From THE BAY JOURNAL: Challenges to stormwater rules threaten to weaken water quality

Proponents are working to show that new regulations are not as pricey as feared and can even cost less than current methods.

State efforts to reduce stormwater runoff from development sites in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania are facing an onslaught of questions and challenges that conservationists worry could weaken water quality protection in the Chesapeake region.

States are under pressure to develop robust stormwater regulations to meet federal pollution limits for rivers known as TMDLs, or Total Maximum Daily Loads. In January, the EPA announced plans to write federal stormwater regulations for the Bay watershed.

Although development of the regulations has just begun, they will eventually apply to any jurisdiction without a satisfactory stormwater program of its own.

“We’re all going toward this brave new world of low-impact development,” said Thomas Schueler of the Chesapeake Stormwater Network. “But no one truly understands the costs, and the engineering community is to differing degrees uncertain about how to proceed. It’s new stuff.”

See the full article.

Bioretention Hydrology

A recent paper on bioretention hydrologic performance from the Chesapeake Stormwater Network provides reliable data on how runoff reduction actually works within test bioretention cells. This solid paper also provides technical support for many of the Level 1 and 2 design criteria that are being proposed in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Webinar slated for April 16: Nutrient Trading in PA Positively Impacting the Chesapeake Bay

On April 16^th, 2010, the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts (PACD), PA DEP, and  the PA Department of Agriculture are jointly hosting a webinar entitled “Nutrient Trading in PA Positively Impacting the Chesapeake Bay” focusing on nutrient credit trading in Pennsylvania.  Click here for the full news release and for more details on the webinar.  For more information, contact Brenda Shambaugh at (717) 238-7223X19 or email Brenda-Shambaugh@pacd.org.

admin Chesapeake Bay bioretention, Chesapeake Bay, environmental site design, LID, nutrient credit system, nutrient trading, stormwater legislation, stormwater runoff, TMDL

Dr. Robert Traver, Director of the Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership (VUSP) and Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Villanova University recently sent out an update on the activities of the VUSP that we thought we would share. Dr . Traver writes:

Hello all!  It has been a wild ride this year, and my apologies for taking so long to update everyone.   This is to let you know our most recent year end report is available on the VUSP website.

PaSWM - Well the symposium exceeded our wildest dreams.  We received great reviews, and the attendance was only slightly off from the past - approximately 300.  I forgot how energy it takes, but it is simply a great event and thanks for your participation.  We had great speakers and great participants!

Stormwater Control Measure Research -I think overall the work is going well.  Our latest research update is available from the VUSP website.  Our only challenge is to focus on a subset of what is possible.  As of last count, we have MANY rain gardens, multiple porous surfaces, two green roofs, an infiltration trench, a historic seepage pit, a dry and wet detention pond, rain barrels, a SWW and are building a bio swale.  I wish we had the resources to study them all!

319  - We are continuing to focus on the Pervious Concrete and Porous Asphalt (PCPA) Site, the Bio Infiltration Rain Garden, and the In filtration Trench.  We are looking harder at the soil nutrients, and temperature effects.  Dr John Komlos is using this data to look at how long can the soil remove P before it is exhausted.  The first estimate I think is over 20 years for the top several inches.  Dr. Andrea Welker has a problem… the pollutants moving through the PCPA are so low it is hard to measure (Now that is a problem I like!)  She is concentrating on the temperature, flow, and chlorides.  We are also studying the opposite end of the spectrum that being the Infiltration Trench which is real dirty.  The contrast of the sites plus the extreme nature of the IT allows for good comparisons.  Dr. John Komlos is piggy backing on these projects with a study looking at stormwater toxicity which we are hoping will be renewed and expanded (EPA Edison) .  A critical point is all this work would not be moving forward without the student support from the 319 program.

CiCeet - We are still working on a CiCeet grant from NOAA that is allowing us to compare the results of Bio Infiltration/Bioretention sites from Univ. of Maryland and NC State.  The results so far are dramatic.  When viewing the error band for peak flows the results are scattered (though all reduced) but we are amazed at the repeatability and narrow error bands when we simply look at Volume in and out.  I have to bite my tongue; we are even able to relate the performance to a reduction of the NRCS Curve number.  We have submitted a publication to ES&T, which we hope to receive comments on soon, and I put a few of the graphs in the yearend report.  This grant unfortunately dies out in Fall 2010, and we are hoping to continue this work through other sources.  Through this grant, Ryan Lee is working on a more physics based approach to simulating the hydraulics of a rain garden.  All of this work is founded on the continuing 319 data collection efforts.

319 & ET Dr Wadzuk is about finished redesign of the stormwater wetlands using a GGII grant. We hope construction starts soon!  It will be much more circuitous then before with a series of gates to extend the contact time.  I am curious how much better it will work then my original design using a sketch.  The field has advanced!  We build two new rain gardens and soon a bio  swale using an older GGII grant, and as of now we have 11 rain gardens on campus, and are hoping to have four of them instrumented (need four more students!).  Dr Wadzuk is leading the charge, on our ET grant, looking at Green Roofs, Bio Retention/infiltration and a mini stormwater wetland.  The first Thesis on the green roof ET will be out soon.

TVSSI- William Penn - We continue to partner with temple, and this time we are focusing on monitoring and the longevity or performance of Green Infrastructure systems.  We are looking at designing a simple measuring device for rain gardens to help municipality know how they are working.  Dr. Andrea Welker is looking to work with a student to visit many older or recent BMPS (SCMS) and check their status as an effort to educate the work force on ho w they do after construction!

