Stormwater Management Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Center for Watershed Protection

Innovative Stormwater Management in the District of Columbia

The Center for Watershed Protection (the Center) has been helping the District of Columbia stay up-to-date on stormwater management standards for over 20 years. The Center first assisted the District in 1999, with revisions to their draft Stormwater Guidebook, which dated back to 1994. The new guidebook contained what at the time were innovative new sizing criteria for water quality, overbank flood control, and extreme flood control for new development. In 2013, the Center worked with the District Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) to again revise their Stormwater Management Guidebook. This time, the update focused on how to [...]

admin2020-12-02T14:09:55-05:00December 2nd, 2020|

Experts Release First-Ever Plan to Clean Up Pollution from Conowingo Dam, Restore Chesapeake Bay

October 14, 2020, Ellicott City, MD – After months of collaboration, a coalition of nonprofits, including the Center for Watershed Protection, have drafted a comprehensive and cost-effective approach to reduce nutrient pollution flowing past the Conowingo Dam into the Chesapeake Bay. This work began in September 2019 when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provided nearly $600,000 for three projects to further the Conowingo Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), including support for the Center for overseeing the WIP’s development and implementation. The coalition, which also includes the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Chesapeake Conservancy, partnered with the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program [...]

admin2020-10-20T14:03:55-04:00October 20th, 2020|

Pennsylvania Communities to Gain Stormwater Expert

September 3, 2020 Lancaster, PA – The Center for Watershed Protection, a national leader in stormwater management and watershed planning, has announced a new program director in Pennsylvania to get clean water projects in the ground. The Center has hired Ruth Ayn Hocker, a highly respected stormwater professional engineer with experience in all technical and policy aspects of stormwater management, to lead efforts in Pennsylvania. “Protecting our nation’s water quality and natural resources has never been so important, especially in states like Pennsylvania, which contributes significant nutrient loads to the Chesapeake Bay,” said Hye Yeong Kwon, the Center’s Executive Director. [...]

admin2020-09-15T16:46:38-04:00September 14th, 2020|

Helping Municipalities Work Together to Achieve Clean Water in the Wyomissing

Over the past seven years, the Center for Watershed Protection (CWP) has provided technical assistance to the Wyomissing Creek Watershed Coalition, a unique coalition of eight municipalities that drain to the Wyomissing Creek in Berks County, Pennsylvania. As a cold water fishery with a naturally reproducing trout population, Wyomissing Creek has a special set of TMDL requirements. These municipalities share a single wasteload allocation as identified in the 2004 sediment TMDL and they work together to meet federal and state Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) stormwater requirements. CWP initially coordinated with the Berks County MS4 Steering Committee to hold [...]

admin2020-05-13T09:33:18-04:00March 27th, 2020|

Helping Historic New Market, MD Bring Stormwater Management into the Present

The Town of New Market, Maryland was established more than 200 years ago. As a result, runoff from the historic district (almost half the area of the Town), which was developed before the adoption of stormwater management regulations, flows untreated into storm drains and streams. Over the past two years, the Center for Watershed Protection has assisted the Town with efforts to better manage runoff from these areas to reduce pollution while also addressing other community concerns. The work began in 2017, when the Center conducted an assessment for the Town to evaluate opportunities to install stormwater retrofits that reduce [...]

admin2019-11-27T08:08:16-05:00November 27th, 2019|

Research, Implementation and Guidance on Roadside Ditch Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

A 2016 report from the Chesapeake Bay Program’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee found that improved management of the roadside ditch network could be a cost-effective means of reducing pollution from roads, developed areas, and farmland in many rural and/or un-regulated portions of the Bay watershed. Following the release of this report, the Center for Watershed Protection participated in a Chesapeake Bay Roadside Ditch Management Team to discuss a path forward for defining, crediting and verifying this group of practices. The Center has continued to advance the practice of roadside ditch management through research, implementation and development of guidance. Several [...]

admin2019-07-30T12:24:14-04:00July 29th, 2019|

Fostering Collaboration on Restoration Projects to Address Highway Runoff in the Delaware River Watershed

Earlier this year, the Center for Watershed Protection, with assistance from the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, organized and facilitated a workshop with representatives from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and members of various watershed organizations from the Delaware River Watershed. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss possibilities for collaboration between PennDOT and organizations working on restoration within the Delaware River Watershed Initiative (or DRWI). As the leading organization on stormwater management in the region, the Center recognized the need for dialogue on this topic, and how synthesizing efforts could drastically increase the efficiency of restoration efforts in the Delaware [...]

admin2019-05-29T12:31:30-04:00May 29th, 2019|

What’s in Your Storm Drain Inlet? A Study to Characterize the Loads from Inlet Cleaning

The Center for Watershed Protection, in partnership with Morgan State University, recently completed a research study for Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) to evaluate and provide recommendations to optimize their inlet cleaning program for TMDL compliance. Inlet cleaning is an element of the MDOT SHA’s plan to achieve regulatory compliance for TMDL and MS4 requirements. While there are current crediting protocols and guidance to translate material removed from inlets to nutrient and sediment load reductions, to date, there is limited research to quantify nutrient and sediment load reductions from inlet cleaning. The studies that do exist [...]

admin2020-03-19T10:04:08-04:00March 27th, 2019|

Constructing Stormwater Retrofits in Maryland: Challenges & Recommendations for Cost Estimation

The construction of stormwater retrofits has greatly accelerated within the Chesapeake Bay watershed in the past decade, as communities work to meet water quality requirements such as TMDLs and stormwater permits. The Center for Watershed Protection took a look at data from 584 stormwater retrofit projects constructed by 41 different partners over the past seven years in Maryland to see what we could learn about retrofit costs and the factors affecting their variability. We began with a dataset of projects funded by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and reached out to the grantees to collect additional information on [...]

admin2019-01-23T12:05:35-05:00January 11th, 2019|

Guidance for Developing an Offsite Stormwater Compliance Program for Redevelopment Projects in Massachusetts

A new guidance document was recently developed by the Center for Watershed Protection to assist regulated small municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) communities in Massachusetts develop an offsite mitigation program for redevelopment projects. Starting July 1, 2018, a new Massachusetts Small MS4 General Permit went into effect. Through this permit, EPA Region 1 established a new stormwater performance standard for redevelopment projects within regulated small MS4 communities. The standard requires these projects to retain stormwater runoff and/or provide pollutant removal. Recognizing that this may be a challenge on many redevelopment sites, the new permit provides flexibility by allowing redevelopment [...]

admin2021-08-02T08:50:26-04:00October 24th, 2018|