Grassroots Stormwater Programs Getting the Public Involved

The Grate Mate Program shows students the results of runoff debris pollution and how to prevent it.A Rhode Island program for monitoring lakes, streams, and rivers has been in existence for 15 years. Linda Green, program director for the University of Rhode Island Watershed Watch, says volunteers come from all walks of life–from homemakers, plumbers, and pediatricians to Ph.D. chemists. They need no special qualifications to participate–”They just need to have an interest in water quality,” adds Green. Most of the volunteers in the program are adults, but some students also help alongside their parents. The long monitoring season from May to October and the disconnect from the school calendar make it difficult for school classes to participate. About 250 volunteers monitor 120 sites in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Money comes from the Cooperative Extension Service, the Rhode Island Sea Grant, the Department of Environmental Management, and local sponsors. Often, local individuals, watershed organizations, and tribes bring their concerns to the program. They pay a registration fee, and in return the program helps recruit and train volunteers and provides monitoring supplies and schedules. Green says the local sponsors kept the program afloat until funds could be obtained from other sources.Volunteer training includes three hours of classroom time and three hours of field time. After training is completed, volunteers are provided with supplies and a schedule for monitoring a particular water body, usually weekly or biweekly. Three times a year, lake and pond monitors collect samples and deliver them to the University of Rhode Island lab. River monitors perform this collection five times a year. Green remarks that she is finding the public very receptive to the idea of cleaning the water in their area. Other parts of the program include working with municipalities and homeowners to inform them of possible problems and solutions. One big problem is the tendency of people living on the banks of a lake to want a green lawn right up to the water’s edge. Green would like to emphasize buffer zones to protect from high fertilizer pollution.Pennsylvania’s Senior Environment Corps (PaSEC) was created by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the Department of Aging, and the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement. Started in 1997, the program consists of corps groups in 46 out of 67 counties. Set up by watersheds, some groups cover more than one county. About 2,000 volunteers, mostly retirees, participate. Chris Allen, public participation coordinator for DEP, notes that the biggest benefit is for the volunteers. They perform meaningful work for their community and receive an opportunity to mentor younger volunteers. While water monitoring is the most popular activity, volunteers also stencil storm drains, perform radon testing, and do presentations for school and community groups. Another benefit, of course, is improved environmental conditions. Only Alaska has more stream miles than Pennsylvania. The state’s clean-water law has been a model for many other states. Beth Groves, the statewide coordinator for the SEC, says, “The primary benefit is that we now have a history of these watersheds that we didn’t have before. How do you get it back to what it was if you don’t know the history?” The philosophy of PaSEC is to train the trainer. Volunteers in each region train new volunteers. This keeps the focus on the leadership of the volunteers. Allen states that, in general, state government is not good at leading volunteers because it tends to assign “silly” jobs that no one else wants to do. PaSEC has avoided that problem and is providing a vital service to the state and its communities.Fulton County handles water treatment for Alpharetta, GA, a community of about 35,000. However, the city does require project representatives, developers, and builders to attend an erosion prevention class before receiving land disturbance permits. The requirements in Alpharetta and nearby Roswell are more stringent than the state law.Volunteers and city employees of Alpharetta handle stream monitoring along Big Creek. Although they do not handle the chemicals used for testing, volunteers collect samples from the creek and deliver them to the lab. Training for volunteers requires about five hours, including classroom and fieldwork. Because monitoring has been done since 1991, the city has a broad data set on which to base future water-quality plans. Big Creek drains into the Chattahoochee River, so improvement continues downstream. Storm Drain FiltersPublic education about our waterways is one of the first steps toward compliance. Planet CPR, based in Seattle, WA, has instituted a program that seems destined to spread across the country. Grate Mates are fabric filters that are placed in parking-lot catch basins. Property owners, who pay for having the filters placed on their property, receive a tax rebate, and groups that install the filters–often student groups–use the activity as a fundraising project. Joy Huber, director of Planet CPR, says the organization currently has programs in 27 towns in Washington and gets inquiries from states as far away as Florida and Rhode Island. Because Planet CPR has worked out the details from setting up an event to the safety issues, and even a tool to lift the grates, the program is transportable to just about anywhere.Rocky Hrachovec, associate director of Planet CPR, estimates that more than half of the country could benefit from the Grate Mate Program. The company emphasizes the following points to be heeded prior to installation:Catch basins must be located in parking lots, not streets (for safety reasons).The runoff must enter a storm drain rather than a field (as it does in some parts of the country).Grates must be less than 3 ft.