Little Seneca Lake Reservoir
Little Seneca Lake Reservoir
The mission of Friends of Ten Mile Creek and Little Seneca Reservoir is to serve as guardians of Ten Mile Creek and its watershed, preserving and protecting this unique place and ensuring that Ten Mile Creek continues to provide clean drinking water to Little Seneca Reservoir – a backup drinking water supply for the Washington, DC Metropolitan region and an important recreational resource. Ten Mile Creek is the cleanest of three main streams – Little Seneca Creek, Ten Mile Creek, Cabin Branch – that feed into the Reservoir.
Maintaining and improving the health of Ten Mile Creek and the Reservoir is the focus of our activist and advocacy work. We are especially challenged to protect the health of the Little Seneca Reservoir because these once rural lands are now zoned for large-scale housing projects. The Cabin Branch watershed has been severely impacted by an extensive housing development, and most recently, another extensive housing and retail development (the Clarksburg Gateway Sector Plan) is being proposed in the upper Little Seneca Creek Watershed. In addition, there are four compact developments approved in the Ten Mile Creek Watershed, one of which has recently been completed. All these developments contribute to the degradation of the streams in their respective watersheds and have placed Little Seneca Reservoir’s water quality at risk.
FOTMC will continue its work to preserve and protect the remaining forests, advocate for more parkland, and protect and restore the health of the streams. This is the work that will ensure that Little Seneca Lake Reservoir remains a clean drinking water supply and that our forests and natural areas contribute to a healthy ecosystem that improves the quality of life for all .
