Summer 2008
Issue # 31
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| Yes, the Runoff Rundown e-newsletter has a new look! The new colors and images are intended to look more like our all-new website launched last month. Be sure to visit www.cwp.org if you haven't already! |
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Registration is open for the Southeast Stormwater Institute!
Space is filling up fast, so visit our Southeast Stormwater Institute page, and register!
Join us in Savannah for three intensive exciting days designed for stormwater professionals to develop/ improve municipal stormwater programs, particularly NPDES
Phase II permit programs; integrate volume reduction and green
infrastructure credits into their stormwater toolbox; and strengthen
stormwater design, construction, and maintenance skills for innovative
practices in coastal and non-coastal settings.
Southeast Stormwater Institute
October 14-16, 2008
Coastal Georgia Center
Savannah, GA
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Staff News
We've had field employees for a few years now, but we're
excited to report that we have our first field office in Charlottesvile VA with two staff! Dave Hirschman
and new employee Laurel Woodworth
moved into their "new" digs in May, a redeveloped textile factory with the
ruins of the oldest factory building beside it. So, you'll see that Dave
and Laurel are trying to get us to believe that the building they stand in
front of is not the ruins, but their workspace. Nice try, guys! We at least
promise four walls and a roof to field staff!
New contact info for the Center's Charlottesville office:
919 2nd
Street, S.E.
Charlottesville,
VA 22902
Dave: (434) 293-6355
Laurel: (434) 293-5793
And speaking of new "old" buildings, the Ellicott City office is currently looking for a larger office space, one that we can make more environmentally friendly. If you know of a building that would be ideal for this purpose in the Howard County area, or if you have property anywhere that you might wish to donate to the Center for us to redeem towards the purchase of headquarters, contact our Executive Director Hye Yeong Kwon at hyk@cwp.org.
We'd also like to send well wishes to Bernadette DeBlander, who earlier this month, left us to return to New England after her short but hopefully enjoyable time as a Center engineer.
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This Just In
 We have been working with TetraTech, Inc. on a
guidance manual for post-construction stormwater management. "Managing
Stormwater in Your Community: A Guide for Building an Effective Post-Construction
Program" is now ready to download from the Center's website. Local stormwater managers across the country
are exploring innovative approaches to managing runoff, but are also facing an
array of challenges, such as adopting a local ordinance, securing funding, and
operating a maintenance program. This
guide provides practical tips, and also features a series of downloadable tools
that are designed to be modified by local programs to assist with program
implementation.
The guide covers topics
ranging from program planning, integrating stormwater with land use planning,
developing locally-appropriate stormwater criteria, stormwater inspection and
maintenance programs, and program evaluation and tracking. The tools include a program self-assessment;
model post-construction stormwater ordinance; plan review, inspection, and
maintenance checklists; and more. The
guide and tools can be downloaded at: www.cwp.org > Resources >
Controlling Runoff & Discharges > Stormwater Management or by visiting http://www.cwp.org/postconstruction.
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Do you know of any good watershed or stormwater university courses
and programs? The Center will be conducting a short email survey to determine
the specifics of existing watershed or stormwater-related curricula, such as
materials used and interest in integrating additional watershed resources.
For our University Partnerships project, part of a U.S.
EPA-funded Targeted Watershed Initiative Grant, we plan to integrate
watershed-related instructional materials into accredited universities around
the country. If you know of a relevant program, help us out!
Please send an email to Neely Law (nll@cwp.org) providing
contact and program information to include in our University database.
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What We're Wrapping Up:
Attention monitoring fans! We're about to release Monitoring to Demonstrate Environmental Results:
Guidance to Develop Local Stormwater Monitoring Studies Using 6
Example Study Designs, a joint effort with the University of Alabama. The manual presents the broad concepts and
methods behind setting up special monitoring studies in support of the NPDES
stormwater permitting program.
The monitoring study designs cover a range of monitoring
areas depending on the sophistication of the monitoring program -- from
characterizing the quality of stormwater to developing a paired watershed study
that breaks down the larger issue of protecting water quality into manageable
components that can be addressed on a priority basis. Each study design covers
the essential elements of establishing a monitoring program to include scoping,
budgeting, funding and staffing needs as well as equipment and sampling
requirements. Special issues associated with each monitoring study design are
also covered for those unforseen but inevitable problems. The manual
will be released in just a few weeks and will be available as a free download
from our website. |
 The last installment in the Urban Subwatershed Manual
Series -- Manual 9: Municipal Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping
Practices is almost here. The manual provides "how to" guidance on developing comprehensive
and effective municipal pollution prevention/good housekeeping programs,
including information on investigating and improving individual municipal
operations, such as park and landscape maintenance and hotspot facility
management. We'll be releasing Version 1.0 of the manual in just a few weeks!.
