By: Clara Vaughn, Capital News Service, Maryland Gazette, October, 28, 2012

When you fail to pick up after your pooch, you may be doing more than irking the next-door neighbors.

Studies conducted over more than a decade in watersheds across the state have found that pets produce up to one-third of bacterial pollution in waterways near developed areas.

That’s right. Dog poop is the source of startling amounts of E. coli, Giardia, salmonella and other microscopic pathogens in local waters.

All three of the Anne Arundel County waterways permanently closed by bacterial pollution, Furnace Branch, Marley Creek and Rock Creek, have high concentrations of bacterial from pet and animal waste, although human waste has also been detected.

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