Dear Friends,
Montgomery County health officials have issued a public health advisory impacting residents living near a tributary of Muddy Branch in North.
WSSC tested the water and found higher-than-normal levels of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in water samples from a stormwater pond and a small stream running along the south side of Great Seneca Highway and beneath Key West Ave. WSSC defines PFAS on its website.
WSSC has assured us that the public drinking water is safe, which makes sense. Our water supply is not drawn from here. The health advisory covers a specific stream and pond. Here’s what that means for people in the affected area.
- Do not let your kids or your pets play in the water.
- Do not drink from that stream or those ponds.
- Don’t fish there.
- Wash your hands and skin thoroughly if you are in contact with the water.
The PFAS levels found there are well above the recommended limit for drinking water. Signs have been posted with clear directives to stay away from the water. The County also went door-to-door to notify residents near the areas with the highest contamination. We are also reaching out directly to residents with wells within a mile of those sites and offering to test their wells.
You may be wondering, how did this happen? This land is near the County’s former Public Safety Training Academy. Dating back to the 1970s, firefighting foam used in training exercises contained PFAS. The County stopped using that foam in 2020, and Maryland has since banned it entirely. So that is the suspected cause.
PFAS do not break down. That’s why they’re called forever chemicals.
We know now that these “forever chemicals” are trouble. That’s why, back in 2023, the County filed a lawsuit against two dozen PFAS manufacturers. These companies knew their products were harmful and hid that information. We now know these companies became aware of this data as far back as 1980, but that information was hidden from regulators.
Here’s what happens next. We’ve put together a task force consisting of the State’s Department of the Environment, our Departments of Environmental Protection and Health and Human Services, WSSC, and Montgomery Parks to coordinate testing and complete a full investigation. We’re doing additional groundwater and soil sampling to understand the full extent of what we’re dealing with. And we’re going to keep the public informed every step of the way.
We held a community meeting earlier this week to share information with those living closest to the impacted sites and answer questions. You can find information, maps, and sign up for email and text alerts at MontgomeryCountyMD.gov/PFAS. You can also read the full statement from County Health Officer Dr. Kisha Davis on our website.
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MCPS Budget Cuts Impact Students
I think it is important to update you on where we stand now that the dust has settled on the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The County Council approved a $3.72 billion operating budget for the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). I know there’s been a lot of noise about numbers, but I want to focus on what this means for our students and our educators.
First, we are putting more local money into our schools than ever before. Our local contribution is $161.5 million above the State’s Maintenance of Effort requirement.
But even with that record funding, MCPS faced a significant gap due to the Council’s decision not to fully fund MCPS’s request. MCPS had to implement $35.9 million in targeted reductions, which included the elimination of 415 positions. The eliminated positions include social workers, family engagement specialists, and pupil personnel workers — all of whom provide critical support to students and families.
Here are some of those potential eliminations:
- 43 social workers.
- 40 English composition assistants.
- 27 pupil personnel workers.
- 27 MCPS central office jobs (108 total since last year).
- 27 “school-based positions” that were not specified.
- 21 family engagement specialists.
- 21 maintenance workers.
- 17 emergent multilingual learner therapeutic counselors.
- 12 media assistants.
- 3 administrative positions assigned to Crown High School.
Nearly 160 of the lost positions were jobs the school district was trying to add to their budget to support students in key areas like security and special education.
I want to be honest with you—when you’re closing a gap like that, there is no way to completely escape an impact on services for our students and families. Superintendent Taylor has made it clear that these choices were “awful,” but the goal has remained steady: to keep those cuts as far away from the classroom as possible.
Nevertheless, cuts to support staff affect the classroom. Many of our students depend on these services. The cuts forced by the Council’s budget will have a detrimental impact on the students.
This wasn’t the path I proposed, but it’s the budget they landed on, and now we must make the best of it together. Staffing decisions themselves belong to the Board of Education and MCPS Superintendent, not the County. Still, my leadership team plans to meet with MCPS to explore how we can best support people through this transition, including where County job opportunities might be a good fit. And I’m carrying the concerns that I’m hearing from all of you straight to MCPS leadership.
A Tragic Drowning on the Potomac River
I want to share my deepest condolences with the family of Nazir Bell. He was a Towson University student who died this week while enjoying the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park.
Nazir was a graduate of Bethesda Chevy Chase High School and joined his friends on Sunday along the Billy Goat Trail to swim in the river. After an extensive search conducted by our Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service professionals, his body was found on Tuesday. It’s heartbreaking news for his friends and family, who remained near the water during the search, hoping for the best.
This is a tragic loss. He was an ambitious young man with the potential to do great things. It is a terrible reminder of the dangers associated with swimming in open water. The Potomac River can seem calm in parts, but it is also home to deep pockets and deceptive currents. In fact, the “great falls” that the area is often referred to as are formed by fast-moving water beneath the surface. The average flow rate is 10,000 cubic feet per second.
Our rescue crews are sadly too familiar with areas like the Mather Gorge and Billy Goat Trail because of the numerous drownings associated with the area. I want to thank MCFRS and other public safety personnel for their compassionate and dedicated work.
It is illegal to swim or wade in the Great Falls section of the Potomac. It carries a fine of at least $200. But this incident shows that it can cost far more than just a financial penalty. I encourage everyone to follow the rules and exercise extreme caution when paddling, kayaking, or boating on the river.
Red Line Disruptions Are Coming
This week, I joined Metro leaders and other elected officials at a press conference in Bethesda to highlight the upcoming station closures affecting the west side of the Red Line.
