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Editor's
Notes:
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Happy New Year!
From all of us at F. X. Browne, Inc., may your new year be
prosperous, joyful, peaceful, and GREEN!
State of the Bay
With just three years to go before the
court-ordered deadline to remove the Chesapeake Bay from the nation’s
dirty waters list, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2007
State of the Bay report gives the Bay an unacceptable “D” grade. In 2007,
none of the State of the Bay 13 health indicators improved; three--phosphorus, blue crabs, and water clarity--actually fell. This year’s health index dropped one point to 28, far
from their goal of 40 by 2010
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Topic
of the Month:
Design
vs. Construction: Comparing Stream Restoration Costs
Design
and consulting costs can be a significant percentage of the overall cost of
civil and environmental engineering projects. For stream restoration
projects, this can be even more true. A new paper compares the costs of
design versus construction for three different stream restoration projects. More...
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“Whiskey’s for drinking, water’s for
fighting about.” — Mark Twain
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“Water is the only drink for a wise man.”
— Henry David Thoreau
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“We all drink somebody else’s sewage.”
-Kenneth E. Boulding
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“Water, like religion and ideology, has
the power to move millions of people.” — Mikhail Gorbachev
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“Water is the driver of Nature.” —
Leonardo daVinci
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News Clips:
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Lifting of Liability Encourages Good Samaritans
The U.S. EPA has issued a new policy that
reduces legal uncertainties for organizations that want to help restore
watersheds by cleaning up abandoned mine sites on private land. More...
Green-Collar Jobs Are Good Jobs
A new research report by a key partner in
the Green Collar Jobs Campaign shows that the deliberate cultivation of
“green collar jobs” can benefit low-income residents and the local
economy. More...
Too Much Parking Drives NPS Pollution
A Purdue University study found that
parking spaces outnumbered residents by 3-to-1 in a suburban Midwestern
county. More...
Pet Waste Made Graphic
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program (TBEP),
concerned about high fecal coliform levels in
a number of Tampa Bay tributaries, is showing residents the extent of potential pollution left by
dogs in graphic detail in its effort to reduce the effect of pet waste pollution on water quality.
More...
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Policy
Update:
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The Delaware River Basin Commission announced a schedule
of informational meetings and a public hearing on proposed
regulations to implement a Flexible Flow Management Program for the
operation of three New York City Delaware Basin reservoirs. |
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A new report
on energy efficiency from the federal Department of Energy and the U.S.
EPA says U.S. power consumers could save more than $500 billion through
2025 by implementing cost-effective energy efficiency measures.
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A settlement of water quality violations by
Merck and Co., Inc. in Montgomery County has yielded $9 million in
environmental projects to cleanup and protect the Wissahickon
watershed.
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A new report
by the Conservation and Natural Resources Advisory Council to the PA
DCNR said trails and greenways programs should be better coordinated
between agencies and that DCNR should be a one-stop information source
for trails.
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The PA Game Commission published a proposed
regulation creating the Agricultural Depredation Permit Program to
help limit deer browsing damage in agricultural areas. The proposal
allows certain landowners to apply for permits for hunting deer that are
causing agricultural crop damage. Comments on the proposed rule are due January
25.
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Region 3, U.S. EPA, has updated its eCycling
webpage to provide comprehensive information regarding the
end-of-life management of electronic products.
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Are You Missing a Glove?
A Texas native who experienced her first
snowflakes in Pittsburgh last year was miffed by the lost gloves she
spotted all over the city last winter. So Jennifer Gooch started
onecoldhand.com in an effort to reunite dropped gloves with their mates
- and in the process spread some goodwill.
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When she finds a glove, she leaves a sticker
that reads, "Missing a glove? onecoldhand.com." Gooch
photographs each glove and puts the picture and information on her Web
site, where people can report found gloves and request stickers. Gooch
would love to see One Cold Hand projects sprout up in other cities. She hopes to have onecoldhand-nyc.com up and running soon.
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Link of the Month:
Combined Sewer Overflow Planning Tool
EPA recently released The
Long-Term Control Plan-EZ (LTCP-EZ) Template: A Planning Tool for Combined
Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control in Small Communities. This new planning tool is
designed for small communities that must develop an LTCP to address water pollution
problems related to CSOs. This tool provides a framework for the
organization and completion of an LTCP, including step-by-step
instructions and a detailed template. www.epa.gov/npdes/cso.
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“Men may dam it and say they have made a lake,
but it will still be a river. It will keep its nature and bide its time,
like a caged animal alert for the slightest opening. In time, it will have
its way; the dam, like ancient cliffs, will be carried away piecemeal in the
currents.” — Wendell Berry
Photo: Marmot
Dam Removal, American Rivers
Click above for links to more photos of the
dam removal and decommissioning project.
For more information about dam removal and stream restoration, contact info@fxbrowne.com.
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New Tools and
Publications:
Integrating Water and Waste Programs
Guidance
EPA has released a manual entitled "Integrating Water and Waste Programs
to Restore Watersheds: A Guide for Federal and State Project Managers."
This manual is targeted primarily to project managers or stakeholders in water and waste
programs who are working on assessment or cleanup projects in watersheds
contaminated by hazardous materials or waste. The
goal of the manual is to enhance coordination across EPA and state waste and
water programs by identifying opportunities for streamlining requirements,
leveraging resources, and implementing restoration activities more efficiently.
This manual provides valuable guidance and information to enable effective use
of water and waste program authorities and resources to restore and protect
watersheds. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/resources/integrating.htm
Creating Sustainable Community Parks Guide
The PA Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources has released a new publication, "Creating Sustainable
Community Parks: A Guide to Improving Quality of Life by Protecting Natural
Resources." This guidebook provides information for parks
and communities to help them design, manage and maintain a park that promotes
native plantings, uses environmentally-friendly maintenance practices, and
creates wildlife habitat. http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/brc/GreeningPennsylvania.pdf
Presentations from STORET/WQX
Users Conference Online
Presentations from the 2007 STORET/WQX Users
Conference in November 2007 are now available online. The conference provided an opportunity for users of
EPA's STORET/WQX
system to learn more about the new Water Quality Exchange (WQX) system. During the conference, users
from state, tribal, interstate, academic, and watershed organizations also
shared information about how they are using STORET/WQX to manage and share
water quality monitoring data, including beach water quality data, and how
they are integrating STORET with GIS mapping applications. http://www.epa.gov/storet/2007conf_proceedings.html
CWP Releases Two Urban Subwatershed
Restoration Manuals for Free Download
The Center for Watershed Protection is making its
first two manuals of the Urban Subwatershed Restoration Manual Series, released
in 2005, available permanently for free download. Manual 1, An Integrated
Framework to Restore Small Urban Watersheds, examines the basic concepts and
techniques of urban watershed restoration, and sets forth the overall framework
used to evaluate subwatershed restoration potential. The second manual, Methods
to Develop Restoration Plans for Small Urban Watersheds, outlines a practical,
step-by-step approach to develop, adopt and implement a subwatershed plan in
your community. http://www.cwp.org/PublicationStore/USRM.htm
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Newsletter
Editor/ Design and Layout:
Rebecca
Buerkett
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F. X.
Browne, Inc. – Environmental Consulting
Engineers – Planners – Scientists
30 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:
http://www.fxbrowne.com.
For a printer
friendly version of the newsletter, click here.
Unless otherwise cited, all photos
in this newsletter © Rebecca Buerkett. Photos may not be used or reproduced without
permission.
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