Riva yard drainage, creek by creek.
On the county's map, most of Riva's land falls in three creeks' subwatersheds. For the water that stalls in a lawn or beside a drive, we lay river rock.
- Locally owned
- Free estimates
- Insured
Where Riva's rain is headed
About 70%
of Riva's land is in the Beards Creek subwatersheds, on the county's subwatershed map.
- About 11% is in the Granville Creek subwatershed.
- About 10% is in Flat Creek's.
Who builds dry creek beds in Riva, MD?
We do. In Riva and Sylvan Shores we build river rock drainage: a dry creek bed or a rock run that moves rain and downspout water off the lawn and clear of the house. About 70 percent of Riva's land is in the Beards Creek subwatersheds. Describe your wet spot and the estimate is free.
Sources: NOAA, the US Census Bureau, Anne Arundel County, the Sylvan Shores Services Company and Arundel Rivers Federation. Checked on 11 October 2026.
In Sylvan Shores, mind the road.
Not onto the road
The community's published rules, revised in April 2017, allow no open, outside drainage from an owner's property onto road beds, parkways or walkways. Ask the board.
No digging without the board
No community-owned road may be dug or filled without permission of the Board of Directors.
Six practices in county records
Three bioretention areas dated 2016, and a sand filter, a dry swale and a grass swale dated 2018: the Sylvan Shores upgrade, which the county labels a non-governmental organization project.
More drainage near the South River.
Yard drainage
River rock, and how a quote is worked out.
Riva
Everything else we do around Riva.
Edgewater yard drainage
Past Beards Creek: storm drains, swales and low lawns.
Annapolis Neck yard drainage
Across the South River: Hillsmere, Bay Ridge and Highland Beach.
Riva, question by question
Is there already a dry well in my Riva yard?
There may be. County stormwater records list 391 stormwater practices in Riva, and 260 of them are dry wells or infiltration trenches. One record is one practice, not one house, so look through the papers for your own lot. If you know where yours is buried, say so in your estimate request.
Is every Riva street on public sewer?
No. The county plan lists parts of Riva among the areas not served by public sewer. If your lot has a septic tank and field, say where they are when you describe the wet spot, before any rock is planned.
The stream behind my Riva yard is eroding. Is that yard drainage?
No, that is stream work, a separate trade. County restoration records list a Beards Creek stream restoration at Breckenridge Way in Riva as complete in 2021. Arundel Rivers Federation, which calls that job its Annapolis Landing Stream Restoration, says it stabilized an eroding stream with wood-based structures and reconnected it to its floodplain. Our part stops at the yard: rock that moves rain across it.
How often has Central Avenue flooded at Beards Creek?
On at least five dates in NOAA's files. NOAA's Storm Events Database has flood reports filed under Riva on five dates from May 2018 to July 2022 in which Central Avenue, MD 214, flooded or was closed at or near Beards Creek. For July 16, 2022 the reports say Beards Creek was out of its banks, Central Avenue was closed by swift moving water and a vehicle was stranded in high water at the creek. Those reports are about a road crossing; NOAA holds only what was reported to it.
Get a free estimate.
Give the Riva street, where the water sits and which way it runs off. Expect a text or a phone call back.
