Stormwater - Public Works Group Blog

March 3, 2014March 1, 2014

Infographic of the Month – March 2014 (FEMA Flood Maps!)

This month's infographic comes from FEMA – our friendly folks who work to keep us safe and help us when there's a disaster. One of FEMA's tasks is to develop flood maps which show us where flooding is most likely to occur. There's a lot that goes into determining flood boundaries and making these maps so FEMA prepared an infographic to help us better visualize the process. Because this infographic is produced by the U.S. government, there is no copyright. Therefore, any agency or company can print this out to either create a poster to hang in an office to show people who have questions about the process or to print out and make available to citizens as handouts.

You can always find out more about this process by visiting the FEMA website: http://www.fema.gov/blog/2014-02-21/what-goes-flood-map-infographic

June 17, 2013

Encouraging Dog Owners to Pick up Pet Waste

The video below was created by McCann Madrid for the Brunete Council in Spain to showcase their program for encouraging dog owners to clean up after their pets. It sounds like the town was having quite a problem with dog owners leaving their pet's waste lying everywhere. So they hired McCann to develop a program where volunteers approached the owners of dogs who had left waste in a public area. By talking with the owner, they were able to find out the dog's name. The volunteer then collected the dog's waste and accessed the town's database of dog registrations to find out the owner's name and address. Then they shipped the offensive waste back to the owner. Based on the video, it appears this method reduced violations by 70%.

The USEPA has more information about pet waste management here: EPA Stormwater BMPs – Pet Waste Management

June 16, 2013

Quick Stormwater Regulation Update in Illinois

Just wanted to post a few quick thoughts/information about the status of the recent efforts to impose additional stormwater regulations throughout Illinois. Currently the task force we wrote about last year (Illinois Considers New Stormwater Regulations) is still meeting to discuss the comments they received. They have been working on addressing and looking into the issues everyone pointed out. And it appears the input they received is typical of what is being heard through the U.S. The bottom line is that imposing flow-based regulations related to stormwater will significantly increase costs with no guarantee of comparable benefits.

The other factor that seems to be related to all of this is a decision that was handed down to the EPA earlier this year by a Federal court. Here is an excerpt from the conclusion of that document (my emphasis added):

"Stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it via TMDL. Claiming that the stormwater maximum load is a surrogate for sediment, which is a pollutant and therefore regulable, does not bring stormwater within the ambit of EPA's TMDL authority. Whatever reason EPA has for thinking that a storm water flow rate TMDL is a better way of limiting sediment load than a sediment load TMDL, EPA cannot be allowed to exceed its clearly limited statutory authority." – Virginia DOT vs EPA ruling, full document

The critical point to know in all this is that while the USEPA has been told they cannot regulate stormwater flow as a method of regulating pollutants, states might be allowed to do so based on their own constitutions. Perhaps this is one reason the USEPA is so interested in getting states to pass these regulations – they know they cannot force this issue but are trying to convince the states to do so as a way to circumvent this restriction on their powers. Although at least one task force member did not seem to realize this – I was told last year by that member that during the facilitation of the proposed regulations, the USEPA representative told them they have to pass something so it is in place in time to meet the USEPA requirements. I am not sure if that representative truly believed that or not, but based on this ruling, it appears this would no longer be the case.

So why are we hurrying to pass a regulation that has not been developed or reviewed by a wide group of stakeholders who completely understand stormwater and its regulation and one that the majority of professionals in the industry has found to have significant problems? Perhaps it is time to take a step back and start again at the beginning by including on the task force people who truly understand stormwater, have decades of experience designing and regulating stormwater systems, and know the impacts of its regulation.

May 8, 2013

Try Out Our Stormwater Beta Class!

If you ask public works professionals what are the most common concerns or issues they handle in their community, you will probably hear stormwater or flooding mentioned. So when we thought about developing online courses related to public works, we decided to begin by creating one about this topic. The entire course is still in development, but we have several sessions completed. And now with the software we are using ready for a public release this summer, we believe we are ready to invite a group of beta testers in to try it out. There are no costs associated with taking any of the courses so if you think you might be interested in testing out this class, read on . . .

