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Editor's
Notes:
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On behalf of F. X.
Browne, Inc., may you find many opportunities to celebrate this holiday
season, and to open your hearts to those in need. Peace be with you
and yours.
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Topic
of the Month:
Annual
Holiday
Parody
Sung
with exuberance to the tune of the traditional Christmas carol, Joy
to the World
Joy
to the World, our stream is clean!
Let
Earth receive our stormwater!
Let
every city prepare their ordinances
So
rivers and nature sing!
So
rivers and nature sing!
So
rivers and lakes and nature sing!
We'll
keep it clean, with buffers and filters.
That
stormwater can't pass.
The
glory of sustainability!
And
wonders of BMPs,
And
wonders of BMPs,
And
wonders and wonders of BMPs!
To view holiday
parodies from previous
years, click here.
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Secret Santa Rides Again
Across the country, Secret Santas and
Elves are getting very busy. The Society of Secret Santas is an
anonymous group of individuals that use their own financial resources
to share their wealth with those in need. The Secret Santas are doing the work of Larry Stewart, Kansas City's original Secret Santa who
anonymously wandered city streets doling out $100 bills to anyone who
looked like they needed it. During about a quarter century,
Stewart quietly gave out more than $1.3 million to people in
laundromats, diners, bus stations, shelters and thrift stores, saying
it was his way of giving back at Christmas for all the wealth and
generosity he had received in his lifetime. When he knew he would not
be around much longer, he trained
some friends in the ways of the Secret Santa. Stewart died of cancer in 2007, but his legacy lives on. The new Secret Santas started a
Web site to recruit other Secret Santas across the country: http://www.secretsantaworld.net
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News Clips:
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James River Watershed Going Extreme!
No, it's not another reality TV show! The Horsepen Creek, a tributary
of the James River (VA), recently got an "Extreme" makeover. More...
EPA Publishes Draft TMDLs to Stormwater
Permits Handbook
EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans and
Watersheds (OWOW) and Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) have jointly
issued a Draft "TMDLs to Stormwater Handbook," available for
public comment. More...
Living Walls: The New
Green
Allison Arieff, blogging for
the New York Times, has some great photos and links in her recent post,
Blue is the New Green (November 20). More...
EPA Proposes New Guidelines to Control Pollution from Construction
Sites
EPA is seeking comments on its proposed guidelines to control the
discharge of pollutants from construction sites. More...
PA Nonprofit Coalition
Aims to Increase Stream Buffer Requirements
A coalition of nonprofit
organizations is pressing Pennsylvania to better protect its extensive
network of waterways by requiring that a broad swath of trees be
preserved-and planted if necessary-along streams and rivers that flow
through construction sites. More...
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Policy
Update:
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Pennsylvania
officials have confirmed the discovery
of a zebra mussel at the Conowingo Hydroelectric Dam in Maryland;
the first time the invasive mussel has been found in the lower
Susquehanna River. |
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The
Delaware
River Basin Commission (DRBC) announced that the five-member agency comprised of Delaware, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York State, and the Federal Government is
expected to withdraw
its proposed regulations to codify the Flexible Flow Management
Program (FFMP) at its public meeting on Dec. 10.
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Wastewater
treatment systems serving 25 million homes across the country will be
improved, thanks to an agreement
among EPA and 14 national organizations. |
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EPA is seeking
public comment on a new tool to help guide home builders,
landscape professionals, and irrigation partners in meeting the
outdoor criteria of a future WaterSense specification for
water-efficient, single-family new homes. |
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The
spiny water flea, an aquatic invasive species, has
been confirmed as present in the Great Sacandaga Lake in the
southern Adirondacks. Previously, it had been identified only in the
Great Lakes. This is first time the spiny water flea has been
confirmed in an non-border body of water. |
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A
Chesapeake
Bay-wide TMDL is scheduled to be completed in December 2010 and
will identify pollutant caps by major river basin in the
64,000-square-mile Bay watershed. |
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The
U.S.EPA and the Department of the Army are issuing
revised guidance to ensure America's wetlands, streams and other
waters are better protected under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The
guidance clarifies the geographic scope of jurisdiction under the CWA. |
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According
to American Rivers, more
than 60 dams were removed in 2008 nationwide. |
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Not Such a Cozy Christmas
In Christmas 1776, some 2,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 18 cannons
ferried across the cold Delaware River. The Continental soldiers, many
ill-prepared for the cold weather and poorly trained compared to the
troops they were about to face, then marched eight miles down river in
blizzard-like conditions. They soundly beat the German mercenary
soldiers based there, capturing 1,000 prisoners, killing 30 troops and
only losing two Continental soldiers - and both of them froze to death.
