Stormwater Issues

ACF Environmental   www.acfenvironmental.com AK Steel                      www.aksteel.com American Peat Technology LLC      www.americanpeattech.com AP/M Permaform     www.permaform.net             APWA             www.apwa.net &nbs...>... More >

AK STEEL AK Steel’s Aluminized Steel Type 2 corrugated steel pipe is an ideal material for municipal storm sewers or any normal drainage project. It offers a durable and economical alternative to reinforced concrete pipe. Its features include long service life, light weight, long lengths, and joints that have positive pull-apart resistance and the ability to adjust to yielding foundations. www.aksteel.com   N-SITU In-Situ Inc.’s new smarTROLL Multiparameter Handheld Instrument and iSitu Smartphone ...>... More >

By Carol Brzozowski Look for the pinnacle, and you’ll see Brant D. Keller standing there. Keller has made it his life’s mission to reach for the top, from earning Boy Scouting’s highest rank of Eagle to earning a doctoral degree. Military awards and other honors are scattered throughout his resume. From those who have achieved much, much is expected. In Griffin, GA, Keller—who has been with the city since 1992—directs the public works and utilities department. His responsibilities include overseeing the...>... More >

By Janis Keating Ask the average citizen about “street sweeping,” and chances are she’ll say, “It cleans up the trash people toss out of their cars.” This is, of course, true, and what most people notice. Minutes after Los Angeles’ 2013 Golden Dragon Parade ended, pedestrians quickly returned to Chinatown’s sidewalks as street cleaners whisked along the parade route, collecting the numerous piles of paper confetti and Mylar streamers shot from and to the crowds. However, street sweeping does much more, ...>... More >

There is a mounting challenge throughout North America on how to manage stormwater in urban areas as land becomes more developed, resulting in more impervious surfaces and less space in which to install stormwater treatment devices. Case in point: until recently, the metal recycling efforts of Sims Metal Management Municipal Recycling (SMR) in the Bronx had been a double-edged sword. On one hand, the facility (formerly known as Hugo Neu until a 2005 buyout) has successfully recycled hundreds of tons of ...>... More >

ACF Environmental     www.acfenvironmental.com AP/M Permaform        www.permaform.net Best Management Products    www.bmpinc.com Bio Clean Environmental        www.biocleanenvironmental.net Campbell Scientific     www.campbellsci.com Contech Engineered Solutions           www.conteches.com Crumpler Plastic Pipe Inc.      www.cpp-pipe.com DOGIPOT      www.dogipot.com Federal Signa...>... More >

By Carol Brzozowski Eric Stein is the principal scientist in the biology department of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, a public research institute that has been in existence since 1969. “Our main mission is to do science and research to support water-quality management in the region that pertains to streams, beaches, and the ocean. We provide independent technical resources that support the regulators and the regulated,” he says. One of the projects in which Stein has been involv...>... More >

By Randel Lemoine Recently the US Army, in an effort to consolidate resources, moved the United States Army Armor School to Fort Benning, GA. The maneuvering of its numerous tracked vehicles, which weigh as much as 75 tons each, disturbs large areas of vegetation, loosens the soil, and exposes it to erosion with the next rainfall. Fort Benning is located in two basic soil provinces, the Georgia Sand Hills and the Southern Coastal Plains. The Georgia Sand Hills are a narrow belt of deep sandy soils with ...>... More >

By David Engle Urban stormwater ruins picnics and ballgames, raises floods, snarls traffic, threatens safety, wreaks destruction, costs cities millions in damage and disruption—and those are among the relatively short-lived effects. Stormwater runoff is also the leading source of water-quality problems nationwide, carrying sediment and other pollutants to lakes, streams, coastal estuaries, and even drinking supplies; one fairly recent persuasive report on this came from the United States National Resear...>... More >

By Janice Kaspersen   What would you say is your most pressing stormwater need right now? The gap your program is struggling to fill, the money you don’t quite have enough of to cover all that you need to do, or the hazards in a particular flood-prone neighborhood? Every stormwater program faces problems, and there are no simple solutions to cover all of them. But sometimes answers—or at least good ideas—are found in clusters. The very biggest and best of these clusters is StormCon 2012, taking pla...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com AMEC Environment and Infrastructure www.amec.com American Peat Technology LLC www.americanpeattech.com AP/M Permaform www.permaform.net Belgard Hardscapes www.belgard.biz Best Management Products www.bmpinc.com Bio Clean Environmental www.biocleanenvironmental.net Brentwood Industries www.brentwoodindustries.com Contech Stormwater Solutions www.contech-cpi.com Crumpler Plastic Pipe Inc. www.cpp-pipe.com Cultec Inc. www.cultec.com DHI Software www.dhigroup.com D...>... More >

