Municipal Water Resource Management

SESSION K: Models and Practices for Municipal Water Resource Management

Session Chair: Brenda Zollitsch

Session Description: Municipalities across the state are grappling with a range of water resource management issues. This session will allow municipalities to share lessons learned, best practices, project results and an array of useful resources related to water resource management. The morning presentations will focus on specific practices that have assisted municipalities address stormwater management requirements, expanding in the last presentation to discuss ways to streamline the management of a range of municipal water resources by web-enabling municipal data. The afternoon focuses on efforts to reduce imperviousness and related impacts from nonpoint source pollution through the use of green infrastructure and ways to reduce the impacts of chlorides on local and regional water resources. The session ends with a discussion about ways to develop sustainable funding mechanisms to support this work, bringing together a panel to discuss stormwater utilities in Maine. The goal of the session is to provide municipal staff with ideas and guidance that they can consider applying in their local water resource-related planning and implementation activities.

Presentations Available

Session Overview

8:30-8:55 am
Models and Practices for Municipal Water Resource Management
Kristie Rabasca, PE, Leed AP C+BD

Stormwater runoff is the leading cause of pollution of surface water bodies. Nationally, development regulations have become more stringent, requiring treatment for stormwater runoff quality as well as quantity. As a result stormwater treatment systems require more maintenance to ensure effective function. The 30 communities regulated by the General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s or Phase II communities) were required to pass ordinances requiring that developers and future property owners maintain these stormwater treatment systems.

However the logistics of getting a planner, planning board, code enforcement officer and in some towns, public works on board to ensure the maintenance is conducted can be tedious and confusing. The development road is a precarious one for those wanting to ensure stormwater structures are maintained. It begins when a developer steps into Town Hall to initiate permitting on a project, and extends to the time after the project has been completed (and changed hands a few times).  

This oral presentation describes some of the ways that several communities are tracking their development sites and ensuring that maintenance will be done. The following items will be shared and described: specific language that can be used in ordinances, language for conditions of approval, notes for drawing, spreadsheets for tracking sites and maintenance certifications, and inspection forms.

9:00-9:25 am
Ways to Streamline Your Workflow by Making Your Spatial and Non-Spatial Water Resource Data Web-Enabled
Gretchen Heldmann, GISP, LF, Senior Project Manager, Corson GIS Solution
Ray Corson,Owner, Corson GIS Solutions

Have you been thinking about ways to manage your water resource information? Have you been using only paper forms and files for a long time and worry about how those records would be re-created “if” something were to happen? Have you had your Excel spreadsheet go haywire one too many times? This presentation will cover ways to convert both non-spatial and spatial data into a hosted web-based platform, and will cover a variety of platform options both proprietary and non-proprietary. Successful paper to digital and web-enabled implementations by organizations across the state will be shared, along with live demos. Municipalities of all sizes are making the switch to hosted solutions – be it VoIP phones, web GIS maps, archiving paper documents, or using an app on a smartphone to gather data or report issues – is it time for you to consider this for your municipality?

9:30-9:55 am
Using Scenario-based Exercises to Prepare for EPA and DEP Stormwater Audits
Belle Ryder, Town of Orono
Robert Osborne, Town of Hampden, BASWG Chairman
Philip Ruck, Stillwater Environmental Engineering, LLC

Over the last two years, regulated municipalities working to be in compliance with stormwater permit requirements have been struggling to understand exactly what is expected in terms of preparation for audits. At the same time, what is required seems to be a moving target, with increasing expectations and involvement by EPA in terms of audits. To help municipalities prepare for potential audits, the Bangor Area Stormwater Group (BASWG) has designed a new interactive regional practice of preparing and testing compliance scenarios during monthly work sessions. These structured sessions involve the development of scenarios by DEP which are then shared with one or more volunteer municipalities. The volunteer municipality prepares a mock presentation about how it would respond to the scenario. DEP and the regional partners troubleshoot the procedures in place and methods/processes are discussed in terms of what works and what can be improved. An alternative to straight presentations of information or review of permit language, this process has opened an important new avenue for conversation between regulators and regulated, as well as improvements in municipal operations, tracking and documentation. This session will share details of the scenario process, examples of exercises and lessons learned.

10:00-10:25 am
The MS4 Permit as a Driver for Integrating Local Water Resources Management
Fred Dillon, Stormwater Program Director, City of South Portland
Zach Henderson, Project Scientist, Woodard & Curran

In late 2011, EPA’s Nancy Stoner issued a memo to all Regional Administrators and Division Directors encouraging the promotion of an “integrated planning” approach for municipal wastewater and stormwater program activities. The primary motivation for this approach was to “put municipalities on a critical path to achieving the water quality objectives of the CWA by identifying efficiencies in implementing sometimes overlapping and competing requirements that arise from separate waste- and storm-water programs, including how best to make capital investments and meet operation and maintenance requirements.” While most municipalities have yet to adopt the formal integrated planning approach as envisaged by EPA, there is an increasing recognition that community-wide water resource management is worthy of serious consideration.