After the manual is released, we
will be looking to work with a few communities to further test, refine and
expand our approach to municipal pollution prevention/good housekeeping and
integrate those experiences, as case studies, into a revised Version 2.0 of the
manual. If you, or a community or agency you know would be interested in funding
or participating in this effort, please contact Mike Novotney at men@cwp.org.
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We just completed a 2-year project funded by the
Chesapeake Bay Trust to assist Maryland
communities to develop and implement community
greening plans. This two-part project involved a series of workshops
with Maryland DNR and the USDA Forest Service to provide technical information
to communities interested in advancing community greening objectives. The
workshop topics included: a watershed approach to community greening, making
the most of urban reforestation projects, and making your community forest
friendly. The Center also provided technical assistance to communities
receiving CBT Community Greening Grants - these are generally communities that
have completed an urban tree canopy assessment and set a canopy goal. As part of the technical assistance, the Center reviewed
the City of Cumberland's
municipal code and made recommendations for code changes to promote greater
forest conservation and tree planting and remove potential barriers to healthy
tree growth. The Center assisted the City of Baltimore and the Herring Run Watershed
Association with various aspects of developing systematic tree planting
programs in the City, including a program for institutional tree planting and
incentives for planting on private property. The Center also assisted the Town of Hyattsville
by evaluating the Hamilton Street Improvement project for stormwater management
opportunities that also help to meet community greening goals and making
recommendations about specific practices. We are pleased to have
been part of this partnership to help promote community greening and are excited
that more and more communities throughout the Bay watershed, such as Annapolis and Frederick, MD; Leesburg and Fairfax
County, VA; Washington, DC; and Columbia, PA, are adopting urban
tree canopy goals.
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As a follow-up to December fieldwork in the Broadkill and St. Jones watersheds (DE),
we are currently wrapping up tech memos for each watershed summarizing our
findings and recommendations. We have found that the location of the St. Jones watershed
within the state's capitol, the county seat, and the Delaware Department of
Natural Resources and Environmental Control headquarters offers a terrific
opportunity to secure political and agency support for funding restoration
activities. In contrast, most of the land in the Broadkill is quite
rural, with development planned northwest of Georgetown that will result in increased
urbanization and impervious cover. We reviewed regulatory and programmatic watershed tools for jurisdictions within each watershed. This review will be incorporated
into watershed characterization reports by Duffield Associates. These
efforts are timed well with finalization of pollution control strategies by
stakeholders within each watershed. Retrofits identified during our inventory have since been used to solicit 319 funds.
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What We're Working On:
As
part of the RainScapes project (Montgomery County,
MD) introduced in our Winter 2008 edition, the
Center and Biohabitats headed out into the field in late April to assess
four study neighborhoods: Wheaton Woods, Chevy Chase,
Stonybrook/Parkside/Garrett Park and Ken-Gar. Teams looked for potential
retrofits in road rights-of-way, and assessed yards and driveways for on-site
practices such as rain gardens and permeable pavement.
Teams
characterized neighborhoods using variables such as slopes, soil types, house
footprint, and lot size. A few excellent right-of-way (ROW)
candidates emerged pretty quickly, including a Wheaton Woods road with
34-foot wide lanes in each direction for one way traffic and on-street
parking. Traffic lanes are separated by a raised grassy median that is about 50
feet wide in some places! The extensive turf areas in Parkside offered many
opportunities for on-site practices. Site characteristics limited many on-site
practices in Garrett Park and Chevy Chase, but
a handful of lots had existing LID practices, including permeable pavers, rain
barrels, and two-track driveways. ROW retrofits may be more applicable in these
neighborhoods. ROW retrofits may also be the way to go in Ken Gar given the
smaller lot sizes and more compact type of development in this neighborhood.
As we move forward, the
Center and Biohabitats will be working on modeling scenarios to determine the
effectiveness of these practices and preparing and study design for paired
watershed study. We'll bring you more information on the monitoring and modeling
components of this project as they become available. Stay tuned!