One of the exciting aspects of this course is the software which allows for quite a different experience than what is usually offered by more traditional online educational delivery systems. All courses are created in and managed through 3D GameLab – a quest-based learning platform (a screenshot of the interface is included later in this post). When you join the class you are entered into a group with other students of that course. Everyone's progress is tracked in the group tab of the class. As you proceed through each session, or quest, you gain points, and as you complete a series of tasks, rewards are earned to track your progress. Each session leading up to a reward builds on the material in the last one.

So far, the classes we have ready in the Stormwater Course are shown below. And because stormwater and flooding are ongoing concerns for many, we expect to continue adding quest groups to the course over time.

Introductory Quest Group – at completion the student achieves the "Climateer" Level and badge

Welcome to Exploring Drainage
When it Rains, It Pours
Take the Damage Tour
The Flood Lineup
The Role of Government

Government Liaison Quest Group – at completion the student achieves the title of Government Liaison and earns a badge

Flood Zones
Flood Maps
Flood Insurance
Designing for the Storm

Castle Steward Quest Group – at completion the student achieves the Castle Steward level and earns the related badge

This group is still in development with the grayed-out quests not yet ready:

The Lay of the Land
Pump that Sump
Never Saw that Coming
The 500 Year Storm
Preparing for the Flood

So who should take this type of course? It is designed to offer information in a format that would be interesting and relevant to property owners, people interested in stormwater, and even engineers and others working in public works who are just getting started in working with stormwater. At this time the signup process will ask you to verify you are 18 years or older. We can accommodate people younger including classes of high school students; however, we would want to discuss the access process before setting up accounts to ensure we comply with FERPA and COPPA.

If you sign up to try it out, we would appreciate any feedback you have including ideas about how we can make the course better or ideas for other courses you would like to have us develop. At this time the class is limited to 60 people so if you are interested, make sure you sign up now with the form below to secure your spot!

Loading…

Note: Thanks to http://iconka.com for the first image in this post

March 20, 2013March 20, 2013

WATERCON 2013 – Day 3

And here we are already at the third full day of the conference. Today I started out in the exhibit hall talking to folks as they walked by the booth where we had a display of the #watercon Tweets. But I didn't have much time to chat before having to run off to the Mission Impossible session. As soon as I walked in the door and was handed a sealed envelope marked "Confidential," I realized this would be no ordinary activity. Upon opening the envelope, I discovered I had been assigned to a task force to determine five action points to address signficant water-related deficiencies in a community. Fortunately I was not alone in this endeavor – there were three other water professionals on my team who were obviously very experienced. It didn't take long for us to develop our recommendations. There were three other teams in the room working on the same assignment, and when we were all done, the moderators had us share our ideas. It was interesting to see that all the teams had come up with similar approaches. Well except our team had not thought of calling the National Guard. But, hey, as the one participant pointed out – they are there and available to help so why not use them. Afterwards we were all rewarded with candy for undertaking such a challenging assignment.

After we were released from our task force, I managed to catch the session on Green Infrastructure. While I could not live blog it, I did manage to share a few key points through Twitter (look for the #watercon hashtag to see the stream). The overall message from the panel of speakers is that green infrastructure is made up of complex elements. Designers are still figuring things out – particularly costs. And even though we have the International BMP Database, they cautioned trying to implement someone else's solution for your project without giving careful consideration to local conditions and factors. And finally they pointed out the operation and maintenance and monitoring of BMPs can be expensive.

Later in the afternoon, I caught the following sessions and was able to live blog them. Follow the link to run the CoverItLive tool to see the main points:

Who, What, When, Where and Why of Backflow Prevention – this was also a panel discussion about cross connections and backflow protection. It was interesting to hear the approaches and ideas from each community. Several members from the audience shared their experiences too. Make sure to run the live blog tool to see the tips and advice.

The New World of SCADA Security – this session provided an interesting view of why our operations had not experienced control security issues in the past and why they are more vulnerable now. The main point was "security through obscurity." Until 2010, hackers didn't really know about PLCs or how they operated. But because several programmers got together and wrote a program to hack into a PLC, launched it on another country's operations, and had their program picked up by someone whose actions led to the eventual release of it on the Internet, now anyone can get the code. Great.

I didn't really get a chance to talk to many vendors today – the booths had to be taken down at noon. Tomorrow is the awards breakfast and a few legislative sessions. But because I have some commitments at home, I unfortunately won't be able to attend. So I guess this wraps up my summary of WATERCON, but remember, since we captured so much of it online, you can always access the information by visiting the #watercon Tweets and reviewing the live blog sessions.