Most of Maine’s thirty Municipal Separate Stormwater Sewer System (MS4) communities also provide wastewater treatment services and are therefore subject to different permit requirements for both stormwater and wastewater operations. This regulatory division is similarly reflected by distinct organizational affiliations: the Maine Water Environment Association (MEWEA) currently represents the state’s wastewater treatment facilities while a number of interlocal groups throughout the state represent MS4 communities. These divisions are now beginning to dissolve. Fred and Zach will discuss the variety of factors that are leading to a tighter alignment between wastewater, stormwater and other municipal program interests. They will also engage participants in offering additional suggestions for promoting a collaborative approach to protecting and restoring local water resources.

Poster Session & Lunch Break

1:30-1:55 pm
How Green Infrastructure Can Work in Your Maine Town
LaMarr Clannon, Maine NEMO

With case studies from Belgrade and Ellsworth that minimize stormwater runoff and chloride use, this presentation highlights examples of green infrastructure effectiveness in cold climates, how these types of projects have saved developers money, simple ordinance changes to encourage green practices, and how a stormwater utility can support green infrastructure. Green infrastructure works in Maine, removes pollutants better than traditional BMPs, can be cost effective, and better looking. Small ordinance changes can encourage green infrastructure in your town, saving developers money and providing resiliency in your town’s stormwater system. Green infrastructure can be applied to all levels of development, from large commercial to the single family house lot that comprises the majority of development we see in Maine. No town is too big or too small for green infrastructure.

2:00-2:25 pm
Developing Municipal Outreach Plans to Reduce Chloride Use in the Greater Bangor Urbanized Area
Brenda Zollitsch, PhD – Consultant/Facilitator, Bangor Area Stormwater Group
Wynne Guglielmo, Environmental Coordinator, City of Bangor
Mike Galdu, Public Works Director, Town of Milford

This session will share a new regional model for developing municipal chloride outreach plans. These plans are designed to train municipal leadership and on the ground staff about the need to reduce chloride pollution through changes to municipal operations and integrate selected chloride reduction BMPs into their winter maintenance practices. The project builds on years of work with a statewide collaborative of stakeholders, a project that has identified a range of impacts from chlorides and best practices to reduce the amount of chlorides and developed a manual of BMPs for voluntary municipal adoption. The BASWG is now using this manual to implement stormwater outreach compliance activities.

As a result of participating in this initiative, it is expected that partner municipalities will: 1) meet compliance requirements for the stormwater permit, 2) create a new avenue for sharing information about the impacts of chloride pollution, 3) be able to develop informed plans for chloride outreach and reduction that address individual MS4 circumstances, needs and priorities for snow and ice control activities, 4) design these plans in ways that reduce the amount chlorides entering regional waters, 5) be able to measure learning, implementation of BMPs and the amount of chloride used by each regulated entity that develops a plan.

The BASWG is pleased to share and make available all materials, presentations and templates developed as part of the project to session participants so that the effort may be transferable to any interested parties.

Afternoon Break

3:00-3:25 pm
The Pinch of Salt: Developing an Annual Chloride Load Estimate to Improve Management within the Long Creek Watershed
Tamara Lee Pinard, Damon Yakovleff, Kate McDonald; Cumberland County Soil & Water Conservation District

Salt usage has increased throughout cold regions as expectations for bare surfaces on parking lots, walkways, driveways, and roads have increased: “Safety is the ultimate driver.” Transportation departments have implemented “bare roads” policies in an attempt to reduce highway accidents and fatalities, while private landowners use large quantities of salt on their parking areas and walkways to meet tenant expectations and address liability concerns. Salt usage impacts nearby terrestrial habitat, as well as water sources that receive direct runoff from impervious surfaces.

Watershed stakeholders throughout the United States have expressed interest in developing a model to address chloride contributions from both public and private sources. Since the Long Creek Watershed Management District (LCWMD) implements non-structural BMPs for 73% of impervious cover in the watershed, it is an excellent microcosm to evaluate methods to improve water quality.  

This presentation will provide a summary of chloride analytical and near-continuously-monitored specific conductance data from seven sampling sites within the watershed; discuss the chloride management strategies implemented to date; and share the application of an annual chloride loading model, which will include the procedure, inventory of chloride types and applications, geospatial distribution of chloride load, opportunities identified for reduction, and information used to guide BMP retrofit design.

The goal of the Winter Maintenance program is to develop monitoring and BMP methodologies that are transferrable to other impaired streams suffering from salt impacts. This presentation will explore the work in Long Creek and provide suggestions and lessons learned for others wishing to implement similar programs.

3:30-3:55 pm
Panel Discussion on Stormwater Utilities in the State of Maine
Mike Bobinsky, City Manager, City of Portland
City of Bangor – Stormwater Coordinator and Legal Staff Representatives (TBD)

The need to identify and implement sustainable funding solutions for the rising costs of stormwater compliance in the State of Maine has led to the exploration, and in some cases development, of stormwater utilities. This session will discuss stromwater compliance funding options, focusing panel presentations by Maine municipalities developing or implementing stormwater utilities.

Specifically, panelists will share about their municipality’s:

  • Need and context for developing a stormwater utility
  • Process and timeline
  • Challenges and delays faced
  • Ways challenges were overcome
  • Lessons learned
  • Recommendations for other municipalities considering developing a utility

This panel session will be structured to include time for question and answers with audience members, allowing municipalities who are considering the process to ask questions of those who have been through the process.