By Don Talend San Angelo, TX, home of the Concho River that flows through the downtown area and three lakes, is a lot like many cities that sprang up along the banks of a river. Stormwater runoff affects the viability of drinking water and the ecosystem not only of San Angelo, but also of several communities located downstream. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) lists the North Concho River on its 2010 303(d) list for a water-quality impairment and cites water-quality concerns for high...>... More >

AMERICAN PEAT TECHNOLOGY American Peat Technology (APT) has captured the natural affinity reed sedge has to attract and bind heavy metals filtered from water. APT has enhanced the natural properties of peat that makes it attract heavy metals and has developed a process to harden the peat and make it stable in water. Once loaded with metals the APTsorb media passes all TCLP tests. APTsorb is a natural ion exchange media that costs less to purchase and install and is easier and less expensive to dispose o...>... More >

American Peat Technology LLC      www.americanpeattech.com AP/M Permaform     www.permaform.net             Belgard Hardscapes www.belgard.biz Best Management Products www.bmpinc.com Bio Clean Environmental     www.biocleanenvironmental.net Carlisle SynTec          www.carlisle-syntec.com Clearwater Solutions Inc.     www...>... More >

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 ...>... More >

By Janice Kaspersen After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, we ran an article covering the aftereffects—the damage to stormwater infrastructure, the cleanup efforts, and the lessons learned. Two articles in this issue, one by Carol Brzozowski and one by JoAnne Castagna of the US Army Corps of Engineers about the Corps’ efforts in the days and weeks after the storm, cover much of the same ground for Hurricane Sandy. But there is one important difference in our coverage—and others’—this time, something that wasn...>... More >

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...>... More >

By Jane Clary, Brandon Steets, Jonathan Jones, Eric Strecker, and Marc Leisenring   Pathogens are the top cause of stream impairments nationally, with over 10,500 stream segments identified as impaired as of 2012—typically due to elevated concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in waterbodies. Although strict numeric effluent limits for stormwater discharges are not typically required yet in most communities, the implementation phase of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) may result in Natio...>... More >

AP/M PERMAFORM AP/M’s new process for the structural renewal of culverts and sanitary sewer pipe—without backhoes, repaving, traffic detours, flooding, or hazardous construction—is called Centri-pipe, short for centrifugally cast concrete pipe. Corrugated metal, with its propensity to rust and buckle, has a design life of 20 to 30 years. Replacement options include digging and its unavoidable disruption, sliplining with its reduced capacity, or expensive cured-in-place liners. Without digging, liners, o...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com American Peat Technology LLC www.americanpeattech.com AP/M Permaform www.permaform.net Belgard Hardscapes www.belgard.biz Best Management Products www.bmpinc.com Bio Clean Environmental www.biocleanenvironmental.net Brentwood Industries www.brentwoodindustries.com CHEMetrics www.chemetrics.com Clearwater Solutions Inc. www.clearwaterbmp.com Contech Engineered Solutions www.conteches.com Crumpler Plastic Pipe Inc. www.cpp-pipe.com DHI Software www.dhigroup.com F...>... More >

As concerns grow over the negative impacts of urban development on water resources, low-impact-development (LID) practices, such as bioretention and permeable pavement, are increasingly becoming recommended or required. Historically, these practices have been implemented more frequently in areas with predominantly sandy soils, such as the North Carolina Coastal Plain, where generally high infiltration rates can reduce the need for underdrains and improve overall hydrologic function. As interest in LID i...>... More >

Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) issued total maximum daily load (TMDL) mandates in March 2009 for the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), a bay in east central Florida. (FDEP 2009). The TMDL requires communities to reduce nutrient loadings in their stormwater runoff. FDEP is currently undertaking the implementation stage of the TMDL program, called a Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP), which is enforced through National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) municipal separate stor...>... More >

BEST MANAGEMENT PRODUCTS INC. The BMP SNOUT, with the original Stainless TrashScreen, stops trash in its tracks and meets Full Trash Capture requirements. Best Management Products Inc. offers innovative and affordable products. At the company’s website, customers can download CAD drawings, design information, and literature and check pricing. There are more than 50,000 SNOUTs in service. www.bmpinc.com CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC Campbell Scientific’s new OBS500 Dual Turbidity Probe with Antifouling combines a ...>... More >

As you’re no doubt aware, EPA released its new five-year construction general permit in February, replacing the just-expired previous permit. This in itself is nothing out of the ordinary—except that the provisions of the new permit are, for those who’ve been watching EPA’s developing rules for construction sites over the last few years, somewhat unexpected. The question now is what the new CGP will mean for the stormwater industry and for water quality in general. EPA has been developing construction e...>... More >

