The Stormwater Report

Sherbourne Common — part of Waterfront Toronto — is the first Canadian park to incorporate a neighborhood-wide stormwater treatment facility. The facility is integrated with an artistic display: a fountain that releases treated stormwater from 9-m towers. At night, the motion-activated lights illuminate the falling water. A mesh-veil behind the water will allow ice patterns [...]

On Aug. 9, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a Draft Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Post Construction Compliance Monitoring Guidance document. The document addresses monitoring requirements within the 1994 CSO Control Policy.  EPA is especially interested in how the guidance could help small communities. Therefore, along with the guidance, the agency released the LTCP [...]

The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSD) is planning a river restoration project to alleviate combined sewer overflows (CSO) in the Lower Mill Creek watershed, which contributes 50% of Hamilton County’s annual CSOs of 53 billion L. MSD will demolish dilapidated buildings to restore Lick Run channel to an open, flowing stream — a [...]

On Aug. 12, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew a proposed rule that would have enacted the first federal numeric turbidity limit for runoff from construction sites. In 2010, EPA dropped the limit of 280 nephlometric turbidity units (NTUs) from the construction and development industry’s effluent guidelines, published in the December 2009 Federal Register. [...]

The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) is seeking stormwater BMP monitoring studies with event-based data from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed for inclusion in the International Stormwater BMP Database.  A special data collection and analysis effort focused on the Chesapeake Bay is underway and will be publically available this fall via a dedicated portion of the International [...]

Los Angeles County is likely to appeal to the Supreme Court after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied a rehearing of Natural Resources Defense Council, et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al. on July 13. The landmark appellate ruling, made in March, stated that cities with municipal separate storm [...]

On Aug. 17, U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW), called on Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to hold oversight hearings on the proposed stormwater rule. Inhofe cites concern about the impact of the proposed rule on the development community, stating that “the rule has [...]

On Oct. 17, the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) will host a 2-part session on Industrial Stormwater at WEFTEC® 2011 in Los Angeles. Part I will feature presentations from California stormwater regulators, and Heal the Bay’s president will discuss grassroots impacts on stormwater regulations and implementation. In addition, Boeing will provide insight on dealing [...]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will seek a 2-month extension for the proposed national post-construction stormwater rule. The original Sept. 30 deadline will be extended until Dec. 2; however, the final rule is still planned for release in late November 2012. As such, once the proposed rule is released, the public comment period will be [...]

Submit your abstract by Oct. 26 for the Stormwater Symposium, July 19–20, 2012, in Baltimore, Maryland’s Inner Harbor.  The 2-day event, hosted in cooperation with the Chesapeake Water Environment Association, will bring together practitioners, regulators, academics, manufactures, and visionaries to network and exchange information on challenges, successes, and opportunities related to stormwater.  A detailed call [...]