Sustainable Stormwater Management

1. Sustainable Stormwater Management had about 23,000 visitors in 2014.

2. Our visitors came from 134 countries.

3. The most viewed blog post this year that was written in 2014 was entitled, “Environmental Site Design Workshop at The Engineer’s Club.”

4. However this post, written in 2009, had the most views this year: “Stormwater 101: Detention and Retention Basins.”

5. The majority of readers found our blog using a search engine.

6. The most popular blog post category was “stormwater management.”

7. In 2014, Sustainable Stormwater was mentioned twice in the EPA blog, Greenversations.

8. Even though we do not have a Pinterest page, a few pictures from our blog have been pinned by readers.

9. A Reddit user described our blog as “interesting.”

10. This image had more clicks than any other in 2014.

Stormwater Maintenance & Consulting’s Ted Scott and Chesapeake Stormwater Network’s Tom Schueler will be presenting a workshop for Environmental Site Design for the Maryland Society of Professional Engineers (MDSPE) for engineers working in stormwater management and site design. The full day of instruction will include:

• Background about ESD and the evolution of Chapter 5 of Maryland’s Stormwater Design Manual
• ESD practices – description and development/redevelopment considerations
• Practice using open-source spreadsheets for computations (Attendees can bring a laptop.  ESD spreadsheets may be downloaded ahead of time.)
• Design problems and examples
• Roundtable discussion

Click here for full agenda and to register.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014  |  8:00 AM – 4:30 PM

The Engineer’s Club  |  11 West Mount Vernon Place  |  Baltimore, MD 21201

Attendees will gain 7 Professional Development Hours

One of Chesapeake Stormwater Network’s (CSN) many projects, Bioretention Illustrated, is a guide to inspecting bioretention facilities. Because this type of low-impact design practice is still new to some, CSN created a visual guide showing all the potential problems that an inspector should be trained to look for. Stormwater Maintenance and Consulting (SMC) is pleased to have been involved with its creation. The guide can be downloaded for free on the CSN website.

And now Bioretention Illustrated has been taken to the next level as an app for your mobile device.

Using web-based data collection software (in this case Fulcrum), an inspector can use this app like a checklist to collect data in the field by filling in the form on a smartphone or tablet. The app includes input of photos and GPS data. All the data will then be downloadable as a spreadsheet or as individual PDF reports.

The Bioretention Illustrated app can be found here.

Some ask us why it is important to inspect stormwater infrastructure on an annual basis. For owners, inspections are the best way to ensure their facilities are functioning correctly. Inspections can also reduce the cost of maintenance by catching small problems before they grow into more expensive issues.

We recently encountered a situation that illustrated a more urgent reason to inspect — to make sure the operators (or tenants) are not discharging illicit materials (i.e. pollutants that should not end up in the natural environment) into the stormwater system. We are not naming any names in order to protect identities. Our client, the local municipality, will be taking care of enforcement.

A dark stain on the concrete at the mouth of the inlet.

Behind a restaurant in a shopping center our inspectors spotted two signs that illegal dumping was taking place. There was a dark residue at the opening of the water quality structure they were inspecting, and there were noodles and grease inside the structure. Apparently, the restaurant operator was not aware of the environmental damage that grease can do because they were not using the proper procedure for disposal, which is to send it to a rendering facility. Our inspectors immediately contacted the client to make them aware of the situation.

Noodles found inside an underground facility.

At that point our job was done and we suspect the restaurant operators will have a visit from the authorities and will be responsible for cleanup, a change in operations, and quite possibly a fine.

While it saddens us to know that many (maybe even most?) people do not understand the ramifications of actions like these, these situations certainly make us feel proud that our work contributes to improving the environment – one stormwater facility at a time.

We encounter many circumstances of illicit discharges in the normal course of our work. Here are some photos of other examples:

Oil in a flowing stream in the Washington D.C. area

Raw sewage leaking from a broken sewer main in Baltimore County. Sewage is usually indicated by cloudy or milky-looking water.

A toxic soup – plus trash – discharging from a storm drain pipe in the Baltimore area.