Performance Enhancing Devices for Stormwater BMPs

With the 2025 deadline for reaching water quality goals in the Chesapeake Bay fast approaching, and the estimated price tag of $7.3 billion to meet these goals in Maryland alone, new, cost-effective strategies for reducing stormwater pollution are sorely needed. The Center for Watershed Protection led a three-year project to research the capability of “performance enhancing devices” or PEDs to boost the performance of standard stormwater best management practices (BMPs) for removal of specific pollutants. This work was funded through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and included the in-kind support of Carroll County, Maryland. This project [...]

2018-11-28T08:02:22-05:00September 25th, 2018|
Read More

New Resources on Trees and Stormwater

The Center developed two guidance documents to help communities across the country bring more trees into their neighborhoods. The resources draw upon one of the Center’s unique areas of research: the use of trees for stormwater management. The work was funded by the USDA Forest Service. The resources, described below, were developed with input from experts in stormwater engineering, urban forestry and other relevant disciplines. Accounting for Trees in Stormwater Models: This paper is intended to help the stormwater engineering community more easily account for trees in runoff and pollutant load calculations and incorporate them into stormwater management strategies. It [...]

2018-10-24T15:08:36-04:00September 7th, 2018|
Read More

Phosphorus Release in Stormwater Ponds

Greetings, stormwater professionals: The Minnesota Cities Stormwater Coalition and Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory hosted a joint presentation on July 19th focused on Phosphorus Release in Stormwater Ponds. Some highlights and follow-up from this event are provided below. Here in Minnesota, we have recently found that a number of our constructed stormwater ponds are releasing and discharging significant amounts of phosphorus from sediments. This is the reverse of the expected net phosphorus retention that we expect. This raises a number of important questions. We thought these could be best addressed through an event that involved a couple research presentations and a [...]

2020-02-10T09:27:16-05:00July 25th, 2018|
Read More

Gwinnett County, GA Stormwater Management Manual Training

The Center’s work on improving stormwater management in Georgia continues to expand.  With assistance from the Center, the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual was published in 2016.  The Manual updated the rules regarding better site design, water quality best management practices, and perhaps most importantly, introduced the concept of Runoff Reduction (application of strategies that minimize the increase in runoff associated with developed lands) as a means for improving water quality. In response to publication of the Georgia Stormwater Management Manual, Gwinnett County published its own version of the Manual. The Gwinnett County Stormwater Management Manual largely mirrors the statewide version [...]

2018-07-24T09:49:08-04:00July 17th, 2018|
Read More

2018 National Watershed and Stormwater Conference Highlights

On April 10th, the Center for Watershed Protection hosted the third National Watershed and Stormwater Conference. This year’s conference focused on fresh ideas about funding and watershed and stormwater management.  We wanted to share a quick wrap-up and testimonials about this annual event! Who was there Our unique conference format united online participation via national webcast with in-person discussion at our local hub in Baltimore, Maryland.  In total, we had 148 attendees from 20 states from California to Connecticut and even from Canada! At the Baltimore hub, more than 100 registrants from federal, state and local government agencies, consulting firms, [...]

2018-05-16T12:49:02-04:00May 16th, 2018|
Read More

Public-Private Partnerships for Stormwater: Are We Sacrificing Innovation and Quality for Lower Costs?

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have become a popular method in recent years for Maryland county governments to meet their stringent Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP) goals brought about by the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL).  In order to meet the WIP goals, MS4 permits for Maryland’s 10 Phase 1 counties require that each effectively restore 20% of their untreated impervious area (Maryland Department of the Environment, 2014).  Prince George’s County’s Clean Water Partnership was the first PPP program, with a stated initial goal of retrofitting over 2,000 impervious acres on public and private land over a three-year period (Clean Water [...]

2020-02-10T09:21:22-05:00October 19th, 2017|
Read More

Trees and Stormwater Runoff

What is Stormwater Runoff and Why Do We Need to Reduce It? Stormwater runoff is rainfall that flows over the ground surface. It is created when rain falls on roads, driveways, parking lots, rooftops and other paved surfaces that do not allow water to soak into the ground. Stormwater runoff is the number one cause of stream impairment in urban areas. Where rain falls on paved surfaces, a much greater amount of runoff is generated compared to runoff from the same storm falling over a forested area. These large volumes of water are swiftly carried to our local streams, lakes, [...]

2020-02-12T20:19:36-05:00September 11th, 2017|
Read More

Center Awarded Research Grant to Study Trees’ Stormwater Benefits

For Immediate Release: July 25, 2017 Contact: Erin Valentine, Chesapeake Bay Trust, (410) 974-2941 ext. 113, evalentine@cbtrust.org Over $1 Million Announced to Support Stream Restoration and Stormwater Management Research (Annapolis, MD) July 25, 2017 – The Chesapeake Bay Trust, in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA), Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (Montgomery DEP), and with input from the Maryland Department of the Environment, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other agency and technical partners on the Restoration Research Advisory Committee, announce six recipients of the collaborative Restoration [...]

2017-09-22T14:42:21-04:00April 24th, 2017|
Read More
Go to Top