The Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative (T-VSSI) is excited to announce an informational workshop, “Financing Opportunities for Green Infrastructure”.  T-VSSI is a research initiative that includes Temple University’s Center for Sustainable Communities and Villanova University’s Urban Stormwater Partnership.  This program is made possible through funding from the William Penn Foundation under a new T-VSSI grant. The workshop seeks to provide municipal officials and others in Southeastern Pennsylvania and surrounding areas with detailed information about federal and state green infrastructure (broadly defined to include stormwater, alternative energy, green buildings, energy conservation, etc.) programs.

Financing Opportunities for Green Infrastructure
Monday, March 29 2010: 1-4 pm
Temple University Ambler Campus Learning Center Auditorium

Preliminary Agenda

Welcome/Introductions

• Jeffrey Featherstone, T-VSSI Co-Principal Investigator and Research Professor,  Department of Community and Regional  Planning, Temple University.

Overview of Financing Opportunities Available Through the Commonwealth

• Jim Creedon, Secretary Department of General Services and Chief Implementation Officer for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Green Infrastructure Financing Programs (speakers to be announced)

• PA Department of Environmental Protection: Upcoming Request for Proposals for ARRA funded energy opportunities in Green Building and Geothermal
• PA Department of Community and Economic Development:  Progress and status of the Weatherization Assistance Program, and an overview of the ARRA Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds and Recovery Zone Facility Bonds
• PA Department of General Services: Overview of the ESCO concept, its success in the Capitol complex and how local governments can use this concept

Success Stories (speakers to be announced)

PENNVest 2009 Stormwater project awards and early results

Who Should Attend?

County and municipal officials, planners, engineers and others engaged in funding, planning, designing and managing green infrastructure projects and programs.

Registration

Registration for this free workshop is required.  To register please send an e-mail with your name, title and name of organization to Judy Shatz at judy.shatz@temple.edu

Directions

Directions to the Ambler Campus and Ambler Learning Center (building 2 on the campus map) are available here.

admin Funding, green infrastructure ARRA, BMPs, green infrastructure, PA DEP, stormwater best management practices

Upcoming Events

Mar 9: PADEP to Hold Drinking Water Source Protection Workshop

The PA Department of Environmental Protection will hold a workshop from 1-5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9^th for water suppliers and local officials to learn how they can work together to better protect drinking water sources.  This free event will be held in Bethlehem, Northampton County at the main campus of Northampton Community College.   DEP will explore how communities can assess and protect the areas surrounding water source and will present information on its source water protection technical assistance program.  See the full DEP announcement.

Those interested in attending must pre-register for the workshop Online or by contacting Julie Kollar of the League of Women Voters’ Water Resources Education Network at 267-468-0555.

Mar 13: Schuylkill Watershed Congress

Saturday, March 7th Montgomery County Community College, West Campus
101 College Drive, Pottstown, Pennsylvania
For more information, contact the Delaware Riverkeeper Network

April 17: Seventh Annual PennFuture Watershed Workshop

Saturday, April 17^th at the Friends Center in Philadelphia
Ticket purchase is required.  Registration is required by Friday, April 9^th.
Go to PennFuture.org for more information.

admin Announcements Delaware River Basin, drinking water, LID, Schuylkill River, source water protection, special protection waters, stormwater best management practices, watershed protection

As we noted in this post, Green Infrastructure is coming of age, and Philadelphia is at the forefront of utilizing innovative “greening” techniques. Be on the lookout for much more about these exciting efforts here on StormwaterPA in the coming months, including a series of videos that look at specific projects and sites.

In the meantime, amongst the useful articles in the January/February issue of Stormwater is one of special interest to us: “Philadelphia: Going Green to Manage Stormwater” (Margaret Buranen).  This is a nice acknowledgement of the Philadelphia Water Department’s nationally prominent green infrastructure program to better manage stormwater and the extremely serious combined sewer Overflow (CSO) problem.

Philadelphia’s changes in stormwater strategy began a major shift in 1999, when the City’s Water Department formed an Office of Watersheds to integrate sustainable wet weather solutions.

