You Couldn't Plot This Conference on a Chart
Before
the opening keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (sponsored by AbTech
Industries), StormCon
2008 was already a hit due to the full-day pre-conference workshops taught by
some of the thought leaders and top practitioners in the nation, such as Tom
Schueler of the Chesapeake Stormwater Network (founder and former director of
the Center for Watershed Protection); Larry Coffman, originator of low-impact
development; Nikos Singelis, USEPA; and Tetra Tech’s John Kosco and Barry
Tonning, who taught smart growth and watershed management techniques
incorporating TMDLs.
StormCon’08 had so much going on, there was not a moment to spare.
In
his opening address, Robert Kennedy Jr. recounted experiences as an
environmental activist and touched on many examples that underscored why the
Clean Water Act was necessary, what it has done to benefit our quality of life,
and how enforcing it is an ongoing battle and will continue to be. He received a
standing ovation and greeted a long line of attendees at the AbTech booth as he
signed complimentary copies of his bestselling book, Crimes
Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the
Country and Hijacking Our Democracy.
One
of the questions on our minds this year was what to expect from the BMPs and the
Bigger Picture Panel Discussion. Given the stellar lineup (Bill Hunt, Andy
Reese, Robert Roseen, Nikos Singelis, Tom Schueler), many wondered which
direction would they go. As it turned out, the panel became a group exercise.
Moderator Andy Reese steered the panelists and audience toward a ranked list of
the “venti,” “grande,” and “tall”-sized BMPs challenges—and created a memorable
“aha” moment. Here are the venti challenges:
- Volume and numeric pollutant reduction capability
-
Practices without good specifications
-
Life cycle cost analysis of BMPs—like other infrastructure
costs
-
Private maintenance of BMPs
- Universal certification of commercial devices
This
list left some wondering how BMPs can be boiled down to a set of specs, a
lifecycle analysis, and even, how to track and incentivize (private) BMP
maintenance. And those could be next year’s panel discussion
topics.
Session
Highlights
For
the first time, Tom Schueler, founder and former director of the Center for
Watershed Protection, joined StormCon
and received a warm reception by numerous fans of his visionary work. Tom’s
90-minute presentation “The Impervious Cover Model Revisited and New Strategies
to Defeat It,” packed the room and updated the impervious cover model with a new
chart for determining impacts of construction on watersheds. A synthesis of
hundreds of studies, this project delivered a refined chart showing ranges of
impervious impacts to help better visualize watershed
management.
“The
Hydraulic and Water Quality Performance of a Subsurface Gravel Wetland for
Stormwater Management,” given by Professor Robert Roseen, director, University
of New Hampshire’s Stormwater Center, was closely followed because it provided
data showing that the gravel wetland achieves close to 99% removal efficiency
for total suspended solids, petroleum hydrocarbons-diesel, and zinc, and
requires less maintenance than other LID systems.
Professor
John Sansalone’s 90-minute presentation, “Everything You Wanted to Know About
Stormwater Media But Were Afraid To Ask: I (Adsorption) and II (Filtration)”
received praise for offering some definitive data showing how, what, and when to
apply common media to achieve specific pollutant reduction
goals.
LID
continues to be the hot topic at StormCon,
and the number of presentations showed how wide-ranging the application of LID
has grown—from “Low Impact Development Site Design: Separating the Possible from
the Impossible,” where Ted Scott, T.E.S. Associates, demonstrated vastly
different outcomes using two different site design methodologies; to “Higher
Density: The Ultimate BMP,” Randel Lemoine, Symbiotic Ventures LLC, and Lisa
Nisenson, Nisenson Associates, which illustrated the community-level approach to
LID, to “Industrial Low Impact Development,” Ross Dunning, Kennedy/Jenks
Consultants, a study of the port of Tacoma, WA’s efforts to reduce specific
pollutants.
Enforcement
of NPDES Phase II doesn’t get as much attention as other program management
issues. One of the small success stories this year, however, was Bluffton, SC’s
construction-site inspection program that has reduced discharges into the May
River from 40 NTU to 20 NTU, preserving a pristine river that supports the last
commercially viable shellfish industry in the state, while accommodating rampant
new residential development. The program accomplished this with one full-time
staffer and two part-time inspectors conducting nearly 200 inspections a month.