I very much appreciate ISAWWA sponsoring my registration and look forward to seeing everyone back next year!

March 20, 2013March 20, 2013

Watercon 2013 – Day 2

On the second day of Watercon, I alternated between attending sessions and visiting with exhibitors. Because of access to an outlet, I was only able to live blog a few of the sessions. The links to those are below:

Ice Pigging: Cleaning Mains with Ice – I first heard of this technique from a co-worker and really wanted to learn more about it. The talk was very interesting and informative. One of the key points I took away is that it is a cleaning technique only. You can't use this for the purpose of removing significant iron and other formations that have formed on the interior of your pipe. You can see in the image below a photo of the slide the speaker showed to demonstrate the type of material removed throughout the process.

What is Expected Coating Life for a Water Tank – the presenter showed many case studies and photos from inspections to explain their findings. He said their inspections are showing that the coatings are lasting much longer than the expected life.

Illinois Stormwater Group Recommendations – Regular readers of this blog may remember we reported on the work of this group several months ago and urged people to send in comments regarding the group's proposed draft (Why is the Illinois Department of Agriculture Determining Stormwater Rules for Cities? and Illinois Considers New Stormwater Regulations). The speaker mentioned they received hundreds of responses and are now revising the recommendations to reflect this input.

Antenna Contracts: What you Need to Know Before you Sign – if you always wondered what you might be missing in reviewing antenna contracts, this is the session you want to check out. Keith Dixon, an attorney with Dixon Engineering, brought up many issues to consider such as ownership, safety, damages, and security. This was a follow up session to the one before: Antennas & Water Towers: Why or Why Not? While I wasn't able to live blog that one, I did manage to snap this photo showing a huge truss that was installed on a tower for antennas:

The other two sessions I attended but was not able to live blog were Tips for Ductile Iron Pipe System Design & Installation and "Give me a Break" Uncovering the Truth of Water Main Breaks. When I get a chance I will follow up with a summary of those in a later post. In the meantime, I would urge everyone interested in design of ductile iron water mains to stop by the Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association booth in the exhibit hall. They have many design guides and resources you can pick up to help you at work. (They also have an interesting website with many resources and some great graphics.)

Vendors – Products

There were many vendors I was able to visit with. I enjoyed talking with Andrew at the Seiler Instrument booth and learning about their new products. Andrew is a good resource for finding out the state of GIS and CAD technology in the public works industry. If you stop by his booth you can pick up information for products that will help integrate and meet all your mapping and data needs. Here is a photo of the Seiler booth:

I also spoke to T.J. and Brian at Ferguson Waterworks. While I just met Brian, I had known T.J. for some time. He is usually the person I call when I need to know something about watermain fittings or meters. He's also the person who inspired me to write this blog post: Frozen Meters Exposed – Don't Try this at Home. Here's a photo of Brian at their booth:

WATERCON 2013 - Ferguson Waterworks Booth

I was also able to visit with the representative from EJ – the former East Jordan Iron Works company. He mentioned they are in the process of reviewing casting designs so if you have any suggestions make sure to stop by and let him know about them. I shared my pet peeve with castings – in the "old days" the curb frames had a circular plate to fit the catch basins and inlets. Then suddenly one year they changed them to have rectangular bottoms. But they still fit over a circular concrete structure! So this leaves little corners hanging over the structure that you have to seal. Of course, not all contractors are going to seal them so the inspector has to try to stand there and make sure each and every little corner is sealed instead of paying attention to important construction activities like the material and drainage of the curb. Maybe with this revision they can figure out how to address this because failures around castings are one of the major generators of work orders for the streets/sewer departments.

Vendors – Training

If you are looking for training, the Environmental Resources Training Center has materials and training schedules available at their booth in the main exhibit hall. IPSI also has a booth on the second floor in the hall outside of the session rooms. Last year I attended my first year of the three-year program and found it to be an intense, highly energetic experience. What makes it so different is the content focuses on teaching all those non-technical skills we rarely have time to acquire as we are moving up the ranks. Everyone who has ever attended can't say enough about how incredible of an experience IPSI was to them. This year, Dave Lawry and I will also be giving one of the sessions during IPSI that will focus on communication and social media.

Below is a gallery of the photos I have taken while at the conference: