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By Janice Kaspersen As stormwater professionals, much of our work is focused on local water bodies: how our programs are affecting, for better or worse, the nutrient levels in a local lake, or the number of days the local beach is closed because of high indicator bacteria counts. In areas that have total maximum daily loads in place for a large body of water—the Chesapeake Bay, for example—we’re also concerned with the efforts of those closely surrounding us. Every so often, though, it’s useful to step ...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Regulatory Issues, Research, Water-quality Monitoring
By Katherine Baer Despite marked progress toward cleaner water over the 40-year history of the Clean Water Act, there is widespread agreement that much work is left to be done. One major gap in the protections under the landmark law is its inability to effectively reduce polluted stormwater runoff from developed and developing areas. This growing source of pollution from urbanized areas and the resulting growth in impervious surfaces continues to plague our rivers and streams across the country. The US ...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Low-impact Development, Regulatory Issues, Research
By Joanne Castagna “She was wandering around mounds of debris along the waterfront at Breezy Point, New York, and the shock on her face was pretty powerful for me,” says Jim Balocki, chief, Interagency and International Services, Headquarters, US Army Corps of Engineers. “Her name was Kathleen and she told me she had lost everything to Hurricane Sandy and that she was grateful for everything we were doing to help her community, and I was glad to be there to speak with her,” says Balocki, who deployed to...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Program Management, Regulatory Issues, Watershed Projects
By Kevin Shafer I recently attended the third annual US Water Alliance’s Urban Water Sustainability Leadership Conference, the focus of which was resource recovery and green infrastructure. I left the conference even more energized by what some of our leading, “spotlight” cities are doing to promote sustainable infrastructure. What I learned is that these cities are collaborating across disciplines to integrate sustainability into their projects and are seeing powerful results. For years, grey in...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: CSOs, Low-impact Development, Regulatory Issues
By Carol Brzozowski The White House is placing a higher priority on stormwater and the establishment of green infrastructure to address it, say those who attended a conference on stormwater and green infrastructure last week in Washington, DC. Funding is one barrier between that increased interest and implementing initiatives. The next step will be for conference organizers to start developing a white paper detailing funding options, says conference participant Elisa Speranza, president of CH2M H...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: CSOs, Low-impact Development, Regulatory Issues
By Janice Kaspersen Stormwater managers often divide their responsibilities into two general categories: managing water quality, and managing water quantity. In the early days, “stormwater management” essentially meant “flood control” in many communities. What was in the water mattered less than that we kept it off the streets and out of people’s basements. With the Clean Water Act and NPDES permits and TMDLs came a growing concern for water quality as well. Quantity and quality can’t be separate...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Low-impact Development, Program Management, Regulatory Issues
By Janice Kaspersen This fall marked the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, and along with the occasion came messages from every side—some hailing the CWA as a crowning jewel of environmental policy, others saying it has already been so weakened by recent court cases that it now lacks teeth to protect our waterways, and a few calling for its complete overhaul. There’s no doubt that the CWA has faced, and continues to face, challenges. We have seen years of wrangling over how, precisely, we should ...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Monitoring, Pollutants, Regulatory Issues
By David Dods and Jessi Veach The Kansas City, MO, Water Services Department (KCWSD) has embarked on an environmentally progressive project that demonstrates how stormwater improvements can help improve neighborhoods and create community amenities instead of simply being buried underground. In short, it brings success to the surface in multiple, meaningful ways. The project, called the Middle Blue River Basin Green Solutions Pilot Project, commits millions of dollars to a large-scale pilot test o...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: CSOs, Low-impact Development, Regulatory Issues
By Stephen Elkind and Benjamin Cady EPA is planning major changes to its stormwater regulations. These would be the most significant changes since the federal stormwater regulations were enacted nearly a quarter century ago. Under one new provision, for example, the federal stormwater program would be extended to cover all “newly developed” and “redeveloped” properties in the country. The new rules would require owners of such properties to reduce their runoff using stormwater control technologie...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Program Management, Regulatory Issues, Watershed Projects
Written by Janice Kaspersen As most of us are aware, EPA is working on a new stormwater rule—and has been for well over a year. At StormCon in August, Jeremy Bauer of EPA’s Office of Wastewater Management provided an overview of the upcoming rule, answered audience questions, and noted comments to take back to EPA. As EPA has long stated—and as Bauer outlined when he spoke at last year’s conference—the new rule will emphasize using green infrastructure and infiltrating stormwater when possible. This is ...... continue reading
From: Stormwater Topics: Program Management, Regulatory Issues, Watershed Projects
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