AMERICAN PEAT TECHNOLOGY American Peat Technology (APT) has captured the natural affinity reed sedge has to attract and bind heavy metals filtered from water. APT has enhanced the natural properties of peat that makes it attract heavy metals and has developed a process to harden the peat and make it stable in water. Once loaded with metals the APTsorb media passes all TCLP tests. APTsorb is a natural ion exchange media that costs less to purchase and install and is easier and less expensive to dispose o...>... More >

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...>... More >

By Jerald S. Fifield     Today, a multi-million-dollar industry provides a variety of products to meet EPA’s mandate of installing construction site best management practices (BMPs) to minimize pollutants in the discharge of runoff waters. On any construction site, one will find numerous barriers to perform this task, including silt fence, straw bale, fiber roll, and geosynthetic structures around homes and inlets or in drainage channels. What is unknown is the effectiveness of barriers to rem...>... More >

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...>... More >

By Mike Vaughan   Spectators from around the globe have been watching the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, enthralled by world-class athletes participating in stunning competitions. It’s a safe bet to imagine that few in the crowd have thought about flooding, though flood safety was an essential factor in the creation of the new Olympic Park, site of Olympic Stadium and numerous other competition venues. To keep floodwaters controlled, 2 miles of riverbanks were redesigned and reengineered...>... More >

AbTech Industries      www.abtechindustries.com     ACF Environmental    www.acfenvironmental.com    AMEC Environment and Infrastructure         www.amec.com           American Peat Technology LLC        www.americanpeattech.com AP/M Permaform        www.permaform.net       Belgard Hardscapes     www.belgard.biz     Best Management Products ...>... More >

By John Mclaughlin, Julie Stein, Sandeep Mehrotra, William Leo, and Matthew Jones   As the largest urban area in the United States, New York City (NYC), NY, faces substantial challenges in managing stormwater runoff. As with many other older cities, much of NYC is served by a combined sewer system, which conveys both stormwater and wastewater, to wastewater treatment plants. Although these plants are generally designed to manage twice their dry-weather flow, during prolonged or intense storm events...>... More >

By Don Talend Low-impact development (LID) for stormwater management becomes a bigger challenge when a site has limited space. Such is the case at a high-profile sports project in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. The site of a new stadium for the National Football League’s San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, CA, used LID. The stadium will be built on a highly developed, constrained 32-acre site near the California’s Great America theme park in Santa Clara, among other developments. The $1.02 billion...>... More >

Underground pipes and other structures do more than free up aboveground space. When they’re carefully selected and designed, they can accomplish a wide variety of goals, often in challenging situations. For example, at the Sacred Heart Senior Apartments in Saint Francis, WI, a pipe system meets requirements for total suspended solids (TSS) removal and reduces peak runoff. At the 3M corporate headquarters in St. Paul, MN, a different pipe system in a different configuration provides required improvements...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com AMEC Environment and Infrastructure www.amec.com American Peat Technology LLC www.americanpeattech.com AP/M Permaform www.permaform.net Belgard Hardscapes www.belgard.biz Best Management Products www.bmpinc.com Bio Clean Environmental www.biocleanenvironmental.net Brentwood Industries www.brentwoodindustries.com Campbell Scientific www.campbellsci.com Contech Stormwater Solutions www.contech-cpi.com Crumpler Plastic Pipe Inc. www.cpp-pipe.com Cultec Inc. www.cu...>... More >

When Jean Baptiste Point du Sable built his farm as the first white settler of Chicago, IL, he never knew the Des Plaines River was a river. Because, back then, in the 1780s, it really wasn’t. He would have thought of it as a swamp. The interplay of landscape and rain was entirely different in that day. And most Midwestern creeks and rivers that we now see on our maps—that we drive across on bridges—simply had no defined channels and banks. Pioneers slogged through them with wagons and oxen. They were n...>... More >

An article in the February 4 Wall Street Journal prompted a great deal of reaction and soul-searching around the Web. Adapted by David Owen from his book The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse , the article questioned whether we’re justified in feeling as good as we do about the things we’re doing “right” for the environment, such as buying more-efficient vehicles or appliances. As Owen points out, and as Elizabe...>... More >

By Kevin Daggett and Jerry Lovato The Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Control Authority (AMAFCA) has been constructing stormwater-quality facilities and best management practices (BMPs) for more than 13 years. During that time, many different approaches have been tested for effectiveness. The BMP selection process has evolved over time through lessons learned and the incorporation of new methodologies and technologies. AMAFCA’s approach to water quality has evolved to adapt to local hydrologic, hydrauli...>... More >

