This spring, the Center, in partnership with Civic Works’ Baltimore Center for Green Careers, hosted a two day workshop on Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) Maintenance and Inspection. We felt that with the increased demand for green infrastructure (GI) to meet the Clean Water Act requirements, the gap in the industry will occur with GI construction, maintenance and inspection. Concurrently, there is an obvious need for more workforce development skills to increase the employment rate of low-income workers. In Baltimore City, the unemployment rate for young black men between the ages of 20 and 24 was at 37% in 2013 (U.S. Census Bureau).
Due to the unfortunate events that occurred in Baltimore City, we debated canceling the training due to the safety concerns. But as the turmoil died down and the Mayor’s Office and Baltimore City Police Department were notified, we decided to hold the field training session. The unrest brought the unemployment issue to the forefront and this training seemed even more valuable than before. As inadequate training and education for the workforce was a cause of unemployment, cancelling it would have been the opposite of the much needed progress. We hope that with trainings like this one, we can help create a more marketable workforce in the green jobs industry.
During the classroom training, 17 trainees learned about the stormwater issues and different BMPs necessary to help decrease stormwater pollution. They were also trained on how to inspect and maintain various BMPs. On the second day, we headed into the city to visit some local BMPs. Being able to see an actual bioretention system helped the trainees visualize the BMP components we taught them in the classroom. The trainees received mock inspection sheets and we went through the processes of BMP inspection. With this initial training, we were able to gain insight on the best methods to help the trainees understand the issues and revisions to be made to our training material.
In addition to the training, the Center is working with our partners to form a national committee on clean water certification to create a standard for Clean Water training. This will ensure that the trainees are properly educated for stormwater BMP construction, inspection and maintenance and sufficiently prepared to work in the field. Funding for this work is provided by the Keith Campbell Foundation. For more information, contact Carol Wong at ckw@cwp.org.
Carol Wong
Water Resources Engineer
Carol Wong is a Water Resources Engineer at the Center for Watershed Protection. She has experience in water quality testing, stormwater management, and community engagement in water quality. Carol has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park and M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University.
