of those who live, work, and play around the Jones Falls. That community-led approach is what makes the impact last: when people carry out their own vision for their neighborhood, the work is sustained for years and ripples outward through their community.