Stormwater Committee Minutes
December 1, 2004

ATTENDEES

Ann Hoffnar, Ed Murtagh, Jane Barrett, Julia Phifer, Robert Goo, Sally Gagne

DISCUSSION

DEP Stormwater Ponds: Ed gave us an update on the dredging of two stormwater ponds. The Dennis Avenue site was dredged this fall. The contractor took out all vegetation around the fore bay (the first pond) in the process. Kathy emailed DEP her concerns about the use of invasive plants when the area is re-planted. As a result of Kathy’s inquiries, Cameron Wiegand told his Division that Friends of Sligo Creek was to be informed before any major decisions or actions that have an impact on the creek are taken in the future. This was a major project using large pieces of earth moving equipment to remove 3500 cubic yards of sediment. We were not informed and many citizens were asking us what was going on. To address these inquires, FOSC posted on the web site updates about the dredging operations. See http://www.fosc.org/WheatonPonds.htm The pond at University Boulevard are being dredged next and we have been invited to help plan. Ed will meet with Gene Gopenko) of DEP and Steve McKinley-Ward of AWS on the 19th. They will talk about the existing snags (dead trees which we hope can be left for wildlife habitat); what to plant; the possibility of adding a bench for habitat and safety. Benches are shallow areas at the shoreline left for wetland habitat.

DEP’s Dennis Avenue Bio-retention sites to be built soon: Ed said that the two long-awaited bio-retention sites on Dennis Avenue are to be constructed soon. Ed will continue to follow and try to get more information about the projects. We would like to make showcases of them, complete with signage explaining what bio-retention does and why it is important. We will offer to work with Cameron’s Division to promote these sites.

Schools and Bayscaping: Ed updated us on projects with the schools. Montgomery County Schools are beginning to think about the environment as they plan construction projects, both building and rehabilitating schools in the county. Curriculum planners are beginning to think about environmental programs for the classroom. Ed, Kathy Michels and Leah Haygood are doing what they can to fan the small sparks into flame. Our Committee’s hope is that we can get at least three schools to develop projects such as Raingardens, green roofs and other stormwater control methods. We can work with the schools and use them as showcases. We could have tours like the solar home tours and advertise to the wider community. The effort would help create public support and encourage public and private agencies to push for bayscaping. Two schools are already planning and building, a third is interested.

• Northwood High School. Ed, Kathy and Leah have been working with Anja Caldwell, Jill Coutts and others, and the group has just received a grant from CBT to at least partially fund a green roof. A coordination meeting is being held on Dec. 7th. At this meeting we include discussions on how the local watershed groups can help implement the green roof. Many other pilot stormwater control measures are planned and Northwood’s Environmental Science Academy (a special curriculum) will play a major role.
• A restoration of Arcola Elementary School is in the works and Ed, Kathy and Leah are working with planners trying to get them to include stormwater projects at the school. We are currently reviewing the construction documents for the project.
• Eastern Middle School. The PTSA at Eastern Middle School is interested in installing “Sligo-Friendly” landscaping on the school grounds. The PTSA, with the help of some FOSC members, have already begun removing turf and replacing it with native plants. We have scheduled a coordination meeting for Dec. 5th. Our long-range goal is to incorporate the environmentally friendly landscaping and ecological lessons into the science curriculum. Ideally we would like the students to help plan and implement this project. The Neighbors of Northwest Branch will also be invited to participate (part of the school grounds is in their watershed.). Julia was interested in participating in this effort..
• Last spring, we worked with the Takoma Park Middle School in Takoma Park, hoping to help DEP use end-of-year grant money to build a Raingarden. Time was too short to overcome planning obstacles but the science teacher was interested as was the principal. Ann volunteered to get in touch with them to see if we can work something out for next year, after our pilot projects are completed at Northwood High School and Eastern Middle School.

As an aid to outreach, Robert suggested that the Low-Impact Development Center site (or was it PG County or something else) has a very good page for schools: suggestions for curriculum; explanations. He will send us the url and we will add it to our website.

Development in the Woodside Hills neighborhood (near Sniders, just off Georgia Avenue): Ann and Sally discussed the project in general and the meeting they attended with representatives of the affected citizens, Councilmember Perez, Rick Brush of the MC Department of Permitting Services, Jim Fary of the Sierra Club, and Dolores Milmoe of the Audubon Naturalist Society. The development would make an already bad stormwater runoff situation worse. Because of the time of the sale of land, the developer is grandfathered in from earlier times when there were less stringent controls on stormwater. All at the meeting agreed that if he meets requirements he will have to be allowed to build. However, it looks as if he may have trouble meeting even the outdated requirements. The Stormwater Committee will send a letter to Duncan, council members and affected departments (if the Friends of Sligo Creek Board agrees) stating that if the development is allowed, we hope all possible means will be taken to mitigate stormwater damage and save trees. On Dec 7 the board approved the attached letter.

What is next on our agenda?

We discussed where to go from here. All wanted to consider attacking stormwater problems watershed-wide. How do we advocate for change? What change do we want to address first? How do we get started? We considered trying to learn more about codes and whether they should be tightened or just better enforced. We considered working toward better maintenance of stormwater retrofits, once in place. Ed pointed out that Cameron Wiegand had asked us to help him establish a task force of county agencies which could work to maintain better communication between DEP DTPW and DPS so that they do not work at cross purposes.

ally moved us forward by suggesting that she would contact Cameron to see where they are on this task force and what we can do. Ann volunteered to help after Sally speaks to Cameron and to talk to Jim Fary, and perhaps Perez to give us suggestions.

We also discussed the Stormwater Committee web page. All agreed that the web page is coming along well. One problem noted is that because there is now so much content on the FOSC web page, it the committee page is rather hard to find unless you know the web site well. We need to discuss ways to improve visibility of the site.

Next meeting is planned for February 2

Draft minutes prepared by Ann Hoffnar.