Starting Monday, July 6 and running through Monday, September 6, Metro is shutting down Red Line service between the North Bethesda and Friendship Heights stations for construction. No trains will run between those stations for two months, so the entrance from the Purple Line to the Red Line can be completed and other repairs can be completed.
Here is what’s being put in place by Metro and the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) to help:
- Free shuttle buses will replace train service at the Grosvenor-Strathmore, Medical Center, and Bethesda stations.
- Nearly eight miles of dedicated bus-only lanes are being added to stretches of MD355 (Rockville Pike/Wisconsin Ave.) to keep buses moving easily.
- Local shuttles should run every 5 to 10 minutes.
- Express shuttles between North Bethesda and Friendship Heights are estimated to run every 26 minutes.
We also want commuters to know that our zero-fare Ride On buses can help them navigate this disruption. There will be a temporary Glenmont Express Shuttle that will run from the Milestone Park & Ride Lot in Germantown to the Shady Grove and Glenmont stations. Download the free, easy-to-use Ride On Trip Planner to find alternative routes and know when the next bus will arrive.
This is not the first time we have managed a disruption of this magnitude. During the summer of 2024, comparable maintenance was performed on the Red Line between the Takoma and Glenmont stations on the County’s east side. WMATA, MDOT, and County officials have applied insights gained from those previous closures to enhance preparations for this summer’s project on the western segment of the Red Line.
Primary Election Day is Tuesday, June 23
Early voting wraps up at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 18, and Election Day is Tuesday, June 23. Polls will be open across the County until 8 p.m. that day. If you’re in line by that time, you will be able to vote.
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More than 126,000 mail-in ballots have been sent to Montgomery County residents. That’s more than the total spent during the last State election. You can mail your ballot back, but it must be postmarked by Election Day. You can also place it in one of 58 secure drop boxes placed throughout the County. Ballots are collected from the drop boxes daily. To locate the nearest mail-in ballot drop box near you, text ‘BOX’ and your zip code to 77788. You can also visit the Board of Elections online at 777vote.org. Please use a drop box if you can to help relieve pressure on the post office.
As mentioned in this week’s media briefing, voters will be allowed to bring their phones into polling places this year to help them fill out their ballots. This is not an invitation to take pictures or video inside voting locations, which is still prohibited.
Juneteenth Weekend
Friday, June 19, is Juneteenth, a County and national holiday. County offices and most services will be closed. Most County offices will be closed.
Juneteenth marks the end of slavery in the United States and honors the resilience of Black Americans who persevered despite adversity. Juneteenth should be seen as an American holiday, not just a Black holiday. The liberation of enslaved people at the end of the Civil War and the Reconstruction policies for the South, created with the express intent to create a bi-racial, integrated political system, opened an all too brief period in American history where we tried to rectify the evil of slavery. The Federal government used troops to protect the Black population and the new State governments from attacks by protesters who wanted no part in “liberty and justice for all.”
This bold plan lasted 11 years, until 1877, when Republicans agreed with the very racist, segregationist Southern Democrats that if they would concede the election to a Republican, Reconstruction would be abandoned. The result was a flood of violence, the overthrow of elected governments, and replacement of the vision of an integrated society with Jim Crow, Klan intimidation, violence, the suppression of freed Blacks, and the implementation of land policies that virtually recreated a new form of slavery – debt peonage.
This is why understanding Black history is so important. Sadly, most people have no idea what I’m talking about, no idea about what happened, and how long it lasted, and not a clue about the implications for education, jobs, and economic opportunity that would largely be denied to Black people for almost another 100 years. In our community, real estate covenants existed on many homes that blocked both Black and Jewish people from owning or renting property through 1967. In the 1960’s, Federal troops had to be sent to the South to ensure that schools were integrated. This is not ancient history.
This base knowledge is critical to understanding our current situation, with an irrational president who wants to whitewash slavery. He seeks to erase anything that calls attention to slavery and all the horrors that come with it. His approach wrongly implies that slavery had no impact then or now. America is on a path to slip back into the darkness that so many people have struggled to lift. Hopefully, what we learn about our past will strengthen our resolve to address the problems that flow from it.
Please watch the comments I gave during the Juneteenth proclamation ceremony at County Council this week.
The annual Scotland Juneteenth Heritage Festival will feature a 5K run and a full morning of activities at Cabin John Park, including a mobile museum and family carnival. Later in the day, the Clarence “Pint” Israel Baseball Classic will pit the Bethesda Big Train against the Gaithersburg Giants and after the game, there will be fireworks.
Saturday will be Freedom at the Rock – Montgomery County’s official Juneteenth celebration, where we honor this year’s African American Living Legends. It is a tradition that started in 2015 to thank the unsung heroes among us. At a time when history is being challenged and rewritten in dangerous ways, it’s more important than ever to lift the truth of who we are and who we aspire to be. This is one of the most meaningful things we do all year in Montgomery County.
The people nominated and selected never chased recognition. That’s the point. They spent their lives showing up — teaching, mentoring, advocating, building, and preserving history that might otherwise have been lost. Their work in our schools, our neighborhoods, and our community has benefited all of us. Congratulations and thanks to the 2026 African American Living Legend Awards recipients.
I hope everyone takes a moment this weekend to participate in a Juneteenth event, and I hope parents take the time to talk to their children about why this holiday is so important. I think this holiday is as important as recognizing the founding of this nation, and I hope everyone treats it that way.
As we celebrate Father’s Day on June 21, I want to wish all the fathers, grandfathers, stepfathers, and “father figures” a happy and meaningful day. The guidance, support, and care that parents provide help shape stronger families and stronger communities. I hope you have the opportunity to enjoy the day and know that your contributions are valued and appreciated.
As always, my appreciation for all of you,
County Executive
Read the original article at mcgov