Physical Characteristics Intensive land development 402,000 pop. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Upstream Suburban Philadelphia Cluster

William Penn Foundation Watershed T

• ur

November 9, 2016

Patrick Starr, Executive Vice President Pennsylvania Environmental Council

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Upstream Suburban Philadelphia Cluster

• Wissahickon
• Pennypack
• Poquessing
• T
• okany
• Cobbs

Five hydrologically separate watersheds

• Intensive land development – 402,000 pop.
• 25% impervious surface
• Widespread water use impairments

Physical Characteristics

• Fragmented political structure – 36/287
• Many previous plans and studies
• Strong watershed associations

Civic Characteristics

• Precursor/history of collaboration
• Act 167’s and other studies
• Extensive education & outreach
• Prior BMP projects

PWD Watershed Partnerships

Project Design and Modeling Project Implementation and Quality Assurance Monitoring at three levels Collaborative Municipal Outreach Land Stewardship and Public Outreach T/A to Create Future Project Pipeline

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Developing Coordination Theory of Change: Learn by Doing

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• Improve management of stormwater runoff
• Improve/increase riparian buffers
• Improve hydrologic conditions of streams and

connectivity to floodplains and wetlands

• Increase investment in WWTP and sewer systems

Restoration Targets and Goals

In-the-Ground Projects

Years 1 thru 3

$4.3 million in GSI

projects

$1.5 million NFWF $2.8 million leveraged

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College Settlement wetland Abington Friends School rain gardens and riparian restoration Narberth Library rain garden

Progress Made and Challenges Faced

 Education and Outreach  Water Quality and

Volunteer Monitoring

 Temple and

Villanova Technical Support

 Five Individual Watersheds

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Education and Outreach Overview- Susan Myerov

 Work Plan Development  Audience, Message, Purpose,

Outcomes,

 Evaluation Metrics

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Education and Outreach Audiences

Elected Officials Municipal Staff Municipal Appointed

Officials

Large Landowners Citizens

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• Supplement Subwatershed Programs
• Municipal MS4 training
• Engaging Elected Officials
• Provide Direct Programs
• Large Landowners/Best Practices
• Municipalities/Good Housekeeping
• Training Citizen Stewards

“above-the-ground”

Coordinated Education and Outreach

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Education and Outreach

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Education and Outreach

Education and Outreach Metrics

• 860 municipal officials and stakeholders reached
• 2,082 citizens at clean-ups, plantings, and education

events

• 3,624 volunteer hours
• 12 master watershed stewards trained

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Saint Joe’s Stormwater Workshop

Wissahickon CreekWatch Training Poquessing Watershed Day

Education & Outreach Challenges

Rea Monaghan Water Quality and Volunteer monitoring 2014-2016 Review

STREAM MONITORING & ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (STREAM MAP)

• Measure and communicate WQ

trends

• Inform and improve watershed

health

• Assess habitat conditions and

biological communities

• 13 sites / 24 hour monitoring

station

WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM

 USPC Water Quality Cluster Lead

• Continuation of Stream MAP

 Identify new projects for collaboration  Baseline data at project sites  Monitor for chemical and physical parameters  Macroinvertebrates  Habitat assessments

FOCUS AREAS

• Restoration and green infrastructure
• Partner with Temple / Villanova/ municipalities
• Education and outreach
• Public at large / elected officials / corporate partners

• 60 volunteers / 36 sites / 27 sites

monitored by wading team

• 9 sites monitored quarterly by WVWA
• Early detection / Eyes and ears
• Data analyzers / quarterly blog updates
• Launch revised program in 2017

CREEK WATCHERS AND WADING

TEAM

STREAMKEEPERS

 Darby Creek

Valley Association

 Lower Merion Conservancy  Pennypack (Pennypack Ecological Restoration

Trust)

 Poquessing (Friends of the Poquessing

Watershed/Bucks County Conservation District)

 Tookany/Tacony-Frankford (TTF Watershed

Partnership, Inc.)

