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F. X. Browne, Inc.'s
Lake and Watershed News
September
2006
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What plant we in this
apple-tree!
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June,
And redden in the August noon,
And drop, when gentle airs come by,
That fan the blue September sky,
While children come, with cries of glee,
And seek them where the fragrant grass
Betrays their bed to those who pass,
At the foot of the apple-tree.
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From "The
Planting of the Apple-tree," by William
Cullen Bryant
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Editor's
Note:
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EPA plans to award up to $19 million in grants to help clean up and
restore the nation's waterways. Proposals must reach EPA by October 16 for
capacity-building grants and November 15 for
project-implementation grants. See our Grants page for more information.
Does a river you love face an uncertain future?
If your river is facing
sprawl, pollution, mining, diversion or other imminent threat,
consider nominating it for the 2007 America’s Most Endangered Rivers
report. Each year, this report shines a national
spotlight on rivers around the country.
The deadline for nominations is October 1. Get the nomination
form here.
Victims of the June 2006 Pennsylvania floods
who wish to take advantage of free water well testing kits
should contact the
DEP’s regional
offices prior to September 8. Residents or local
officials who call before September 8 can also make an appointment for DEP staff
and a contractor to come to the home for free pumping and removal services for flooded or
damaged home heating oil tanks in affected areas. September
is National Watershed Awareness Month Celebrating Connecting People to
Their Watersheds. Check out our Events
page for some upcoming watershed events!
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Lake Colby, Saranac Lake, NY
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Topic of
the Month
Natural Stream Channel Design
Over
time, natural rivers attain a stable form within the constraints of the
surrounding land topography and geology, the water flow volume, and the
substrate or sediment within their banks. Applying this concept to stream
restoration, natural channel design methodologies attempt to mimic natural
conditions to create or restore stable stream channels. Unlike streambank
stabilization and in-stream habitat enhancement projects, natural channel
designs often result in a significant change in the size, pattern, shape, or
profile of a stream channel. More...
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Does the Woolly Bear Caterpillar Superstition Hold True?
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Superstition says that the Woolly Bear (caterpillar form of the Isabella Tiger
Moth) can predict the
severity of the upcoming winter. If the length of its orange stripe is
long, it will be a mild winter, but if the majority of the caterpillar
is black, it will be a cold winter. According to the Farmer's
Almanac (citing several scientific sources), the Woolly Bear's
accuracy in weather prognostication is little more than a folktale.
This hasn't stopped people from enjoying the fun:
Each year, Bear
Mountain State Park, just north of New York City, conducts its own
Woolly Bear survey and issues a weather prediction.
The Hagerstown, Maryland Town
and Country Almanack sponsors an annual woolly
bear caterpillar event, where local school children in Hagerstown
collect woolly bears. A panel of judges examines the collected
specimens and issues a woolly bear forecast for the upcoming winter.
The town of Banner Elk, NC, holds an annual
Woolly Worm Festival.
The winning worm in the woolly race gets a $1000 prize and the
distinction of being the one worm to predict the weather that year.
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Incidentally, the above caterpillar was
photographed in the fall of 2005, prior to an uncharacteristically
mild Adirondack winter. See if you can find any Woolly Bears around
your house - what is your prediction?
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News Clips
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New Jersey Beefs Up Anti-Flooding Regulations
NJ Governor Corzine recently
announced significant changes to the Flood Hazard Area Control Act.
More...
Rural PA’s Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
Capacity Analyzed in New Report
The Center for Rural Pennsylvania just released a new
report entitled, “Rural Pennsylvania’s Water and Wastewater
Infrastructure,” by Penn State’s Dr. Beverly A. Cigler analyzing
the capacity of rural communities to meet their water and wastewater
needs. More...
Waste Tires Used to Rebuild Dirt Road, Benefiting
Streams
Construction crews are nearing the
successful completion of an innovative use of waste tires to rebuild
a rural road and protect and adjacent stream in north-central Pennsylvania.
More...
Follow-Up: Lewis County NY Manure Spill Penalties Levied
Marks Farms has agreed to $2.2 million in penalties
as a result of environmental damage caused last August when a liquid
manure lagoon at the dairy operation broke open, sending some three million gallons of the toxic waste pouring into the Black River.
More...
Tax Breaks Proposed for Pennsylvania Farmers Who Protect Water
Quality
A new
legislative proposal would give tax credits to farmers and
businesses that sponsor farm projects to help reduce water pollution
across Pennsylvania. More...
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Policy Update
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PA Governor Rendell awarded more than $500,000
in grants to improve the operation of municipally-owned flood
protection projects in 17 counties. |
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Scientists with the Chesapeake
Bay Program have found little damage to underwater grass beds in the
upper Bay and tidal Potomac River during their initial trips to assess
the impacts of the flooding that occurred in the Bay watershed at the end of June. |
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PA Governor Rendell announced an additional
$2.7 million in Growing
Greener II investments to fund improvements to aging water and sewer
systems and reclaim mine-scarred lands. |
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The NJ Highlands Council has posted on
their website a number of draft technical memoranda related to the
Regional Master Plan, including the report, 'Status Of Land Preservation
In The Highlands Region.'
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A list of 1,846 sites
dropped from New Jersey's record of contaminated properties,
including landfills, chemical companies, airports, and an array of homes, restaurants and schools, will be restored. |
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NJ Governor
Corzine signed legislation earmarking $80 million for open
space preservation in the state. He also recently signed a
bill appropriating $48.5 million from the Garden State Farmland
Preservation Trust Fund for farmland
preservation purposes statewide. |
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The PA DEP
published a revised TMDL
(Total Maximum Daily Load) Plan for the Neshaminy Creek in Bucks and
Montgomery counties and asked for public comments on the revisions by
October 25.