By Daniel Ahern, Richard Wagner, and Robert Klink   Beaufort County, SC, is located between Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA. Because of the prime coastal location, the county has long been an attractive location for resorts and other types of development. The county’s stormwater program has been challenged by its citizens and leaders to be a progressive coastal program that has recently incorporated volume control into its stormwater management criteria. This progressive attitude has kept 85% of o...>... More >

Written by Elizabeth Cutright The connected community. That’s all the water cycle really is—a series of connected categories that each impact and influence the other. In nature, no distinction is made between wastewater and drinking water, between stormwater, seawater, and what falls from the sky. Sooner or later, the public and the water industry will recognize that it’s time to decompartmentalize water resource management: to do away with the silos, the polarized stakeholders, and the balkanized water...>... More >

By Don Talend   Handling Wet, Emergency Conditions The intersection of Routes 9 and 440 with the Garden State Parkway is one of New Jersey’s busiest and most vital cloverleaf complexes. Sinkholes began to appear there after Hurricane Irene in 2011. “Soil was collapsing into large-diameter corrugated metal pipe [CMP] storm sewers and creating big sinkholes,” notes Alkesh Desai, stormwater emergency manager for the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT). “When we inspected, we found that mor...>... More >

By Eduardo J. Miles It is common practice in a water-quality monitoring (WQM) project that negative impacts on the project are almost never considered during the project’s design phase and generally are addressed after the fact. Thus, a reactive decision-making process is applied. This approach has a number of disadvantages, primarily that addressing negative impacts after the fact can be very costly and can jeopardize the fulfillment of the monitoring and data quality objectives. To ensure achieving th...>... More >

By Michael S. Rolband and Frank R. Graziano It is a well-accepted and understood principle that changes in land use within a watershed, primarily related to the increase in impervious area resulting from land development, increase stormwater runoff. This increased flow degrades downstream receiving waters that are insufficient in size or do not have appropriate substrate to handle the change in flow regime. Almost half a century ago, negative impacts to receiving waters resulting from land development l...>... More >

For more than 70 years, family-owned and operated Davis Industries Inc. has been providing scrap metal recycling services for customers in northern Virginia and Maryland. The facility in Lorton, VA, recycles aluminum, mixed steel, brass, and copper from non-working appliances, junk automobiles, and other consumer and industrial sources. The Davis Industries site operates seven cranes, an automobile shredder, shear, eddy/induction sorting system, and non-ferrous bailing system in addition to forklifts, s...>... More >

By Laurens van der Tak, Keith Bishton, Bruce Taylor, and Mike Matichich Stormwater utilities that are funded by user fees based on impervious area have been in existence for decades. However, recent trends are driving the creation of new stormwater utilities and the evolution of existing ones. This article highlights three recent trends: Significant new regulatory drivers are creating higher revenue needs and requirements to treat impervious area, improved technologies such as better impervious area map...>... More >

Early this year there was a new development in EPA’s ongoing work toward a numeric turbidity limit for discharge from construction sites. There’s still a chance for you to participate and offer comments on the numeric limit, as well as on the technologies surrounding its implementation. You have until March 5 to get your comments to EPA. Some background: In late 2009, EPA published its effluent limitations guidelines for the construction and development industry, which set a limit of 280 nephelometric t...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com AP/M Permaform  www.permaform.net Belgard Hardscapes www.belgard.biz Best Management Products www.bmpinc.com Bio Clean Environmental www.biocleanenvironmental.net Brentwood Industries www.brentwoodindustries.com Contech Stormwater Solutions www.contech-cpi.com Crumpler Plastic Pipe Inc. www.cpp-pipe.com Earth Chem Inc. www.earthchem.com Expanded Shale, Clay and Slate Institute www.escsi.org Filterra Bioretention Systems www.filterra.com Invisible Structure...>... More >

Warner Robins, GA, is a military town named in honor of Brigadier General Augustine Warner Robins. The city is built around Robins Air Force Base, Georgia’s largest employer. Its military background has had consequences for the town’s infrastructure. Rapid wartime expansion meant that sewers and other assets were put in quickly, with relatively little planning or inspection. As a result, “We have a lot of older corrugated metal pipe [CMP] storm sewer, even under roads,” says stormwater management techni...>... More >

The City of Austin’s (COA’s) Watershed Protection Department (WPD) engineers and scientists use a multitude of tools to analyze trends and evaluate possible methods to remedy and minimize environmental impacts, such as flooding, erosion, and water-quality degradation due to development. Traditional methods usually analyze the impacts of extreme events at certain points in time, yet WPD is also interested in more long-term effects. Needless to say, different applications require different analysis method...>... More >