Stormwater Committee Minutes
February 5, 2005

ATTENDEES

Ann Hoffnar
Alison Gillespie
Ed Murtagh
Anne Kitchell
Jane Barrett		 Robert Goo
Kathy Michels
Sally Gagne
Jenny Reed
Noreene Stehlik(Guest from Eastern Middle School PTSA)

DISCUSSION

Plans to Work with Eastern Middle School: As reported in the minutes for December 2004, the PTSA at Eastern Middle School is interested in installing “Sligo-Friendly” landscaping on the school grounds. The landscaping will use Low Impact Development (LID) practices to reduce runoff from the school site. The PTSA, with the help of some Friends members, have already begun removing turf and replacing it with landscaping that includes native plants. 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 implement this project.

We spent the bulk of this meeting discussing plans to form a coalition and assuming it will happen, discussed plans to move forward. We are asking several groups to sign a letter of intent, stating their commitments to a landscaping project at the Eastern Middle School. The landscaping includes water-retention and habitat enhancing features. The groups are: Friends of Sligo Creek, Neighbors of Northwest Branch, the Anacostia Watershed Society, the Eastern Middle School PTSA, and the MCPS Green Schools Program. The Friends Board has signed on. When all have signed, we will put a copy of the Letter of Intent on our web site.

We hope this can be the first of these projects and that similar projects can be incorporated into the other schools we are working with.

  • Ed will pursue a CBT mini-grant for $2,000 to build a showcase raingarden by the main entrance. Anne Kitchell and Jenny Reed will help. Anne has some templates that will be useful. Jenny will provide technical information.
  • Alison will look for programs already up and running on the state or national level from which we can get pointers.
  • Alison will also help write articles about the partnership for the PTSA newsletter and possibly newspapers.
  • We hope to have the first work day in mid-April (perhaps the 16th)

CWP Final Report: Anne Kitchell, who works for the Center for Watershed Protection (CWP), presented a much-anticipated report. The report, prepared by CWP under a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, points to several potential sites and gives suggestions for implementing stormwater upgrades in the Sligo Watershed. With this material, we will be prepared to move forward quickly on projects when County or non-profit grant money is available. We have the original report, attractively formatted in a binder and three copies. We discussed the possibilities of sending the copies out under a cover letter to the head of DEP and other leaders. However, we decided it would be more effective to just hold onto them for the time we can step in with solutions when county authorities are ready to use them.

As an outgrowth of this discussion, we wondered what department in the County has the permit for Stormwater? Robert will find out for us.

DEP Stormwater Ponds (University Blvd and Wheaton Branch ponds): Ed gave us an update on work with DEP and MNCPPC on re-planting after dredging takes place. The pond at University Boulevard is being dredged next and we have been invited to help plan. Ed met in December with Gene Gopenko and Keith Van Ness of DEP and Steve McKindley-Ward and Marc Imlay of AWS and we hope our suggestions will be implemented. A follow up meeting is scheduled for Feb. 7.

Update on Development in the Woodside Hills neighborhood (near Sniders, just off Georgia Avenue): The Board sent a letter, drafted by our committee, to Duncan and Council members and affected departments. As discussed at our last meeting the letter said that if the development is allowed, we hope all possible means will be taken to mitigate stormwater damage and save trees. In addition, our Committee will send a representative to a meeting with Councilmember Silverman at which Caron Madsen will brief on issues. The permit question is still with the Department of Permitting Services.

Outreach Ideas:

  • There is a film event in which the movie “Reining in the Storm” is to be featured. We discussed the possibility of advertising this and suggesting Friends go to dinner and see the film together when the film is shown in Takoma Park. We were not sure when the film would be shown in Takoma Park, so no future planning occurred.
  • We discussed the need for a slide presentation to use in reaching out to citizens associations. We can start with the show Ed prepared for the last program meeting. Alison volunteered to work with it to make it more a presentation to the uninitiated. Jenny also has good ideas because of her work with home owners. Ed, Jenny and Alison will work together to come up with a first cut. Ann pointed out that the RIP program has now collected names and contacts for citizens associations in the watershed and we can probably use this list for starters.

Next meeting is planned for April 6

Notes prepared by Ann Hoffnar and Ed Murtagh