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In response to
recently announced changes in federal regulations governing the
control of resident Canada geese, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced
that agency staff will present state regulatory changes to the Board
of Game Commissioners for consideration at its upcoming meeting on
Oct. 2-3. |
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The Army Corps
of Engineers will re-examine
its regulation of ditches in light of the Supreme Court's
fractured decision on two
key wetland cases. |
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The Association
of State Wetland Managers has released two draft
reports for review and comment by September 15: "Protecting
And Restoring Wetlands: Strengthening The Role Of Land Trusts,"
and "Protecting And Restoring Wetlands: Strengthening The Role Of
Local Governments." |
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NY Governor
Pataki signed legislation to create the New
York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council to
coordinate State efforts to protect ocean and the Great Lakes
resources. |
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According to a National
Retail Federation survey, the average family intends to spend about
$527 this year for back-to-school supplies, up from $444 in 2005. In light
of this shocking factoid, California State Superintendent of Public
Instruction Jack O’Connell has offered his top
10 tips to help parents save money while still adequately providing
their children with school supplies for the start of the school year.
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Link Of
The Month
The University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center
has posted on their website a series of presentations from StormCon 06 which
was held July 24-27, 2006 in Denver, Colorado. Topics include Evaluating
Stormwater BMP Technologies and Hydraulic Routing Characteristics of LID
Devices. Other presentations from various conferences are also posted on the
site, with topics ranging from "A
Performance Evaluation of Porous Asphalt as a Stormwater Treatment Strategy"
to "Stormwater Rainfall Events: Observed Rainfall Versus Design
Rainfall," to "The Fate of De-Icing Salts in Stormwater Management
Systems." http://www.unh.edu/erg/cstev/Presentations/index.htm
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New Watershed Assessment Model
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An interactive GIS Watershed Assessment Model
(WAM) has been
adopted for the ArcView platform. The model simulates spatial water quality loads based on
land use and soils and then routes and attenuates these source cell loads
through uplands, wetlands and streams to watershed outlets.
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This new version of the model includes a menu
interface written in ArcView Avenue with the Spatial Analyst extension to let
the user create modified land use scenarios and compare the results side-by-side
with the results of the existing land use. http://stormwaterauthority.org/assets/073PLWAMModel.pdf
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New
Tools and Publications
Spotlight on Superior Stormwater Programs
As part of an
on-going research project in the City of Fairfax, VA to determine the effects of
non-structural best management practices, the Center for Watershed Protection is developing
a series of
profiles on Phase I communities that highlight superior stormwater programs. The
first stormwater program profile covers the program in Santa Monica, CA. The
remainder of these profile sheets will be released in upcoming issues of the Runoff
Rundown newsletter. The communities that will be profiled include Austin, TX;
Charlotte, NC; Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD; and the City of Fairfax, VA
(Phase II). Each of these profile sheets provides a background on the community,
the reason it has been found to be unique, innovative techniques each uses to
address stormwater runoff, and cost/funding information, when available. http://www.cwp.org/RR_photos/santa_monica_sw_fact_sheet.pdf
New Multi-State Guide to Farmland Preservation
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has released a new guide that takes a
comprehensive look at farmland preservation in the Chesapeake Bay region to
enable both farmers and citizens to take action to slow the loss of farmland
to development. “A Guide to Preserving Agricultural Lands in the Chesapeake Bay Region:
Keeping Stewards on the Land” provides state-specific details on
easements, development rights, planning and zoning regulations, and state
and federal land preservation programs. http://www.cbf.org/site/DocServer/CBFPreservingFarmland_Final.pdf?docID=5943
NJ Brownfields Publication
ANJEC recently released a new edition of
"Remediating and Redeveloping
Brownfields in New Jersey: A Guide for Municipalities and Community
Organizations." ANJEC has
extensively updated the first edition produced in 1999 with the latest
information and resources available in the state. The publication explains New Jersey's brownfields program, including tools and
approaches for concerned citizens and municipalities to help them find out
about and clean up contaminated sites. http://www.anjec.org/pdfs/BrownfieldsinNJ2006.pdf
New EPA Report on Emerging Technologies for
Wastewater Conveyance Systems
A new technology guide for municipal and
utility collection system owners and operators is available from the EPA.
The guide provides information about innovative and emerging technologies
for the installation and repair of new and existing wastewater conveyance systems. The
guide classifies the state of development for each technology and provides a
Technology Summary Fact Sheet for each process with information describing
the technology, cost data, contact information, and data sources. The guide
also includes data on cost-effective technologies for repair and
rehabilitation of existing conveyance systems and preliminary information on
emerging technologies for new installations and for the repair of existing
conveyance systems.
http://www.epa.gov/owm/mtb/epa-conveyance-report.pdf
Riparian Ordinance Literature Review and
Guidance
"Riparian Setbacks: Technical Information for Decision
Makers" was originally prepared for the Chagrin River Watershed partners in
Ohio. It is a review of
the recent scientific literature organized to provide the scientific basis upon
which a township or municipality could begin the task of defending a riparian
setback ordinance from the growing, increasingly sophisticated legal challenges
being mounted by the development community. The document touches on recent literature on wood in
streams, sedimentation effects, shading and temperature effects, and some
interesting literature on riparian forest effects on flood damages and bank
stability. http://www.crwp.org/pdf_files/riparian_setback_paper_jan_2006.pdf
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Newsletter
Editor/ Design and Layout:
Rebecca Buerkett |
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F. X.
Browne, Inc. – Environmental Consulting
Engineers – Planners – Scientists
28 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
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Unless otherwise cited, all photos
in this newsletter © Rebecca Buerkett. Photos may not be used or reproduced without
permission.
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