Dr. Christopher Crockett, PE, Director of Planning and Research at the Office of Watersheds:

In 2006, another major step forward occurred when we updated our stormwater regulations to require the management of the first inch of stormwater runoff for all directly connected impervious areas for any new or redevelopment with 15,000 square feet or greater of earth disturbance in the city.

The new regulations mean that “stormwater management” is part of the zoning and building permit process at the earliest stages.  Developers have many incentives to include LID and other green techniques to manage stormwater in order to meet those (2006) regulations.

Two years ago, the City Water Department proposed making a major change in the way billing was performed at the Water Department, essentially moving in the direction of a stormwater utility where stormwater billings for all non-individual residences would be based on impervious cover (80 percent weighting) and total lot size (20 percent weighting), rather than simply using water metering as in the past (notoriously inaccurate - large water users can generate relatively modest stormwater and large stormwater generators can use sometimes virtually no water!).  The new program has done much to encourage developers to incorporate partial and full green LID elements in new project designs.  Water Department success has been significantly reinforced with partnerships, such as with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green.

In 2005, Philadelphia Green and the PWD started work on a project to address stormwater problems at seven Philadelphia schools.  At S. Weir Mitchell Elementary School, children created a raised bed vegetable garden in a paved parking lot, which will not only absorb stormwater, but also reduce the heat island effect.  Vegetation, infiltration trenches, bioswales,and a rain garden replaced some of the school’s 3-acre impervious site.

Another joint stormwater project, in South Philly, will include the city’s first sidewalk infiltration planters, on South 13^th Street.  Modeled after street planters used in Portland, OR, they are designed to reduce overflows that led to basement flooding, a persistent problem in the area.  These planters, which measure 30 feet long by 7 feet wide and are 4 feet deep, will be filled with native plants suggested by members of the PHS.

Ms. Buranen’s Stormwater article includes a wealth of information on Philadelphia projects, and we urge you to take a look!  This is definitely a Pennsylvania stormwater success story! You can find the complete article here.

admin green infrastructure BMPs, buffers, clean water, green infrastructure, hydrology, infiltration, LID, rain garden, rainwater collection, stormwater best management practices, water quality

A satellite image taken by NASA after heavy rain shows “a big brown stain of chocolate milk spewing from the Susquehanna River, in the far north, and spreading more than 50 miles south, past Annapolis,” writes Tom Pelton in the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Bay Daily blog. “Similar smudges ooze down the Potomac and James rivers. It ain’t chocolate Wonka fans…”

Read the complete post.

admin Chesapeake Bay Chesapeake Bay, erosion and sediment control, Nonpoint source pollution, stormwater runoff, Susquehanna River, water quality, wet weather

At the Center for Watershed Protection…

Last week we summarized EPA’s webcast on the proposed national rulemaking on post-construction stormwater management. The agency was clear in their intention to consider volume control and promoting the concept of green infrastructure.  In its Winter 2010 newsletter, the Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) recaps reader ramblings on the role of evapotranspiration (ET) in stormwater design, and shares readers comments on tools for stormwater volume reduction.  Read these and other stormwater features at CWP’s Runoff Rundown, Winter Edition.

Upcoming events

2010 International Low Impact Development (LID) Conference, April 11-14, 2010.

Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel, San Francisco, CA.

Organized by ASCE and EWRI.

More Information

From the Rooftop to the Bay: Implementing Stormwater Management Strategies in the

Chesapeake Bay Watershed, March 9-11, 2010. (Registration deadline is February 5, 2010)

Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton, VA.

Organized by the Center for Watershed Protection.

More Information

Schuylkill Watershed Congress, March 13th, 2010.

Montgomery County Community College, West Campus, Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Organized by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

For more information, call 215-369-1188, ext. 109.

admin Stormwater BMPs BMPs, Chesapeake Bay, evapotranspiration, green infrastructure, LID, Schuylkill River, stormwater best management practices, stormwater runoff, volume control, water quality