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Treating Stormwater and Patient Health at MedStar Harbor Hospital

Over the past nine months, Blue Water Baltimore has been working with the Neighborhood Design Center, Plisko Sustainable Solutions, and The Green Team at Harbor Hospital to develop a stormwater management plan for the hospital’s waterfront property.

The Green Team at Harbor Hospital is a team representing various departments in the hospital including operations, nursing, communications, and administration. The Green Team is crucial in helping the hospital to become more sustainable.

Their recent accomplishments include the creation of the New 2 U program where used furniture that would previously be thrown away is recycled or sold at a low price to the community. Additionally, they created a battery recycling program, and hosted a plant giveaway for Earth Week.

This partnership, funded by the Chesapeake Bay Trust, was initiated because of the great potential Harbor Hospital, and other healthcare facilities, have to beautify their campuses both for patient health and to clean our waterways.

The hospital currently has 18 acres of impervious surface, including roofs, sidewalks, and parking lots, generating 20 million gallons of stormwater that runs directly into the Inner Harbor each year.

Stormwater Runoff Solutions

Since October, the Green Team has been learning more about how Harbor Hospital can be a greater part of the solution, by planting rain gardens and other plants to absorb the water, slow down flooding, and filter the water.

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A team from Blue Water Baltimore, Plisko Sustainable Solutions, and the Neighborhood Design Center asked the Green Team to evaluate the campus for positive and negative qualities after presenting on the basics of stormwater. They team participated in a site visit, and ranked potential projects and designs as a group.

This fall, they will apply for grant funding to install gardens in the Southern parking lots to beautify the entrance, and to update the landscaping and water treatment technology. We look forward to working with the hospital to further beautify the campus and positively impacting the health of both patients and our waterways!

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