Top photo: Jen Dowdell (Biohabitats)
completes a field form for a potential retrofit in this Parkside
right-of-way
Bottom photo: Pam Rowe (Project manager
with Montgomery Co.) and Bernadette DeBlander peek through a fence to see if the Chevy
Chase road runoff that flows down this chute can be treated
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Working with the Spa Creek Conservancy in Annapolis, MD, the
Center has just begun the first stage of outreach in the development of the Spa
Creek Green Business Program. The Chesapeake Bay Trust has provided
funding to create a program through which businesses in the Spa Creek watershed
can gain a Green Business certification for making their businesses more
environmentally friendly. This program
will especially promote the implementation of stormwater management and
pollution prevention practices. The Center and the Spa Creek Conservancy
have collaborated to identify and contact several target businesses to get
feedback on our tentative plans for this program, which will be
launched this fall.
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Recognizing the unique physical challenges of coastal watershed management,  the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine
Environmental Technology (CICEET) is funding the Center, and our project partners NEMO and the Chesapeake Stormwater Network, to develop and promote
effective tools for protecting and restoring coastal plain
watersheds. The geographic focus for the project is the Atlantic and Gulf
coastal plain province which comprises nearly 250,000 square miles in portions
of 15 states from New Jersey to Texas. This month,
the Center distributed a survey to over 100 coastal plain
communities identified in consultation with state coastal zone managers to help
identify gaps and case studies to guide the development of the tools. The Center will also identify, review and
synthesize the latest research on the impact of impervious cover on coastal
plain water quality and aquatic resources and launch a collaborative network of
at least 30 coastal plain watershed/land use planning experts to develop,
review, endorse and disseminate the improved coastal watershed tools. With
this research and expert guidance, the team will develop, disseminate and pilot
an improved Eight Tool Framework for
coastal plain watersheds.
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As part of our ongoing Extreme
BMP Makeover project, the Center will be conducting an ambitious survey of
200 stormwater management facilities throughout Virginia's
James River watershed this August. Working with our partners - Hampton Roads
Planning District Commission and the James River Association - and the staff of
the municipalities to be surveyed, the team will move upstream starting at the
Chesapeake Bay area to the urban portions of Albemarle
County, near Charlottesville. The goal is to visually assess the state of
stormwater BMPs of various ages and types, looking for design features that
appear to perform better or worse at buffering the effects of urban runoff on
local streams. We will be looking at
biofilters, wet ponds, detention ponds, and many other types of BMPs that have
been installed in Virginia
during the past couple of decades. These facilities often lie hidden behind
shopping centers, at the edge of parking lots, in the corner of subdivisions,
so be on the lookout for a motley crew poking around the back of your
neighborhood grocery store.
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The Center continues its work with the Georgia Department of
Natural Resources, the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission
and the University
of Georgia River Basin Center,
to develop a Coastal Stormwater
Supplement (CSS) to the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual. The Center's
role has been to develop a stormwater management approach, complete with
supporting guidance, that can be used to protect the sensitive aquatic
resources of the coast from the negative impacts of land development. Notably,
the stormwater management approach detailed in the CSS incorporates elements of
the Runoff Reduction Method and
encourages the use of green infrastructure practices, such as rainwater
harvesting, downspout disconnection, green roofs and stormwater planters on
development sites. The approach also includes built-in incentives for
minimizing clearing and grading and the creation of new impervious cover on
development sites. The Center is now finishing up a draft version of the CSS,
and is expecting to present the document to a Stakeholder Group for review in
early August. |
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What We're Starting:
Floatables. Gotta love 'em. We are excited to work with the City of Baltimore on trash source
assessments and watershed planning in Harris Creek, part of the Baltimore Harbor
subwatershed--a predominantly piped area facing significant trash problems. We intend to expand upon our Unified Site and Subwatershed Reconaissance
methods and our Pollution Source Control Practices by developing field methods for the assessment of
trash source areas.
The assessment methods developed will be written up and field tested for
application in other areas of the City. We will develop and summarize
strategies to reduce the flow of trash and other harmful pollutants to the Harris Creek
interceptor and train local watershed groups and staff on the new assessment
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We are
also excited to start work with stormwater managers from Richland County, SC
on a watershed plan for Crane Creek. A relatively undeveloped area
outside of Columbia, the watershed consists
mainly of extensive forest cover, rural residential, and some industrial land
uses draining to the Broad River.
Restoration and protection of Elizabeth
Lake from sedimentation
and nutrient loading in light of new development pressures are drivers of this
effort. We're hoping this just isn't an excuse by our SC based coworker Anne Kitchell to make the Maryland staff suffer stifling summer heat!
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Projects In Action
Periodically, Runoff Rundown includes this special
section to share news from groups about how our work may have been
implemented or how they have helped leverage new funding or projects.