On the Net: Washington
Crossing State/Historic Park: http://www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/washcros.html
http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/crossing/page1.asp |
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As the year draws to a close, it is a time to reflect upon the
activities and successes of the past year. In Pennsylvania, the General
Assembly and Governor Rendell cooperated
on several major pieces of environmental legislation dealing with
water infrastructure funding, deep mine safety, alternative and
renewable energy, energy conservation, protecting the Great Lakes,
developing a climate plan for Pennsylvania and establishing the PA
Center for Environmental Education in law.
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Watershed Forestry Resource Guide
The Watershed Forestry Resource Guide, a new online resource for all things related
to forests and their role in watershed and stormwater management has been
launched by the Center for Watershed Protection and the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area.
The website contains pages specific to forest planning and assessment; reducing
stormwater runoff; forest-friendly development; and planting and maintaining
trees. The site includes fact sheets, slideshows, how-to
videos, training exercises, research papers, reports, and essential websites. A
webinar to launch the Guide, released on December 2, will soon be posted on the
site as well. http://www.forestsforwatersheds.org
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Be of Good Cheer
A new
heart study that tracked more than 4,700 people over 20 years concluded
that happiness is contagious - and that people pass on their good cheer even to
total strangers. The researchers found that the happiness spread outward by
three degrees, to the friends of friends of friends. The study also found that
the transferred happiness was good for up to a year.
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New Tools and
Publications:
Sustainable Site Guidelines
Released for Public Comment
The Sustainable Sites Initiative has
released the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks Draft 2008 for public
comment. The public comment period closes on January 20. This important
milestone builds on the initial Standards and Guidelines: Preliminary Report
released in November of last year. The new draft contains over 50 proposed
prerequisites and credits ranging from site selection to sustainable maintenance
practices. The metrics’ format will be similar to existing Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) tools in structure. http://www.sustainablesites.org/report
Sanitary Survey Guidance Manual
for Ground Water Systems
EPA has developed the Sanitary
Survey Guidance Manual for Ground Water Systems to provide States, Tribes, and
other primacy agencies with a brief review of the sanitary survey regulatory
provisions of the Ground Water Rule (GWR). The manual describes the details of a
comprehensive sanitary survey, addressing the minimum eight sanitary survey
elements required under the GWR, and provides specific examples of what
constitutes a significant deficiency. The manual also helps surveyors understand
how each set of Safe Drinking Water Act regulations applies to sanitary surveys.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/disinfection/gwr/compliancehelp.html
DRBC Releases First “State of the Basin”
Report
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and
the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) recently released the 2008 State
of the Delaware River Basin Report (State of the Basin Report), as well as
reintroduced PDE’s 2008 State of the Delaware Estuary Report (Estuary Report)
which was released in July. Both reports discuss the current health of the
Delaware River Basin by examining the status of certain environmental
conditions, as well as trends and actions needed to better monitor and improve
these conditions in the future. http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/news/cwp/view.asp?a=3&q=543385
New Manual available for Stormwater BMP using
Trees and Structural Soils in Highly Paved Areas
The Stormwater Management with Trees and
Structural Soils project began in 2004 as a collaborative effort between the
Urban Forestry and Urban Horticulture programs at Virginia Tech, the Urban
Horticulture Institute at Cornell University, and the Department of Land and
Water Resources at the University of California at Davis. The group developed a
stormwater management technique that uses structural soils (load-bearing tree
soils) under pavement as a stormwater reservoir in conjunction with trees. This
approach allows designers to incorporate all the hydrologic elements, including
storage, infiltration, and evapotranspiration. Various technology transfer items
are now available for download including a 55-page manual, a powerpoint
presentation, and information on four demonstration sites around the country. http://www.cnr.vt.edu/urbanforestry/stormwater
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Newsletter
Editor/ Design and Layout:
Rebecca
Buerkett
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F. X.
Browne, Inc. – Environmental Consulting
Engineers – Planners – Scientists
31 Years of Excellence & Innovation
Corporate
Office: Lansdale, PA
Pocono Office: Marshalls Creek, PA
New York Office: Saranac Lake, NY
For more information, call us at (215) 362-3878 or visit:
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permission.
Clipart from Microsoft
Office Online.
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