PHASE I ACCOMPLISHMENTS

 Data Collection  Analysis  Sharing  Outreach  Training

CHALLENGES

October 20 USPC water quality meeting yielded solutions:

• Staff and funding to continue/expand

monitoring and outreach efforts

• Translation of data in a format/language

understood by a variety of audiences

Temple CSC Suburban Cluster Team

• 1. Monitoring
• 3. Modeling
• 2. Project support

Types of monitoring

 Water level (12+)  Temperature (12+)  Turbidity (12)  Conductivity (12)  DO (6)  Dissolved Organic (2)  Nitrate (1)  Phosphate (1)  Discharge  Water quality  Some biological monitoring  Time lapse camera

Available for loan

Available for loan

PENNYPACK

Nutrient uptake st Stormwater sampling

TOOKANY

Riparian buffer study

Nutrient study Discharge msmts

Support both SCM and TMDL monitoring

WISSAHICKON

All priority watersheds have models

• Evaluate how SCMs impact pollutant loadings
• Improve model calibration

SWMM

Project support

• 33 projects
• 85 SCMs
• Site assessment
• Concept

development

• Meetings
• GIS support

 Complexity  Small team

• 1. Monitoring
• 2. Project support
• 3. Modeling
• Calibration data
• Parameter

uncertainty

• Prioritization
• Landowner

engagement

• Construction time

Challenges

Villanova University Update

Project team: Andrea L. Welker, PhD, PE John Komlos, PhD Samantha Butwill Sergio Carvajal-Sanchez

Our focus areas

 Monitoring at “project scale”  Mathematical modeling of selected

stormwater control measures

 Train volunteers  Disseminate results widely  Phase 2 planning (later)

Project-scale monitoring

 Successes

 Two sites instrumented to

monitor at highest level

 One site instrumented to get

pre-construction data

 One site selected for visual

inspections

 Challenges

 Initial lag between project

start and construction of projects

 Linking project scale results

to watershed wide monitoring

Mathematical modeling

 Successes  Calibrating and

validating SWMM model for East Branch

• f the Indian Creek

 Modeling rain garden

using HYDRUS

 Challenges – just need to

keep working!

Train volunteers

• Successes

–

Municipal Stormwater Workshop

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Master watershed steward training

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One session with WVWA on inspection of individual SCMs

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Yearly research open houses

• Challenges

–

Villanova better suited to do workshops, seminars, watershed training

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No reports of individual SCM inspections have been filed by volunteers

Disseminate results

• Successes

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Journal articles published/in press

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Results presented & published at national conferences

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Results presented at regional technical meetings

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Active Twitter feed

• Challenges

–

Need a universal hashtag (#DRWI?)

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Need more data from the monitored sites before we can publish results about performance

Cobbs Partners

Upstream Suburban Cluster

Maurine McGeehan

Lower Merion Conservancy

Jaclyn Rhoads

Darby Creek Valley Association

Narbrook Park Streambank Stabilization

• Headwaters of East

Branch of Indian Creek

• 51-home historic

neighborhood

• Consultant, TEND

Landscaping, Inc.

• Lower Merion Conservancy
• Narbrook Park Improvement

Association

• 3 community visioning workshops
• 50+ volunteers
• 250+ volunteer hours
• 6 coir logs, 400 plantings

Narberth Windsor Avenue Bioswale

• Highly-visible

pedestrian street

• 225 feet with

contributing drainage area of 10,236 sq. ft.

• Stormwater

capture volume

• f 1.56 inches

Funding through

• 2014 NFWF Innovation Grant
• Ethel Sergeant Clark Smith Memorial Foundation
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Program has funding through 2019 via Growing

Greener grant.

• Darby Creek Valley Association received support

from NFWF in 2016 to install additional rain gardens.

Public gardens are planned for the ESCSC service areas, through volunteer labor – residents that receive one must help build 2. Public work crews and volunteers also help. Also creating a Private residential program for Haverford Township.