It has taken scores of violators to court and has never lost a
case.
Some
of the many favorite presentations this year included “It’s Time to Play Good
Housekeeping & Pollution Prevention Jeopardy!” Lori Gates, Christopher Burke
Engineering; “IDDE Case Study Success Stories,” Rick Fuller, Tetra Tech; “The
City of Los Angeles Meets Trash TMDLs Compliance with Catch Basin Inserts and
Opening Covers,” Morad Sedrak, City of Los Angeles; “Hydrodynamic Heartache:
What We Can Learn from a Decade of Performance Data,” Derek Berg, CONTECH
Stormwater Solutions; “Mitigation not Litigation for Compliance,” Jason
Gillespie, McGill Associates; “Downspout Disconnection in Baltimore City, MD,”
Julie Tasillo, Center for Watershed Protection; “Fast-Tracking a Stormwater
Management Program,” Dave Briglio, MACTEC Engineering Inc.; “Overview of a
Successful Stormwater Infrastructure Maintenance and Repair Program,” Bill
Pruitt, Charlotte Storm Water Services; “Using Rainwater to Grow Liveable
Communities: Lessons from Municipal Leaders in Implementing Green
Infrastructure,” Jane Kulik, Wenk Associates Inc.; “Public Enforcement of
Contractor Compliance—Sharing the Burden of Erosion Control Inspection,” Greg
Fries, SEH Inc.; and “Lessons From the Field: Illicit Discharge Detection in
Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), From Discovery to Removal,”
Daniel Christian, Tetra Tech.
Numbers
Matter
1:
Nikos Singelis, USEPA senior analyst who is the voice of the USEPA on stormwater
for our intents and purposes, taught pre-conference workshops and gave several
well-attended USEPA presentations this year. He announced the USEPA’s
construction-site NTU effluent number (“1”) at his update and Q&A session,
prompting a collective gasp from the audience. Of course, he was teasing. The
USEPA has not set numeric limits, but the pressure to do so continues to pick up
momentum. Was Nikos hinting at something?
3:
During the new tools from the USEPA session, Nikos and John Kosco, Tetra Tech,
announced three resources: the Center for Watershed Protection’s manual
“Managing Stormwater in Your Community: A Guide for Building an Effective
Post-Construction Program” (http://www.cwp.org/Resource_Library/Controlling_Runoff_and_Discharges/sm.htm);
Urban Subwatershed Restoration Manual No. 3: Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices
(download free
or purchase: http://www.cwp.org/Store/usrm.htm#3);
and the USEPA’s Urban BMP Tool with 220 studies assessing the performance of
over 275 BMPs (access at the EPA Web site: www.epa.gov/npdes/urbanbmptool).
225:
The number of you who completed the survey and told us in detail what worked,
what didn’t, and which presentations were the best. We pay attention to your
every comment.
16:
SWEMA charter members. SWEMA is the Stormwater Equipment Manufacturers
Association, formed by John Moll, president of CrystalStream Technologies
(acting president of the organization). SWEMA met at StormCon
and set up its organizational structure and has dozens of companies planning to
join as soon as the organization is incorporated.
50:
New exhibitors at StormCon
’08,
and the exhibition hall continues to grow year after year.
50,000
+: To the attendees, presenters, moderators, sponsors, exhibitors, and readers
of Stormwater
(who wanted to attend but are waiting for ’09), we thank you all for caring and
making StormCon
something worth caring about. There are many conferences. There is only one
StormCon.
It is your community.
Call
for Papers
We
are seeking papers for presentations at StormCon
’09, the world’s largest stormwater conference, being held in Anaheim,
California, August 16–20, 2009. StormCon
papers are selected on the basis of your abstract. The abstract submission
deadline is Wednesday, December 3, 2008. If your abstract is accepted, you will
be notified by e-mail and your conference paper will be due Wednesday, March 25,
2009. Visit www.StormCon.com
for the full abstract submission guidelines instructions and to submit your
abstract online.
Tentative
Tracks for StormCon
’09:
- BMP Case
Studies
- Advanced Research
Topics
- Water-Quality
Monitoring
- Stormwater Program
Management
- Low-Impact
Development
- Source Control
Author's Bio: Laura Funkhouser, M.A., is Forester Media marketing manager.