Please be sure to share with us how the Center's partnership or
resources have made a difference in your community! Email Lauren Lasher at
lsl@cwp.org!
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Hats
off to our friends to the north for applying our watershed assessment and
planning methods! The Credit Valley Conservation Authority in Mississauga
Canada has been extremely
busy in the Sheridan
and Cookesville Creek watersheds. Biohabitats, Inc. has joined the team to
draft a watershed characterization report and develop an overall restoration
strategy for these urban tributaries draining to Lake Ontario.
We will keep you posted on what arguably may be one of the most comprehensive watershed planning endeavors
using our protocols ever conducted. On a different, but
related note, Aquifor Beech, Inc. has adapted our neighborhood and hotspot
assessment protocols for a larger basin-wide look at the Credit River
watershed.
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Recently, Runoff Rundown heard from a group in New England working on
the Connecticut River. We asked them to update us on
what they've been up to using Center materials. So, Andrea Newman, a GIS
Analyst at Tighe & Bond, offered up this report:
Field technicians from Tighe & Bond have been hiking
through the woods and along streams locating and inspecting outfalls in a number of
communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This is part of a larger effort to help
regulated communities under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) develop storm water management plans and identify and eliminate illicit
outfall discharges to streams and rivers. Locating outfalls can be a tricky
endeavor. The field technicians have waded in water, canoed parts of the Connecticut and Westfield Rivers, encountered moose in
the wilds of western Massachusetts,
and hiked down steep slopes. Of course, always keeping safety in mind, chances are there will be some outfalls that are just too hazardous to reach!
Once an outfall is located, the technicians GPS its
location, take a photo, and inspect outfalls using the Center's assessment
methodology. They perform a physical inspection of the outfalls to determine
whether there is a possible illicit discharge. Clues they look for include
odor, sewerage, floatables, outfall damage, excessive vegetation, and color and
record this information on a modified version of the Center's Outfall
Reconnaissance Inventory form.
Back at the office, Geographic Information System (GIS)
analysts enter the GPS points, photos, and outfall inspection data into a GIS
database to help track and manage the data. Tighe & Bond has also mapped
many of these communities' storm water and sewer systems. Outfalls having
possible illicit discharges can be traced in this pipe network using GIS to
help determine the cause of contamination. Towns are using the outfall
information and GIS data to help develop illicit discharge and detection plans
and meet NPDES regulations.
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Kudos to
the Coral Bay Community Council for moving forward with implementation of the
Coral Bay Watershed Plan (http://www.coralbaycommunitycouncil.org/Watershed.htm).
CBCC has taken the lead on applying for over $1.3 million in federal grant
dollars to pay for technical assistance, land acquisition, and other
recommended actions. They have already secured $300k as part of EPA CARE
grant, and with the help of DPNR, NOAA, and other agency staff involved with
watershed management activities, they have a good shot at success. Good luck! The NOAA Coral Program
is currently advertising for a coral specialist that would be invovled in this
type of work throughout the Carribean (see our job openings page).
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Feature Article
 Street sweeping and storm drain cleanout
practices are among the oldest practices used by communities to provide cleaner
and healthier communities, meet community demand for aesthetics and maintain
public safety. With the advent of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System, regulated Phase I and Phase II communities can use these practices to
help meet their permit requirements. Just how well these practices can reduce
pollutants, though, is uncertain, given current research findings. Find out how we and many partners worked to change that! http://www.cwp.org/News/Runoff_Rundown/Archive/31/article1.htm
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FYI:
Where We're speaking:
7th Annual StormCon - the North American
Surface Water Quality Conference & Exposition. August 3-7, 2008 at Orlando World Center
Marriott, Orlando, FL. http://www.stormcon.com. Three Center staff are presenting:
- Dave Hirschman at the
pre-conference workshop Tools for Effective Post-Construction Program
Management
- Lisa Fraley-McNeal (with Scott
Crafton, VA DCR) on Development and Application of a Stormwater BMP
Performance Database
- Julie Tasillo on Downspout
Disconnection in Baltimore City,
MD.
Michael
Novotney (with Nikos Singelis, U.S. EPA) at the 2008 Annual Indiana
Association for Floodplain and Stormwater Management conference. September 10-12. Brown
County State
Park, Nashville,
IN. Mike and Nikos will serve as keynote speakers and will address various
stormwater topics including the Center's post-construction guidance
manual.
