Stormwater Committee Minutes
August 9, 2006

ATTENDEES

Ann Hoffnar
Ed Murtagh
Alison Gillespie
Jenny Reed
Jeremy Arling
Beth Chaisson
Diane Cameron (guest)

New Members

Welcome, Jeremy and Beth.

The meeting opened with a quick review of the Committee’s accomplishments of the 2005/2006 year. The committee has accomplished a lot. The accomplishments are listed at the end of the minutes.

Upcoming Meetings and Events

This Saturday (Aug 12) Ed to tour green roofs in Takoma Park. All of us were invited. (Ed hopes to develop materials to be used to promote LID in Takoma Park with a tour of residential properties in the Spring)

August 22, Drainage Bill coordination meeting to be held at 2:00 p.m. in Rockville at the DEP office. Jenny will try to attend. The language of the proposed bill was quickly reviewed. We are concerned that the bill, as written, may discourage rain gardens, etc. due to the requirement that these systems control run-off from 2.5″ rain storms.

Late August, date not yet firm, the Stormwater Coalition is having a potluck dinner. We will encourage Friends to attend. (At the gathering, the Coalition will discuss the MDE draft NPDES permit proposal, which is to be published in September. The Coalition will have an opportunity to comment in October. Jeremy and Ed will help review the draft.)

On August 30 EPA OIG meets at DEP to discuss their audit of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Friends of Sligo Creek was asked to join to represent local watershed groups. Ed and Ann will attend.

October 8th, the Stormwater Committee will staff a table at the Friends of Sligo Creek Sweep Celebration in the park. We will have the opportunity to talk about raingardens/rain barrels and other LID. Ed will lead.

November 3 or 4, there will be a one-day Landscaping Conference in Bethesda. The audience is to be developers, pointing out that development can be done responsibly and profitably. Jenny will keep us informed of developments. We discussed the possibility of having an information table at the conference.

Update on Takoma Park Projects

Spring Park. Jenny reports that the City is excited about the project and she is doing some preliminary planning. Polluted runoff from the Nevin school parking lot above the park drains through a wooded area and added to the water from a natural spring, creates major runoff. Jenny would love to get the school involved—perhaps help them write a grant. The city of Takoma Park has funding set aside to address runoff in the park.

Eastern Middle School. Ed reports that there will be one more planting in the fall. The project is nearing completion.

Forest Park. More planting is planned in the upper raingarden in the fall – possibly coupled with a dedication event. The dedication would have to be handled primarily by Takoma Park members of the Committee. A dedication could result in good publicity and news coverage. The dedication at the American Elm Park in 2004 went very well.

Jenny is working with Takoma Park on other projects as well, though not as a representative of Friends of Sligo.

Other LID Projects

Washington Waldorf School (in the Little Falls watershed). The school staff and students planted native plants in a large area in front of the school last spring. Now Jenny and Ed are working with the school to showcase LID techniques to address some serious erosions problems. They helped write a grant to CBT. Potomac Conservancy will be a partner in this project (they helped design the bio-retention system). Students are helping construct the bio-retention system and will help maintain it. From here on, FOSC’s part will mainly be to provide advice.

There is no local watershed group. It would be great if we could use this project to help get a watershed group going. Ed has asked the local Civic Association to participate (Glen Echo Heights Civic Association) and they have expressed interest.

Northwood

The Northwood project has been evolving. The school staff plans a press event in the fall. Ed and Kathy have been working with the school for some years; they helped the school staff write a grant for the green roof and participated in planning for the school renovations and pushing for LID at the school site. Now the Stormwater Committee hopes to help with the outreach. Attached is a draft Letter of Understanding we hope all the interested parties (Neighbors of Northwest Branch, Audubon Naturist Society, Wildlife Habitat Council, and others) will sign—possibly at the press event–which will carry the project through 2009. The Northwood High School Environmental Science Academy will play a major role. The Academy’s Horticultural classes will learn about and help build environmentally beneficial landscaping projects. FOSC will also help develop curriculum related to stormwater management, provide speakers to classes, and help with local field trips.

More on Outreach

Beth volunteered to look into the possibility of tabling at Brookside Gardens during an upcoming plant sale.
To promote LID, we hope to plan at least one tour. We could advertise to church groups or other audiences. Ed and Alison are working on a brochure now.

Ed and Alison also plan to work on a powerpoint presentation that can be given to citizen groups and posted on the web.

During the Sweep the Creek and follow-up celebration on the following weekend, we would like to get participants to sign a petition or sign post cards to urge action by MDE taken on including trash reductions in the NPDES stormwater permit. To be effective, other watershed groups need to participate. Alison has ideas on postcard advocacy from her experience with the libraries. We need to work with the Litter Committee on this idea.

Updates on the NPDES Stormwater Permit and the New Clean Water Initiative

Many interlaced pieces are part of the move toward clean water. The Bay Journal recently published an article which gives a good overview. See MontCoStormwaterCoalition.pdf.

Accepting the Stormwater Partners Coalition suggestions about the NPDES permit, Perez, Levanthal and others proposed a resolution (which passed) asking DEP to report on how points raised by the Stormwater Partners Coalition are being addressed.

Ed and Diane have been working on a proposal to fund a Multi-Watershed LID Outreach coordinator. (see attached working draft). We are looking to obtain funding possibly from the Clean Water Initiative. Volunteers will not be able to take LID to the next level of implementation; we will need a paid coordinator. A multi-watershed coordinator will also help bring the various watershed groups closer together to act in a more coordinated manner.

Notes prepared by Ed Murtagh and Ann Hoffnar