West Montgomery County Citizens Association

Next Meeting: TUESDAY, January 13, 2026 at 7:15 p.m.
IN-PERSON AT THE POTOMAC LIBRARY!

SPEAKER: Samantha Puckett, Clean Water Program Director, Izaak Walton League of America

Come find out what individuals and neighborhoods can do about “too much salt!” Since 2018, the Izaak Walton League of America has been working to solve road salt pollution issues from the source with the Salt Watch. The goals of Salt Watch are to raise awareness in the general public about the connection between road salt and public health, to identify waterways with high levels of road salt pollution, and to advocate for smarter road salting practices by sharing Salt Watch results with private landowners and local and state agencies. Sam, who has been with the Izaak Walton League since early 2016 in various roles, now leads the clean water team in all aspects of volunteer monitoring and advocacy. Outside of the office, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her family and dogs, crafting, and supporting the local food system via her weekly CSA shares and U-Pick endeavors.

As always, the public is welcome to attend!

Road Salt Poses Threat to Wildlife – and Us
President’s Letter by Carol Van Dam Falk

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season with loved ones and staying warm. It’s a very special time of year, no matter how you celebrate. In the weeks ahead though, the chance of snowfall increases, and with it comes the application of road salt or sodium chloride on our roads. It keeps us safe, but it can also pose a threat to fish and wildlife, and even human health. Fish and bugs that live in freshwater streams cannot survive in extra salty water. Millions of us depend on local streams for drinking water. The WSSC (Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission) located in Potomac, provides clean drinking water not just for our area but other parts of Maryland and DC. The Izaak Walton League of America says water treatment plants like the WSSC are not equipped to filter out the extra salt, so it can end up in our tap water and even corrode our pipes. You can help by taking the Salt Water Pledge, and the Izaak Walton League will send you a FREE kit with everything needed to measure road salt pollution in our local stream or tap water. Samantha Puckett will share her knowledge about what we can do to help combat road salt pollution. She says the League is specifically looking for help in our area because WSSC Water has identified the Watts Branch Watershed as a major source of salt in the drinking water intake.

Concerns Grow Over Data Centers in the Ag Reserve*
Submitted by Barbara Hoover

Seven proposed data centers in the Agricultural Reserve in upper Montgomery County would use the Potomac River – which supplies over 75 percent of the region’s drinking water – for cooling. This data center complex, to be sited in Dickerson, MD, was recently granted a provisional conditional use approval for construction by the Montgomery County Office of Zoning and Administrative Appeals. Terra Energy received this rarely used provisional approval without having to submit traditional documents, such as a site plan. Concern has been raised about how the hearing examiner could decide on the impact on Montgomery County residents of the facility based on the submitted information. Below are some of the outstanding issues about this data center proposal:

Water Use: Many data centers are cooled by water. For example, the data centers in Virginia use an estimated 5 million gallons a day. The Terra Energy data center will be pulling water from the Potomac River. However, it is unknown how much water will be drawn, how much will be lost to the evaporative cooling process, and the elevated temperatures of the water returned to the river.

Carbon Footprint: What will be the carbon emissions of the data center? How do these align with the Montgomery County Climate Action Plan for no emissions in the county by 2035?

C&O Canal: The property line is only 110 feet from the C&O Canal towpath. What are the local environmental impacts? How might this affect the million annual visitors to the C&O Canal National Historical Park and the accompanying annual economic impact of $96M.

Increased Energy Costs: To what extent will providing sufficient energy to power these power-hungry centers be passed on to the consumers, and not shouldered by the companies building the data centers?

Noise: The county’s noise regulations are old and don’t take into account developments like modern data centers and the noise they generate.

*This data center article is based upon articles published by Montgomery Community Media, WAMU, and the Montgomery Countryside Alliance.

This year, Prince George’s County imposed a moratorium on building data centers so it could first study the impact on the county. Their recently published report has policy recommendations and a public meeting as the next step. Perhaps Montgomery County should follow PG County’s example.

Urge Lawmakers to Favor Grass Fields Over Artificial Turf
Submitted by Carol Van Dam Falk

Along with the MCCPTA petition drive that Safe Healthy Playing Fields coalition President Diana Conway outlined at our December General Meeting, there is now a companion Action Alert for letter writing. Both are important! Let your elected officials know we want safe, healthy schools and play spaces with grass fields for all Montgomery County students, not microplastics-shedding, chemical-laden, plastic that becomes hotter than asphalt in the sun. Two ways to take action:

Send letters using this action alert: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/petition-for-real-grass-not-plastic-athletic-fields-for-montgomery-county-public-schools?source=direct_link&
Sign petition for Safe Healthy Grass Fields at MCPS schools at the link: https://c.org/pYywqR9jPN

County Executive Marc Elrich is sending his recommended CIP budget to the Montgomery County Council by January 15, 2026, so please send letters in the next ten days. Urge Elrich to recommend reprogramming all money earmarked in the budget for artificial turf to be shifted to natural grass maintenance and the remaining monies be used to improve crumbling infrastructure. When you write to Council members, remind them they have full line-item veto ability, so there is no excuse for accepting the CIP budget for MCPS as currently written.

WMCCA Joins the Call to Preserve Local Control for Cell Towers
Submitted by Theodora Scarato

WMCCA will be submitting a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding their inquiry concerning proposals to override local city, state, and county control over cell towers and wireless infrastructure in WT Docket No. 25-276. As of December 26, 2025, more than 2,100 comments had already been filed opposing the FCC proposals, including several local governments and associations.

WMCCA supports infrastructure deployment that aligns with community needs and is implemented through a process that ensures meaningful community input and enables local governments to responsibly review and manage environmental impacts. However, the FCC proposal would transfer significant authority over wireless siting, permitting, and approvals away from local city, state, and county governments, including Montgomery County. It would sharply reduce community input, weaken zoning and aesthetic protections, restrict cost recovery for local review, and in some cases allow applications to be approved automatically under so-called “deemed granted” provisions – even when residents and local officials object.

REMINDER: IT’S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP FOR 2025-2026!

Please renew or become a new member of WMCCA – our membership year runs from October 1st to September 30th. Go to our website www.wmcca.org to download a membership form or join/renew using PayPal: Individual: $25 / Family: $50. Contributions from members enable us to join efforts to successfully address several community and environmental issues. If you have any issues or concerns in your neighborhood, please contact WMCCA.

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Please email: hooverb@msn.com to go paperless. Thank you !!

IN-PERSON WMCCA Meeting January 13, 2026 – 7:15 p.m.

West Montgomery County Citizens Association Newsletter
P.O. Box 59335, Potomac, MD 20854-9335
President – Carol Van Dam Falk: President@WMCCA.org
Website: WMCCA.org – Thomas Fahey
Newsletter Editor – Nancy Madden