Lake Marion Restoration - Severn, Maryland

Pay Dirt, LLC served as the construction contractor for the Lake Marion Restoration in Severn, Maryland — a multi-million-dollar effort to rebuild a failing 50-year-old stormwater pond into a functioning, nature-based treatment system. This summer, the project earned a 2026 Engineering News-Record MidAtlantic Best Projects Merit Award in the Small Project category, recognizing the design work of BayLand Consultants & Designers, Inc.

The challenge. Lake Marion was originally about 10 feet deep. After more than half a century of receiving stormwater, it had filled with sediment and debris until it held barely a foot of water, leaving only inches of treatment capacity. Untreated runoff was discharging down a concrete-lined channel into a headwater tributary of the Severn River — accelerating flows, driving downstream erosion, and providing no habitat value on its way to the Chesapeake Bay.

What we built. Pay Dirt excavated roughly six to seven feet of accumulated sediment and debris from the lake bottom to restore storage capacity, rebuilt the failing embankment, and constructed a native-planted wetland bench around the lake perimeter to expand wetland and pollinator habitat. We also removed the concrete outfall channel entirely and replaced it with a stepped series of habitat pools that slow and infiltrate stormwater rather than rushing it toward Severn Run.

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The result. Completed in 2024, the restoration delivers 110.2 acres of impervious surface reduction and annual reductions of 1,410 lbs of total nitrogen, 179 lbs of total phosphorus, and over 231,000 lbs of total suspended solids — alongside a healthier community park.