Volume 1, Number 3

Stormwater

Partners Network News

www.stormwaterpartners.org

Fall 2007

Did You Know?

Downtown Bethesda

 EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) estimates that hard impervious surfaces in the Bay watershed grew by 41% in the 1990s while the population increased by only 8%. The September 2007 Bay Journal noted that “at this rate, an additional 250,000 acres in the Bay watershed will become impervious - more than twice the area of Shenandoah National Park.” This rapid growth of impervious surfaces, sprawl development, is according to a recent EPA Evaluation Report, outpacing progress by EPA and its Chesapeake Bay Program Partners in reducing nutrient and sediment loads from developed lands.

Click here to learn more about EPA’s assessment on development in the Chesapeake Bay region and what needs to occur to turn this around, click here: http://www.stormwaterpartners.org/?p=36

The Clean Water and Streams For Montgomery Conference

In a watershed meeting of unprecedented size and ambition, environmental activists, politicians and business leaders will gather later this month in an effort to promote healthy streams in Montgomery County.

The Clean Water and Streams for Montgomery conference will take place on Saturday, Oct 27 between 8:30 and 3:30 in the Montgomery County Council Office Building Auditorium in Rockville. The conference is sponsored by Montgomery County Stormwater Partners, a network of 21 national and local organizations. Eighty people are expected to attend. To read more about and what the Stormwater Partners hopes to accomplish, click here: http://stormwaterpartners.org/CleanWaterConference.htm

Green Streets 

The green streets provisions of the new Road Code, which passed the County Council unanimously in July, may be the best thing since sliced bread. Then again it may not be. Time will tell.

The bill faces two hurdles. The first hurdle is its actual completion, which will take almost another year. During this time, the engineering standards will be written. Like many bills, the Road Code is more like a set of goals than a blueprint. Until the blueprint is completed, nobody can say with certainty how green the code will be; however, it looks promising.

“I think the new The Road Code is a terrific step,” said Anne Merwin, Director of Policy for The Potomac Conservancy. She says the Bill has the potential to create large scale changes in storm water management. Montgomery County may become a national leader because of this bill according to Merwin, but she warns “the devil is in the details.” Until the engineering standards have been fully developed, unrestrained celebration of this legislation should be banked. Click here for the full article. http://stormwaterpartners.org/RoadCode.htm

New Countywide RainScapes Incentives Program

In May 2006, the County Council voted to provide $500,000 in cost sharing grant incentives to homeowners and other private landowners to install RainScapes practices to control stormwater runoff close to the source. The $500,000 was part of a $1,250,000 clean water initiative that is being financed by the County’s Water Quality Protection Charge that homeowners pay on their yearly real estate tax and administered by the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP.) The Clean Water Initiative is intended to emphasize RainScapes techniques, particularly in older, more urbanized neighborhoods that were developed without modernized stormwater management systems. After more than a year of waiting, we are finally seeing the program being implemented by DEP. According to Pam Rowe, DEP’s RainScapes Program Coordinator, DEP is planning on implementing the initiative using both an open Countywide Rebate Program and targeted efforts in several subwatersheds throughout the County. DEP has formed an “ad hoc” RainScapes Implementation Team with representatives from various watershed organizations and other citizen groups. Click here for the full article. http://stormwaterpartners.org/RainScapesIncentivesProgram.htm

The Washington Waldorf School Rain Garden Project.

Hard surfaces on the school site and adjacent properties contributed serious soil erosion. The erosion resulted in sediment entering into the Potomac River. Rather than piping the runoff directly to the stormwater main, the students, staff and parents at the Washington Waldorf School with the help of a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust have worked to implement an environmentally beneficial landscaping that not only beautifies the grounds, but also to retains and cleanses the stormwater runoff and address the soil erosion on the school property. To read more about this inspiring effort to engage the school’s students, parents and staff in improving our county’s water quality, click here: www.stormwaterpartners.org/WaldorfSchool.htm

Stormwater Partners Network News is published quarterly as an information and outreach effort of the Stormwater Partners Network.   Original articles in this publication may be reprinted without our  permission, but please credit us as the source.   Concerns? Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email edward_b_murtagh@yahoo.com

Ed Murtagh, Editor, is a resident of Silver Spring, MD.