Water

The ICC would destroy the last and best natural areas left in Montgomery County, severely degrade water quality, and pollute the Bay. Under Governor Ehrlich's new "environmentally-friendly" ICC plan, adverse environmental impacts have sharply increased.

The ICC would severly degrade 6 watersheds, cross 52 to 69 streams, and ruin 36,000 to 49,000 linear feet of streams. Here's a sample stream....

The ICC would destroy 48 to 69 acres of floodplain and 22 to 38 acres of wetlands. Up 50% from the last study (1997). Vernal pools including this one would have to go....

God is in the water, God is in the dry land
God is in the heart, God is in the forest,
God is in the mountain, God is in the cave.

-- Sikhism, God Is In The Mountain, ed. by Ezra Jack Keats

The ICC would destroy habitat of 22 state-rare plant species, the habitat of the spawning population of trout in the Paint Branch watershed, and the habitat of many amphibians and other animals of all sorts.

No kind of beast is there on earth
Nor fowl that flieth with its wings,
But is a folk like you...

-- Islam, God Is In The Mountain, ed. by Ezra Jack Keats

These are treasures.

Let me learn the lessons
You have hidden in every leaf and rock.

-- Native American Prayer, Let There Be Light, ed. by Jane Breskin Zalben

We can learn from nature. Natural beauty is good. We should save as much as we can for future children.

The power of spiritual forces in the Universe -
How active it is everywhere!
Invisible to the eyes and impalpable to the senses,
It is inherent in all things,
And nothing can escape its operation.

-- Confucianism, God Is In The Mountain, ed. by Ezra Jack Keats