Registration's Open for the 2011 LID Technical Workshop Series

Registration is now open for the next round of Puget Sound LID Technical Workshops!

This workshop series, brought to you by WSU Extension and the Puget Sound Partnership, covers all aspects of LID, including:

• Bioretention siting, sizing, design, modeling, performance and maintenance
• Permeable paving specifications, installation, performance and maintenance needs for pervious concrete, porous asphalt, interlocking pavers, and grid systems
• Vegetated roof design, construction, modeling and performance
• Rainwater harvesting design and construction
• Low impact foundation design and construction
• Site planning and preparation
• Site assessment
• Plan review
  
• Erosion and sediment control, LID construction sequencing, and inspection

Workshop Dates
May 3-4, 2011 - Bioretention
May 17-18, 2011 - Permeable Paving
May 31-June 1, 2011 - Vegetated roofs, low impact foundations, and rainwater collection
June 14-15, 2011 - Site planning, erosion and sediment control, plan review, and inspection

Cost
The workshop series consists of four 2-day classes. Best of all (or at least really, really good): Each class costs only $110. And that includes all materials and food and beverage.

Why so cheap? Thank the Puget Sound Partnership, which is subsidizing registration to keep it really inexpensive and accessible to as many professionals as possible.

Puget Sound Action Agenda
This technical workshop series helps implement a key near-term action in the Puget Sound Action Agenda, which is to continue to transition the region to the LID approach and provide assistance to make it happen.

Location
As in 2010, all workshops will be held at the new LID Research Center on the campus of WSU Extension in Puyallup. Holding the classes there allows us to show students the wonderful array of bioretention and permeable pavement that's being meticulously monitored there. (If you've not visited WSU Puyallup yet, you'll be impressed by all of it - trust me.)

LID Certificates
WSU Extension, WSU Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Puget Sound Partnership will again offer LID certificates to those who attend all four classes and pass a series of tests. This certificate program has value - it demonstrates that the holder has a good understanding of the LID approach and techniques.

Registration
You do need to pre-register, and classes do fill up. Register at: http://conferences.wsu.edu/lidworkshops

Hope to see you there!

Local Government Rain Garden Programs: Seattle's

The City of Seattle started a rain garden reimbursement program this year. To start, they're targeting combined sewer overflow (CSO) basins; specifically the Ballard CSO basin. It is very expensive to build CSO control structures and the city is seeking to reduce CSO events and volumes in the most cost-effective way. The city envisions expanding the program to other basins in the future.

The city's program is called the Residential RainWise Program. Here's how it works:
Residents who live in the Ballard CSO basin are eligible for rebates for installing rain gardens and cisterns. Rain gardens have to be installed by a licensed contractor and city staff need to do pre and post-construction inspections. The city will reimburse up to $4 per square foot of impervious surface directed to it. This is anticipated to be 90-100% of total installation costs.

For more information see: http://www.rainwise.seattle.gov

Local Government Rain Garden Programs: Puyallup's

In a previous post, I talked about Kitsap County's program that provides financial incentives to property owners to install rain gardens.

I think this is a very good direction for our region - if we can replace significant portions of turf and impervious surfaces with numerous distributed, small-scale rain gardens (both on residential and commercial properties) I think we can really reduce overall surface volumes, peak flows, and many contaminants. In basins with combined sewer overflows, we can significantly reduce overflow events and volumes, and begin to reach state goals in a more cost-effective manner. We can begin to address runoff from existing development, which is an overwhelming, expensive, and needed action. We can better protect commercial and recreational shellfish growing areas from bacteria-laden runoff from developed lands. We can systematically beautify neighborhoods. We can strategically target 303(d) listed waterbodies and salmon streams threatened by runoff. And we can engage and empower citizens in our protection and recovery efforts.

In the next few postings, I'll highlight other local government rain garden programs.

