From your backyard to the Chesapeake Bay, what occurs in your neighborhood affects the water quality downstream.
Public Works and Environmental Services Alert:
From your backyard to the Chesapeake Bay, what occurs in your neighborhood affects the water quality downstream.
A watershed is an area of land that drains to a particular water body, such as a lake or river. No matter where you are, you are within a watershed. Fairfax County’s 30 watersheds are nested within the larger Chesapeake Bay Watershed. If everyone takes care of the streams in their local watershed, the Bay will benefit.
Fairfax County has developed comprehensive watershed management plans for each of the county's 30 watersheds. These are grouped into 11 major watershed management plan documents. A watershed management plan serves as a tool to identify and address the issues affecting our environment and to protect and restore the county's streams and other water resources.
The plans identify areas of opportunity for implementing both structural and non-structural improvement projects such as stream restorations, stormwater facility retrofits, community education and stewardship, streamside buffer enhancements and installation of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). Proposed projects in the plans have recommended priorities. These lists should not be interpreted as specific implementation schedules or a guarantee that the project will be implemented through the planned Capital Improvement Program (CIP). A full list of active or completed Stormwater projects is available online at Stormwater Improvement Projects or Jade, Fairfax County's Comprehensive Mapping Application.
Select a watershed to view the watershed management plan document online. Hard copies of the plans may be found at local libraries and Board of Supervisor district offices that are within one mile of the watershed boundary.
Click on the image to open the Watersheds & Resource Protection Areas Viewer app.
Click on the watershed name in the app to see a link to the adopted Watershed Management Plan. You can also zoom in, search by address, parcel number, or record ID to find approved site plans, and site plans in development (PLUS record).