NEMO U6 - Annual Conference of the Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials, October 19-21 at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Monterey, CA. http://nemonet.uconn.edu/u6/
Three Center staff are presenting:
- Kelly Collins on Runoff Revisited (with Chet Arnold, CT NEMO)
- Karen Cappiella on Forests and Watersheds
Julie Tasillo on
"Land Use as the first BMP" at the 2008 APA Regional Planning Conference
"Growing Greener - Planning Healthy Communities for a Healthy Planet." November
19-21, 2008. Loews Annapolis Hotel, Annapolis,
MD. Organized by the Delaware
Chapter of the American Planning Association. http://www.delawareapa.org/2008%20MD-DE%20Conference.html
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ONLINE TRAINING
MATERIALS: "Developing a Sustainable Finance Plan"
Latest online training from the U.S. EPA's Office of
Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds' Watershed
Academy is designed to
help nonprofit watershed organizations develop and implement sustainable
funding plans. http://www.epa.gov/watertrain/sustainablefinance/
WEBSITE: Using grant funds from the U.S. EPA, The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
(UCR) worked with other Riverkeeper programs in Georgia to study the effectiveness of Georgia's ESC
program between 2005 and 2007. They quickly realized that the Upper
Chattahoochee watershed and the state needed a sediment BMP
education program and launched the Get the Dirt Out (GTDO) program (http://www.getthedirtout.org). "GTDO empowers
citizens to identify and take the appropriate steps to rectify sediment
pollution using the Clean Water Act," explained UCR Watershed Protection
Specialist Jason Ulseth. Visit the website for ideas for educational outreach
for your community.
CONFERENCE: First Regional Quality Growth conference -
"Building Sustainable Communities for the 21st Century" August 12-14, 2008, Charleston, SC.
Jointly organized by the Southeast Watershed Forum, NOAA's Coastal Services
Center, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gulf of Mexico Program, TVA and
others. http://www.southeastwaterforum.org/roundtables/
CONFERENCE: First Annual North Carolina Urban
Forestry Conference - "Trees for an Urban Future: Emerging Issues, Innovations"
September 9 - 11, 2008. Marriott
Hotel Downtown Greensboro, NC. Cosponsored by NC Department of
Environment and Natural Resources and the NC Urban Forest Council. http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/nreos/forest/feop/urbanforest/conference.html
SEMINAR: TMDL
Development and Implementation: Current Progress and Future Direction September 11, 2008. Sheraton
Baltimore City
Center, Baltimore, MD.
Organized by Water Environment Federation and held in cooperation with the
U.S. EPA. http://www.wef.org/ConferencesTraining/Seminars/TMDLDevelopment
WORKSHOP: National Nonpoint Source
Monitoring Workshop September 14-18,
2008. Marriott Renaissance Hotel, Columbus, OH.
Organized by Ohio
State University's
Stream Restoration, Ecology, and Aquatic Management Solutions (STREAMS) program.
http://streams.osu.edu/conf.php
CONFERENCE: Wetlands
2008: Wetlands and Global Climate Change September 15-19, 2008. Doubletree Hotel &
Executive Meeting Center Portland-Lloyd
Center, Portland, OR.
Organized by the Association of State Wetland Managers, Inc. http://www.aswm.org/calendar/wetlands2008
CONFERENCE: 4th National Conference on Coastal and
Estuarine Habitat Restoration October
11-15, 2008. Rhode
Island Convention Center, Providence, RI.
Organized by Restore America's Estuaries.
http://www.estuaries.org/?id=138
CONFERENCE: 81st
Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference
(WEFTEC.08) October 18-22, 2008, McCormick Place,Chicago,
IL. Organized by the
Water Environment Federation. http://www.weftec.org
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
due Oct 24, 2008: River Rally 2009 May
29-June 1, 2009, Baltimore,
MD. The River Network is
bringing its annual River Rally to our home town of Baltimore!
We have started working with other local non-profits and watershed
groups who will be taking part in the program planning. Be sure to submit your ideas for a workshop
soon! http://www.rivernetwork.org/call_for_proposal.php
CONFERENCE: 44th
AWRA Annual Water Resources Conference November
17-20, 2008. New Orleans, LA. Organized by the American Water
Resources Association. http://www.awra.org/meetings/NewOrleans2008/index.html
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Runoff Rundown Team: Lauren Lasher, editor; Tiffany Wright, Anne Kitchell. Contributions from Center staff.
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10% discount on all purchases*
Just enter summer08 at checkout
* does not apply to previous purchases or for donations. Offer expires 8.31.08
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