² and less than 100 lb. The basin under the grate must be at least 2 ft. deep.Commercial or retail areas are preferred. In bench testing, Grate Mates removed about 50% of the free oil and about 50% of sediment, even particles less than 100 microns. After about one year in place, the Grate Mates need to be replaced. Huber points out that this is a fabulous educational opportunity. The students can pull apart and study the debris in the filter and discuss where it came from and how it could be prevented from ending up in a storm drain. Often the students can see the water body that would receive the debris if it were not caught. The Lake Washington High School junior class recently took on a Grate Mate project to raise money for their senior prom. Jessie Culbert, chairman of the junior class leadership, states that they hope to raise $6,000 in the next year. She comments that the project is a great way to do community service and make money and that it was an easy process, taking about five minutes per drain. “It was also interesting to learn about the water system and to network with the city council.” The students showed the mayor and several council members how to install the Grate Mates. Culbert adds that seeing a filter highlights how much silt and debris would otherwise enter the storm drain: “It was really gross, all the stuff that was there.”Monitoring BeachesThe Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit environmental group with 55 chapters around the United States. The goal of the organization is the preservation and the enjoyment of our beaches. Each chapter takes on its own environmental program to address the local problems. The Newport Beach, CA, chapter of Surfrider has a program known as “50 in 5,” with a goal of reducing pollution at the mouth of the Santa Ana River by 50% in five years. Debris from the river is a major pollution source for the area beaches. Installing debris booms and testing are part of the effort, but a large part involves bioponds to divert water from the river so pollutants can be removed, after which the water is returned to the river. The bioponds also allow scientists a living laboratory for the study of pollution-removal techniques. The local Surfrider chapter is funding and staffing the project at this time, but according to Nancy Gardiner, chapter secretary, “The city is now very involved.” She maintains that there has been a huge increase in awareness, and a recent poll indicates that 75% of the people in Orange County support funding clean-water initiatives with tax money. Another part of the Surfrider program is pollution prevention. Education for all ages, especially children, is critical for this process. The chapters provide educational materials for use in the classrooms and presentations by members of Surfrider. Gardiner points out one major problem that educational efforts can address is that people don’t realize that overwatering supplies the vehicle for pollution to reach the ocean.Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) is the most successful Surfrider Foundation program. Goals of the program include beach monitoring, education, and promoting enforcement of pollution prevention regulations. BWTF coordinator for the San Diego, CA, chapter, Jamie Anne Miller, organizes volunteers to collect samples for bacterial testing in a local lab. The results are posted on a Web site for public use. “Making people aware of the state of their beaches will help in the long run with making the right decisions in terms of not polluting,” Miller says. Sediment ControlNew Albany students perform biocriteria monitoring and water sampling.In Franklin County, OH, a group called Friends of the Rocky Fork Watershed keeps close tabs on construction activity. The biggest problems faced by the watershed are sediment from development and lack of enforcement of existing laws. The watershed organization’s approach is two-pronged: cooperation with contractors, the community, and EPA, and if that fails, the threat of legal action. Bill Resch, vice president of the Friends of the Rocky Fork Watershed, notes that terminology is important to perceptions of the problem. “We don’t use the term ‘sediment’ very often because many mistakenly consider erosion- and sediment-transport release as a natural process.” He explains that the program is focused on both short-term prevention of point- and nonpoint-source pollution and long-term implementation of development and farming practices that will pretreat and mitigate nonpoint-source pollution.The two watershed organizations in