Next up: The City of Puyallup's ongoing series of rain garden installations. Here's how their program works: The city seeks 6-8 adjacent neighbors who are willing to install rain gardens in their front yards. They seek neighborhoods in drainages that have documented water quality issues.

In September they completed their third such installation. They installed rain gardens at six homes in a neighborhood that drains to Clarks Creek, which has a fecal coliform TMDL and is undergoing a dissolved oxygen TMDL. The creek is also an active salmon spawning stream.

When installations occur, the city turns it into a community event and teaches about other key issues, like natural lawn care and fish friendly car washing. They also install storm drain markers and plant riparian areas. At the September event Ciscoe Morris broadcast his radio show from the site. The installations are fully subsidized by the city.

Three more installation events are planned for the next year.

For more information about the city's rain garden installation events see: http://www.cityofpuyallup.org/services/development-services/puyallups-stormwater-management-program/puyallup-rain-gardens/

For more information about future events, contact Tim Parham at tparham@ci.puyallup.wa.us or call (253) 841-5556. For information on volunteering at installation events and other stormwater-focused events, contact Melissa Buckingham with the Pierce Stream Team @ melissab@piercecountycd.org or call (253) 845-2973.

Ecology Announces Draft Funding List

Last year's state legislature appropriated about $50 million in new money to Ecology to dole out to local governments for a) NPDES permit program implementation; and b) stormwater retrofits and LID. With input from several key groups, Ecology chose to divide those monies roughly in half between these two, large needs.

Regarding retrofits using LID, Ecology's Water Quality Financial Assistance group evaluated 100 proposals they received, equaling nearly $59 million. Based on their evaluations, Ecology plans to fund 43 projects equaling $23.4 million.

Puget Sound jurisdictions did quite well: Of the 43 projects proposed to receive funding, 38 are located within the Puget Sound basin.

LID features pretty well in these projects, too. I haven't read through the full project proposals, but in reading the Project Summaries contained within the Draft Offer and Applicant List, I found language on LID techniques in 26 of the project summaries. There may well be more or less LID used in these retrofit projects - the project summaries are brief.

Ecology is seeking public comment on this draft offer list. Comments are due by December 3rd.

If you're interested in seeing this draft offer list, see:

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/funding/FundingPrograms/OtherFundingPrograms/StWa12/FY12StWa.html

If you're interested in commenting on the draft list, follow Ecology's instructions. Ecology will review and consider comments and provide a response to comments in the Final Offer and Applicant List, due to be released in mid-January.

View Comments on Ecology's Draft LID Standards Proposal

Interested in reading the comments the Department of Ecology received on their draft LID standards proposal? Click on the link below.

Remember - This is the process where two broad-based advisory committees met October 2009 to August 2010 to advise Ecology on precisely how and when to add LID requirements to municipal NPDES permits. Ecology took this on in response to the Pollution Control Hearings Board rulings directing them to require LID where feasible (rather than merely allow and encourage LID) in the permits.

See: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/stormwater/municipal/LIDcomments.html

Kitsap County LID Sizing Tool

For all of you working to size LID facilities: Here's a link to Kitsap County's latest iteration of their LID sizing tool.

Creators of the tool say that the spreadsheet tool guides users through the selection and sizing of pre-designed BMPs for use in the county. And: This version provides a project information box at the top of the sheets and includes some clarification on the minimum aggregate depth of permeable pavement.

See: http://www.kitsaphba.org/LID/resources.html

Free Training Available for Seattle Contractors and Design Professionals

Are you a licensed contractor or design professional that does work in Seattle? Seattle Public Utilities and UW Botanic Gardens are teaming up to offer free training on installing rain gardens and water cisterns. Space is limited, so contact them fast.

Rainwise: Installing Rain Gardens and Cisterns
Date: Tuesday November 9, 2010

For more information see: http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/education/stormwater.shtml

Note: This web site contains lots of materials from past trainings on an assortment of stormwater-related subjects - check it out.