The Rock Creek Watershed is roughly 21 miles long and covers 82 square miles of land in Montgomery County, MD and Washington, D.C.  To put this in perspective, the entire District of Columbia is only 68.2 square miles.  Of this total area, about 2.9 square miles reside within the City of Rockville.

The Rock Creek watershed within Rockville  contains several tributaries to the main stem of Rock Creek which flows roughly North to South just outside the City's Eastern boundary. 

The portion of Rockville within the Rock Creek watershed is highly urbanized, with the majority of the development occurring between 1950 and 1975 - before environmental regulations were enacted for the management of stormwater runoff and watershed quality.

What this means for Rockville is that there is generally insufficient stormwater management in this area to handle the runoff from the large amount of impervious surfaces, and there is very little open space that is not already committed to stormwater management, recreation or park land.

The City, in collaboration with the local community and a team of consultants, created the Rock Creek Watershed Management Plan (below) to evaluate current conditions and identify and prioritize possible stormwater management retrofits and stream valley restoration projects to improve the water quality and manage stream erosion for the portion of the Rock Creek watershed within Rockville.