27 New Rain Gardens

• 2016 Innovation Grant
• A partnership between PRC, DCVA,

EDCSC, and LMC Goal is to complete stormwater assessments on private properties:

• assess current stormwater

characteristics

• ffer property owners ways to

improve and manage stormwater

• n their properties

Objectives:

• Provide each property owners with

concrete suggestions for property

• Improve contact with property
• wners in watershed & increase
• pportunities for BMPs

Stream Smart House Calls

 Started monitoring in 2014  2 on Cobbs and 2 on Naylor’s Run  Added Sites in 2015  Total of 3 on Cobbs and 3 on Naylor’s Run  Received Additional funding from Academy of Natural Sciences in 2016  Increased site monitoring for a total of 10 locations on Cobbs and

3 on Naylor’s Run

 Samples are collected quarterly from all sites and monthly monitoring

using Hach kits

 All volunteer help with one part-time paid student through Darby

Creek Valley Association

Monitoring Sites

Successes

• Ability to monitor many stream sites
• On-the-ground projects have helped

to engage municipal officials and staff

• New community investment,

financially and philosophically, in work of the DRWI

Challenges

• Working with communities who are
• ften resistant to change
• Coordinating all activities and

effectively integrating projects to better streamline work

• Ability to engage new and many

volunteers

Successes & Challenges

Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust (David Robertson)

Pennypack Watershed

Summary of Progress

Made & Challenges Faced

Progress

 Water Quality Monitoring:  20 StreamKeepers engaged  Quarterly professional-level

monitoring

 Restoration projects:  College Settlement wetland  Lukens Park bioswale  Upper Moreland School District

(lots of storage volume)

 Municipal Outreach:  All contacted and aware of DRWI  Includes Southampton Creek TMDL munics

Accomplishments by 2017

 Concentrate focus on

• ne or more

microwatersheds via Phase 2 planning.

 Engage with

municipalities in Southampton Creek watershed to address TMDL collectively.

 Prepare applications (or

support the preparation

• f applications) for

NFWF-supported grants.

Challenges

 No leverage except in TMDL watersheds; need

requirement and enforcement of TMDLs.

 Citizens (including StreamKeepers, EACs, etc.) not

willing to be activists. Education and consciousness raising does not readily translate into activism.

 Need seasoned and savvy municipal outreach

coordinator who knows how to influence suburban municipalities.

 Investigate (1) feasibility and (2) likelihood of

creating stormwater utilities in UPS cluster.

 Need water quality monitoring czar to manage

monitoring program including data management, storage, use, quality control, and purpose.

Education & Outreach

Sisters of Saint Basil & Abington Friends School

Monitoring Water Quality

Accomplishments & Challenges

Friends of Poquessing Watershed

Donna Remick, President, Friends of Poquessing Watershed Betsy Helsel, Outreach and Education Coordinator, Friends of Poquessing Watershed

PROJECT PARTNERS

 Bensalem Township  Lower Southampton Township  Lower Moreland Township  Bensalem School District

FUNDED PROJECTS

 Cornwell Elementary School –

Bensalem Township – Design Phase (Growing Greener) The FOPW assisted with the development of the project, and is committed to provide staff and volunteer hours for the community and large landowner

• utreach and education efforts

during the construction phase.

FUNDED PROJECTS CONTINUED

 Pennsylvania Blvd Stormwater Basin

Retrofit- Lower Southampton Township (Growing Greener)

The FOPW assisted in the development of the project and is committed to providing the staff and volunteer community

• utreach and education efforts.

The FOPW will work with the Lower Southampton Public Works Department to showcase the project to other municipal public works departments.

ONGOING EFFORTS

 Community Education and Outreach  Continue and grow streamkeepers

network and implement related community outreach activities

 The FOPW is currently developing two

programs which are intended to be implemented with partners and facilitate community education efforts

Watershed wide stream clean up

program

Commercial parking lot filtration

pilot program

ONGOING EFFORTS CONTINUED

 Municipal Education and Outreach  Develop a program to provide outreach

assistance to municipalities as pollution reduction plans are

• developed. This effort is intended to

be developed with the municipal EACs

 Provide an annual update to member

municipalities regarding watershed projects and streamkeeper activities

CHALLENGES

 The FOPW needs additional resources to

continue advancing its mission and vision – only through the ability to work in the community can the FOPW build capacity.

 Capacity building must remain a priority

in order to have an influential and sustainable presence within the watershed.