October 2008
You Couldn't Plot This Conference on a Chart
Before
the opening keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (sponsored by AbTech
Industries), StormCon
2008 was already a hit due to the full-day pre-conference workshops taught by
some of the thought leaders and top practitioners in the nation, such as Tom
Schueler of the Chesapeake Stormwater Network (founder and former director of
the Center for Watershed Protection); Larry Coffman, originator of low-impact
development; Nikos Singelis, USEPA; and Tetra Tech’s John Kosco and Barry
Tonning, who taught smart growth and watershed management techniques
incorporating TMDLs.
StormCon’08 had so much going on, there was not a moment to spare.
In
his opening address, Robert Kennedy Jr. recounted experiences as an
environmental activist and touched on many examples that underscored why the
Clean Water Act was necessary, what it has done to benefit our quality of life,
and how enforcing it is an ongoing battle and will continue to be. He received a
standing ovation and greeted a long line of attendees at the AbTech booth as he
signed complimentary copies of his bestselling book, Crimes
Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the
Country and Hijacking Our Democracy.
One
of the questions on our minds this year was what to expect from the BMPs and the
Bigger Picture Panel Discussion. Given the stellar lineup (Bill Hunt, Andy
Reese, Robert Roseen, Nikos Singelis, Tom Schueler), many wondered which
direction would they go. As it turned out, the panel became a group exercise.
Moderator Andy Reese steered the panelists and audience toward a ranked list of
the “venti,” “grande,” and “tall”-sized BMPs challenges—and created a memorable
“aha” moment. Here are the venti challenges:
- Volume and numeric pollutant reduction capability
-
Practices without good specifications
-
Life cycle cost analysis of BMPs—like other infrastructure
costs
-
Private maintenance of BMPs
- Universal certification of commercial devices
This
list left some wondering how BMPs can be boiled down to a set of specs, a
lifecycle analysis, and even, how to track and incentivize (private) BMP
maintenance. And those could be next year’s panel discussion
topics.
Session
Highlights
For
the first time, Tom Schueler, founder and former director of the Center for
Watershed Protection, joined StormCon
and received a warm reception by numerous fans of his visionary work. Tom’s
90-minute presentation “The Impervious Cover Model Revisited and New Strategies
to Defeat It,” packed the room and updated the impervious cover model with a new
chart for determining impacts of construction on watersheds. A synthesis of
hundreds of studies, this project delivered a refined chart showing ranges of
impervious impacts to help better visualize watershed
management.
“The
Hydraulic and Water Quality Performance of a Subsurface Gravel Wetland for
Stormwater Management,” given by Professor Robert Roseen, director, University
of New Hampshire’s Stormwater Center, was closely followed because it provided
data showing that the gravel wetland achieves close to 99% removal efficiency
for total suspended solids, petroleum hydrocarbons-diesel, and zinc, and
requires less maintenance than other LID systems.
Professor
John Sansalone’s 90-minute presentation, “Everything You Wanted to Know About
Stormwater Media But Were Afraid To Ask: I (Adsorption) and II (Filtration)”
received praise for offering some definitive data showing how, what, and when to
apply common media to achieve specific pollutant reduction
goals.
LID
continues to be the hot topic at StormCon,
and the number of presentations showed how wide-ranging the application of LID
has grown—from “Low Impact Development Site Design: Separating the Possible from
the Impossible,” where Ted Scott, T.E.S. Associates, demonstrated vastly
different outcomes using two different site design methodologies; to “Higher
Density: The Ultimate BMP,” Randel Lemoine, Symbiotic Ventures LLC, and Lisa
Nisenson, Nisenson Associates, which illustrated the community-level approach to
LID, to “Industrial Low Impact Development,” Ross Dunning, Kennedy/Jenks
Consultants, a study of the port of Tacoma, WA’s efforts to reduce specific
pollutants.
Enforcement
of NPDES Phase II doesn’t get as much attention as other program management
issues. One of the small success stories this year, however, was Bluffton, SC’s
construction-site inspection program that has reduced discharges into the May
River from 40 NTU to 20 NTU, preserving a pristine river that supports the last
commercially viable shellfish industry in the state, while accommodating rampant
new residential development. The program accomplished this with one full-time
staffer and two part-time inspectors conducting nearly 200 inspections a month.