ARRA -Rain barrels and Rain Gardens - Well we almost finished our Rain Barrels and Rain gardens ARRA project, we are at the 99% mark but halted by the snow.  I believe we installed 28 Barrels and 6 new rain gardens on campus.  Note this is not a research project, but one to reduce NPS pollution and to be a good neighbor ( and some employment).  I am tempted to throw in a pressure transducer in the barrels, but I think I will wait till I find an undergraduate to work on it for a course.  I see many potential projects on campus, but one step at a time.

EPA III Green Highways  — EPA Stormwater Regs - We have met and given sem inars at EPA III on Stormwater Green Infrastructure, and are looking at how  we can aid and get more involved with the green highways program (I have been contacted to conduct a free webinar through EPA on the subject in April).  We continue to see this as a great need, and many of our projects translate well.  I also presented testimony in DC to EPA regarding proposed national stormwater regulations.

Villanova Center for the Advancement of Sustainability in Engineering.  Well, one last thing.  The College of Engineering has created VCASE in order to bring together say Energy and Stormwater, etc.  The College has granted me a course release for VUSP and to create the VCASE.  So I am now Director Squared.  This organization will allow us to diversify and I hope bring more resources to our research.

Rob

Robert G. Traver, Ph.D., PE, D.WRE

Visit VUSP on the web.

admin General bioretention, BMPs, economic stimulus, federal stormwater regulations, green highways, green infrastructure, green roofs, infiltration, Nonpoint source pollution, pervious pavement, porous pavement, rain barrels, rain garden, stormwater legislation

Trouble choosing the best BMP for your site? Take a look at what works and what doesn’t in The Center for Watershed Protection’s Performance Survey of Stormwater BMPs in Virginia’s James River Basin.  BMP types surveyed included bioretention cells, permeable pavers, constructed wetlands, detention and retention ponds, infiltration trenches, swales, and more.  At each BMP site, field teams looked for: indicators of erosion, clogging, and structural problems at the inlets and outlets; conditions directly downstream of the BMP; health of vegetative cover; signs of improper flow paths of water; maintenance issues; interesting design features; and more. The recently completed technical report describes the survey results and provides recommendations.  Read more and check out the report.

Do you have questions about Porous Pavement?  Bruce Ferguson has the answers.  Check out some of the most common question in his recent article in the Stormwater Journal.

Controlling Runoff at the CDC: Efforts to control stormwater runoff at the urban campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention led to the novel installation of an underground detention system, reported by The Stormwater Journal.  Located in a highly developed urban setting within Atlanta, GA, the Roybal Campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contains large areas of impervious surfaces that require stormwater management and detention. Constructed during the 1950s before modern requirements for controlling surface water runoff, the CDC had only minimal stormwater retention.  Learn more.

Stormwater Consortium Seeks Aid — from The Reporter.  The Montgomery County consortium of municipalities opposing new state stormwater regulations have divided their concerns into three categories: changes they could accept; regulations they could accept with slight alterations; and proposals so onerous that they could not be accepted.  One suggestion made by a municipal engineer encourages the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to promote more customization in its general permit applications.  Find out their concerns.

Reminders!

September 22-25 - 2009 Watershed Institute

October 9-11 - 2009 Chesapeake Watershed Forum

admin Weekly News bioretention, BMPs, Chesapeake Bay, constructed wetlands, infiltration, PA DEP, porous pavement, regulations, stormwater runoff

EPA’s Green Infrastructure & MS4 Compliance Workshops are coming to Charlottesville, Atlanta, and various locations in New York.  The workshops are “intended primarily for municipal governments with wet weather management responsibilities, i.e., stormwater, combined sewer overflows, sanitary sewer overflows and nonpoint source runoff. The workshop[s] will focus on how these programs can be effectively managed using green infrastructure technologies and approaches.”

Details:

Charlottesville, April 29 & 30.
Atlanta, May 4 & 5.
New York, May 7.

Chesapeake Stormwater Network Update No. 8 Just Released. Stormwater Guru Tom Schueler’s latest News blog looks at everything from the status of Bay State Stormwater Regs to Specs for Permeable Pavement and Grass Channels and more. Get in tune with this valuable resource here.

Call for entries to the Stormwater BMP Recognition Program! The Philadelphia Water Department is partnering with the Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative to recognize the best projects that have been implemented in southeast Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties).  Entries are being accepted until June 1, 2009.  Details.

From the May issue of Stormwater, the Journal for Surface Water Quality Professsionals:

Challenges of Stream Restoration as a Stormwater Management Tool
“As the first of a three-part series on stream restoration intended to realize the disparity between design and construction, and how this contributes to failure, this article provides the designer’s perspective on which challenges pose the greatest risk to the success of a stream restoration project.” See the rest of the article here.

Beating Bacteria
“A new methodology for identifying and prioritizing water bodies with high concentrations of fecal coliform is helping Florida address the problem of elevated bacteria levels.” Go to the article.

Project Profile
“City of Chattanooga Urban Stormwater Retrofit.” Check it out.

Earlier this year, New Jersey updated its Stormwater BMP Manual with Chapter 9.1, “Standard for Bioretention Systems.” See it here.

admin NPDES / MS4 bioretention, Chesapeake Bay, MS4, Nonpoint source pollution, retrofit, stormwater legislation, stream restoration