Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership: Director’s Update
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