 It’s a catch 22

2014-2016 REVIEW 2017 PREVIEW

2014-2016 REVIEW & METRICS



• 1. Public and municipal outreach and education
• one-on-one meetings with managers, EAC and board

presentations

• presentations/workshops on native plantings, rain gardens & rain

barrels

• presentations and meetings with large landowners (golf courses)
• film presentations with question and discussion sessions
• 2. Strengthened criteria for higher level of monitoring
• “Creek Watch” – committed citizen scientists
• consistency in data collection and protocols
• hands-on workshops and data sharing sessions for volunteers
• timed and purposeful information sessions for cluster partners
• 3. Restoration projects designed to increase stream flow and

11/9

2017 PREVIEW

Outreach and Education

▪ Inform public of WVWA’s key role in water quality protection and land preservation ▪ “Protection through connection” - all constituencies, diverse audiences, WVWA the “go-to place” for dissemination of environmental information ▪ Promote awareness and increase understanding of water quality issues and the connection to land ▪ Continue to braid outreach and education initiatives to fulfill WVWA mission, TMDL alternative initiative, and DRWI milestones

11/9

2017 PREVIEW

Data Collection, Analysis, and Sharing

▪ Continue best practices of Stream MAP Program ▪ Review and evaluate monitoring sites and data collection protocols ▪ Consistency in data collection and management ▪ Improve streamlined data reporting scheme for partners and volunteers ▪ Review, analyze and evaluate Creek Watch program - implement lessons learned ▪ Volunteer Ambassadors - improve volunteer engagement, experience, and data integrity

11/9

REVIEW AND PREVIEW



Restoration Projects

1.

MontCo/PECO/USEPA/Growing Greener - two acre wetland creation

2.

Foulkeways Retirement Community - stormwater basin retrofit and naturalization 3. Old Church Road – retrofit/naturalization of stormwater basin (UGT) 4. SEP Project – design and installation of a seepage berm (UGT) 5. Village Circle - retrofit and monitoring of basin (Whitpain T wp) 6. Wissahickon Creek Headwaters Restoration - design and construction of a natural channel in three severely degraded reaches (UGT) 7. Abington School District Rain Gardens - install rain gardens near Sandy Run headwaters (Willow Hill and Overlook)

8.

Trewellyn Creek Headwaters - basin retrofit

11/9

2017 OVERVIEW

Braided Methodology for Programs

• Braid WVWA mission, DRWI goals, and TMDL Alternative goals
• Enhance organic synergy of “land” and “water” programs
• Synchronize all restoration/retrofit projects and land acquisition priorities
• Create “translated” communication plan to educate and engage both

internal and external audiences: Boards, current and new members, volunteers, residents, large landowners, elected officials, and municipal staff

11/9

BRAIDED SCOPE OF WORK

11/9

CHALLENGES

11/9

• 1. Funding
• 2. Balancing of Municipal Relationships
• 3. Volunteer Management
• 4. Sharing of Data

Status of Phase 2 Planning

 Madeline Foley and Andrea Welker,

Villanova University

 Laura Toran, Temple University

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Lessons Learned – Examples of What Worked/What Didn’t

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What Worked What Didn’t

Focus area goals Focus areas are successful in that they identify geographically strategic areas, help develop relationships, secure funding, and direct attention. Certain focus areas did not have ample conservation opportunities, or sufficient alignment with funding. Measuring progress Increased training of citizen stewards to advocate to elected officials about clean water. Questions raised about whether all the right data is being collected. Strategy selection and implementation Individual groups have made headway in connecting to, engaging, and educating volunteers, elected officials, municipal staff, large landowners, and the general public A communication campaign is needed to create more substantial awareness about watershed issues and promote projects and behavior changes among stakeholder groups. Project selection and implementation DRWI National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funding ($1.5 million over 3 years) has helped leverage additional $2.8 million for restoration projects. Need to scale up projects. Collaboration and work processes There is good collaboration around project development and monitoring. Provide central storage area for USP cluster materials.

Focus area goals

Improve allocation of funding to focus areas; manage expectations versus available resources.

Measuring progress

Improve data collection, management, and sharing systems internally between academics and watershed groups and externally with StreamKeepers, EACs, municipalities, and other stakeholders.

Strategy selection

Improve communications to increase collective impact. Use suite of communication tools such as /social media, newsletters and other publicity to promote projects and behavior/aesthetic changes.

Project selection

Include construction oversight and O/M steps during project planning and implementation.