It has taken scores of violators to court and has never lost a
case.
Some
of the many favorite presentations this year included “It’s Time to Play Good
Housekeeping & Pollution Prevention Jeopardy!” Lori Gates, Christopher Burke
Engineering; “IDDE Case Study Success Stories,” Rick Fuller, Tetra Tech; “The
City of Los Angeles Meets Trash TMDLs Compliance with Catch Basin Inserts and
Opening Covers,” Morad Sedrak, City of Los Angeles; “Hydrodynamic Heartache:
What We Can Learn from a Decade of Performance Data,” Derek Berg, CONTECH
Stormwater Solutions; “Mitigation not Litigation for Compliance,” Jason
Gillespie, McGill Associates; “Downspout Disconnection in Baltimore City, MD,”
Julie Tasillo, Center for Watershed Protection; “Fast-Tracking a Stormwater
Management Program,” Dave Briglio, MACTEC Engineering Inc.; “Overview of a
Successful Stormwater Infrastructure Maintenance and Repair Program,” Bill
Pruitt, Charlotte Storm Water Services; “Using Rainwater to Grow Liveable
Communities: Lessons from Municipal Leaders in Implementing Green
Infrastructure,” Jane Kulik, Wenk Associates Inc.; “Public Enforcement of
Contractor Compliance—Sharing the Burden of Erosion Control Inspection,” Greg
Fries, SEH Inc.; and “Lessons From the Field: Illicit Discharge Detection in
Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), From Discovery to Removal,”
Daniel Christian, Tetra Tech.
Numbers
Matter
1:
Nikos Singelis, USEPA senior analyst who is the voice of the USEPA on stormwater
for our intents and purposes, taught pre-conference workshops and gave several
well-attended USEPA presentations this year. He announced the USEPA’s
construction-site NTU effluent number (“1”) at his update and Q&A session,
prompting a collective gasp from the audience. Of course, he was teasing. The
USEPA has not set numeric limits, but the pressure to do so continues to pick up
momentum. Was Nikos hinting at something?
3:
During the new tools from the USEPA session, Nikos and John Kosco, Tetra Tech,
announced three resources: the Center for Watershed Protection’s manual
“Managing Stormwater in Your Community: A Guide for Building an Effective
Post-Construction Program” (http://www.cwp.org/Resource_Library/Controlling_Runoff_and_Discharges/sm.htm);
Urban Subwatershed Restoration Manual No. 3: Urban Stormwater Retrofit Practices
(download free
or purchase: http://www.cwp.org/Store/usrm.htm#3);
and the USEPA’s Urban BMP Tool with 220 studies assessing the performance of
over 275 BMPs (access at the EPA Web site: www.epa.gov/npdes/urbanbmptool).
225:
The number of you who completed the survey and told us in detail what worked,
what didn’t, and which presentations were the best. We pay attention to your
every comment.
16:
SWEMA charter members. SWEMA is the Stormwater Equipment Manufacturers
Association, formed by John Moll, president of CrystalStream Technologies
(acting president of the organization). SWEMA met at StormCon
and set up its organizational structure and has dozens of companies planning to
join as soon as the organization is incorporated.
50:
New exhibitors at StormCon
’08,
and the exhibition hall continues to grow year after year.
50,000
+: To the attendees, presenters, moderators, sponsors, exhibitors, and readers
of Stormwater
(who wanted to attend but are waiting for ’09), we thank you all for caring and
making StormCon
something worth caring about. There are many conferences. There is only one
StormCon.
It is your community.
Call
for Papers
We
are seeking papers for presentations at StormCon
’09, the world’s largest stormwater conference, being held in Anaheim,
California, August 16–20, 2009. StormCon
papers are selected on the basis of your abstract. The abstract submission
deadline is Wednesday, December 3, 2008. If your abstract is accepted, you will
be notified by e-mail and your conference paper will be due Wednesday, March 25,
2009. Visit www.StormCon.com
for the full abstract submission guidelines instructions and to submit your
abstract online.
Tentative
Tracks for StormCon
’09:
- BMP Case
Studies
- Advanced Research
Topics
- Water-Quality
Monitoring
- Stormwater Program
Management
- Low-Impact
Development
- Source Control