Stormwater Housekeeping – Pollution Prevention Fail

Posted on December 15, 2009 by stormwater

A recent routine stormwater inspection on a shopping center site in Northern Virginia revealed how NOT to store de-icing materials.  Spotting housekeeping issues like this should be part of a comprehensive stormwater inspection. Catch the pollutants before they get into the stormwater system and you’ve prevented maintenance.  Proper storage would reduce the salt discharging into the receiving waters (a nice wet pond is choking just downstream) and reduce the amount (and cost) of deicing material required to manage snowfall.

Check the video:

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Impact of Maryland’s 2010 SWM Regs on Smart Growth

Posted on December 11, 2009 by stormwater
Geographical regions of Maryland
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The Maryland 2010 stormwater management regulations and design manual (effective in May, 2010) includes strict provisions on sites that are being redeveloped.  Also, the mandate to use Environmental Site Design can be very challenging on infill and ultra-urban sites.  Many believe this encourages less redevelopment – and consequently more development of previously undeveloped sites leading to continued  sprawl which is not supportive of Maryland’s  Smart Growth policies.

The Maryland Association of Counties is holding a forum to discuss these issues.  read it here:  http://conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/tag/stormwater-management/

Our opinion?  We believe some relatively minor changes to the design manual – for instance allowing permeable paving on sites that may not infiltrate – would offer more opportunities for Environmental Site Design on redevelopment sites.

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Cool Pond Remediation with a Waterfall Outfall

Posted on December 10, 2009 by stormwater

Construction of one of our designs has recently been completed.  This was the remediation of a farm pond to meet current dam safety regulations.  In lieu of a typical riser/barrel outfall, we chose to convey flows through a concrete weir and created stream channel outfall.  This reduced costs and improved aesthetics.  An open spillway and outfall channel is much easier (read: less expensive) to inspect, maintain, and repair than infrastructure that is underground.

Check the video:

On this design we worked closely with the owner, who is a heavy marine construction contractor, to incorporate several of his ideas.  Masonry was added to the weir to soften the industrial concrete motif.  Two kick-ass (technical term) waterfalls were incorporated into the outfall stream to make up the grade between the pond and existing stream.  Embankment slopes were kept very flat with rolling transitions that will ease maintenance of the groundcover.

All-in-all a very nice final product.

Got a pond that needs help?  We’ve got you covered.  www.mdswm.com www.swmaintenance.com

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Waterkeepers move on MDE

Posted on December 8, 2009 by stormwater
United States Environmental Protection Agency seal
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The Maryland Waterkeepers have petitioned the EPA to pull Maryland’s authority to administer the Clean Water Act.    This move is primarily about the NPDES discharge permits for industrial operations and other point sources. The second major action against Maryland in a year, this points out that the environmental and development (what’s left of it in this economy) communities have something in common: Frustration with the Maryland Department of the Environment. Hate to say it, as we certainly have friends at MDE – but maybe it is time for some real culture change…

Read all about it : http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bal-md.gr.rivers07dec07,0,680887.story

This follows a vow from EPA to step up efforts on enforcement of water issues. See:  E.P.A. Vows Better Effort on Water (nytimes.com).

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Rockslide!

Posted on November 12, 2009 by stormwater

From the “Other Interesting Stuff” category, a pretty amazing display of a slope failure in Tennessee.

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The Flocculants are coming!

Posted on November 5, 2009 by stormwater

Maryland just released their draft of a revised erosion and sediment control manual.  Included is the use of flocculants to control erosion and to treat for turbidity.  Turbidity has been pretty much ignored by mainstream sediment control, as it can not be controlled by traditional traps and filtering methods, especially in runoff from clayey soils.  Several other states have already included flocculants as a construction phase Best Management Practice (BMP).

We are ramping up to provide technical and design services, and products, related to flocculants throughout the Mid-Atlantic in the future.  Look for a new site, http://www.floccs.com, as we get closer to going to market.

Steve and Seva Iwinski of Applied Polymer Systems, Inc. have done much groundbreaking work in this field and have been a great help.  We look forward to becoming a distributor of their products.  Steve has shared a pretty impressive video on flocculants.  Check it out:  On the left is bare soil that has been treated with flocculants.  The right is just bare soil.  The rainfall is a 10 inches per hour simulation.

More to come in the future about this exciting technology.

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Stormwater Maintenance is now on Facebook

Posted on November 1, 2009 by stormwater

Stop by and become a fan…

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=storm&init=quick#/pages/Hunt-Valley-MD/Stormwater-Maintenance-LLC/168197201131?ref=ts

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Environmental Site Design (ESD) Presentation

Posted on October 27, 2009 by stormwater

Our friends at Hord | Coplan | Macht kindly extended an invitation to present an overview of the forthcoming regulations and design guidance in Maryland that requires the application of Environmental Site Design (ESD) on all projects. This is a turning point for stormwater design and represents a significant change in how sites will be designed in Maryland.

Overlooking the Baltimore Harbor on a rainy day – no better place or time to talk about stormwater management! Many HCM clients and staff attended – it was a very productive couple of hours. Check out the presentation:

We are already working on projects under these new regulations, which will go into effect in May, 2010.

Contact us here if you’d like to have a group that would be interested in having us present this information.

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Arid Stormwater

Posted on October 15, 2009 by stormwater

This last year when we were in Arizona, we posted thoughts from a purely East Coast perspective.  Read it here.

Interestingly, we just happened upon a very comprehensive video of Arizona’s appraoch to managing stormwater in an arid environment.  For stormwater fans, it is well worth the 40 minutes viewing time.

Check it here.

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Baltimore Waterkeeper Trash Bash

Posted on September 17, 2009 by stormwater

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The Annual Baltimore Waterkeeper Trash bash is this Saturday at Nick’s Cafe in Baltimore.  Last year it was a blast and they are cranking it up this year even more.  Should be quite the party!  Come join us!

More info at:  http://www.baltimorewaterkeeper.org/events/upcoming-events/

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