Work processes

Develop central database/repository for shared information including upcoming events.

Lessons Learned – Examples of Implications

Critical Direct Threats

High Volume Stream Flows High Volume Stream Flows Flooding Low Dry-weather Baseflows Sediment Loads Pollutant Loads Nutrient Loads Ecosystem Stressors Altered Hydrologic Cycle Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Altered Riparian Corridors Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Altered Stream Geomorphology Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Altered Assimilative Capacity Yes Yes

Stressors

Critical Direct Threats

High Volume Stream Flows High Volume Stream Flows Flooding Low Dry-weather Baseflows Sediment Loads Pollutant Loads Nutrient Loads

Riparian/Upland

Reduce Reduce Reduce Increase Reduce Reduce Reduce

Stream Channel Restoration

Reduce Reduce Reduce Reduce

Stormwater Management

Reduce Reduce Reduce Increase Reduce Reduce Reduce

WWTP/Sewer

Increase Reduce Reduce

Strategies

August 1 – 15 Final Plan

Nov Dec Feb Jun Jul Aug

Milestone 00: Planning to Plan

Apr

Milestone 01: Assessment Round 1 Milestone 04: Plan Review & Revision Milestone 03: Plan Development

Mar Jan May Sep Oct

October 1 – 31 Summary November 1 – December 15 Component 1 Component 2 January 27 – March 20 Component 3 May 1 – June 1 Action Plan Draft Milestone 02: Assessment Round 2

Planning Schedule

Milestone 00 September 15 – November 1 Planning Approach/Structure Initial Cluster Meetings Site Visits ✓ ✓ ✓ Milestone 01 September 15 – January 15 Stream Reach Assessment T

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(SRAT) Model My Watershed In progress In progress*

Milestone 02 January 15 – March 15 STEPL Model Assessment Triple Bottom Line Project Prioritization Rubric In progress* Milestone 03 March 15 – May 15 Prioritize Watershed and Projects Action Plan Draft Milestone 04 May 15 – Aug 1 Revise Plan Based on Feedback Final Plan Submittal/Defense

*Projects are analyzed as data comes arrives. To expedite this process please forward the lowest point for each potent ial SCM with a small sketch roughly showing the boundary of project area to Madeline Foley & Susan Harris.

Are We On Schedule? YES.

Throughout the process we anticipate ongoing interaction with the technical liaison. We have established technical liaison between partner organizations and Temple/ Villanova to facilitate efficient and transparent outcomes involving the modeling computations for all stakeholders. And to serve as a staff expert on the assessment tools; able to translate to their colleagues what the model outputs mean and why these outputs have occurred.

Sub-Watershed Organization Representative Pennypack Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust Kevin Roth T

• okany/Tacony/Frankford TTF Watershed Partnership

Alex Cooper Wissahickon Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association Lindsay Blanton Poquessing Friends of Poquessing Vlad Yerkalov Poquessing Friends of Poquessing (PEC Rep) Paul Racette Cobbs Lower Merion Conservancy T

• m Clark

Cobbs Pennsylvania Resource Council Mario L. Cimino Cobbs Eastern Delaware County Stormwater Collaborative Jamie Anderson Cobbs Darby Creek Valley Association Jaclyn Rhoads

Partner Roles

The field data ranks the source areas in the following

• rder: Sandy Run, Ambler, Upper Gwynedd

The SRAT following model ranks the source areas in the order: Upper Gwynedd, Sandy Run, Ambler

Stream Research Assessment T

• ol (SRAT)

SITE STORM MODEL

Current Conditions New Scenario

• 5 Acres of

Vegetation Infiltration Basin

• Manages ~5,300m3

(22%) of runoff

Model My Watershed

STEPL APPLICATION IN JENKINTOWN CREEK SUB-WATERSHED

• STEPL calculates loads based on land use and soil type.
• Treatment efficiency is assigned to each BMP catchment area.

Triple Bottom Line Project Prioritization Rubric

Have the potentially negative impact of the project on the host and nearby communities been reduced or eliminated? Will the project, through local employment, subcontracting and education programs, make a substantial improvement in local capacity and competitiveness? EXAMPLE RUBRIC QUESTIONS TENTATIVE OUTPUT FOR EACH POTENTIAL PROJECT