Franklin County have about 100 members, from middle school and high school students to adults and elected officials. They work to build partnerships with developers and contractors. Funding comes from membership dues and fines collected from violators by Ohio EPA that are funneled to the organizations. “We have documented a reversal of the degradation of our local streams,” Resch states, adding that the level of awareness is improving and public policy is changing. He notes, however, that most people still believe that water is treated after passing through storm drains and they lack awareness that “construction mud” can lead to flooding and ecological damage.Groundwater MonitoringIn central Texas, citizens and government face a different set of clean-water problems. Although there are streams and lakes that must be protected, the main source of drinking water for many small communities and the city of San Antonio is the Edwards Aquifer. A highly dynamic system, the Edwards Aquifer exists in a stratum of limestone known as karst. The aquifer has a rapid recharge rate, with a dye trace study showing water in some sections moving at the speed of 7 mi. a day. The surface water and groundwater are connected integrally, so both systems must be protected. The Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District (BS/EACD) covers the central part of the aquifer from Kyle, TX, to the Colorado River and the south part of Austin. Gail McGlamary, community services program manager for the BS/EACD, believes there are many misconceptions. A pretest given at community meetings reveals that many people do not know where the water comes from, what a recharge zone is, or what the connection is between surface water and groundwater. The district conducts two or three neighborhood programs a month to educate the public. The BS/EACD also is piloting a program for middle school students. The students in four schools have adopted wells drilled into the aquifer. Four times a year, the district sets up tables and equipment at the wellhead. Students measure flow rates and use digital titrators to determine pH, temperature, alkalinity, conductivity, chlorine, and nitrate and bacteria concentrations. “The mission is to get them thinking about groundwater,” emphasizes McGlamary. The BS/EACD also provides tours to a recharge zone and shows the students sinkholes, caves, and springs. Visualizing a well is more difficult, but a down-hole camera shows footage that helps the students understand the geology of the area.Adopt-a-Stream ProgramsOne of the favorite types of programs around the country is “Adopt a Stream”–or a lake or a river or a wetland. Volunteers check water quality in water bodies in their area, providing information that would be time-consuming for government entities to obtain. The City of Rome, GA, encourages participation in Georgia’s Adopt-A-Stream program, recommending such activities as stream walking, visual survey, macroinvertebrate count, and chemical testing. Streams and rivers in the area are important for drinking water, agriculture, industry, and recreation, and they are threatened by runoff from industry and agriculture as well as by other nonpoint-source pollution. Educating the community about these threats is a big first step toward solving the problems. The Missouri “Stream Team” initiative has provided training for more than 1,000 people. Sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and the Conservation Foundation of Missouri, the program allows volunteers to participate in stream-cleaning activities, monitoring programs, and storm drain stenciling.Several other states, including Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Utah, have “Adopt” programs. Volunteers include 4-H groups, high school biology classes, and community members. Storm Drain StencilingAnother popular project that appeals even to younger students is storm drain stenciling. By painting or affixing signs on storm drains, communities hope to destroy the misconception that water is treated after passing through the drain. The Town of Cary, NC, recruits volunteers at least 10 years old to stencil drains in their own neighborhoods. The town provides training and materials, and all types of student groups from Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to high school students have participated. The messages they stencil are “Flows to Neuse River” or “Flows to the Cape Fear River.” Some of the runoff also flows into Jordan Lake, Cary’s drinking-water source.The South Dakota Lakes and Streams Association also sponsors storm drain stenciling, providing detailed instructions about choosing the correct type of paint, ensuring safety, getting permission, and handling the event. The information the association provides was produced by the Million Points of Blight program run by the Center for Marine Conservation.The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission received a pollution prevention grant from EPA and created a Clean Texas 2000 program. Part of the program was a manual for storm drain stenciling that any group could use.To the SchoolsThe utility company in Fort Collins, CO, is very active in community participation and education. The city was a pioneer in starting a stormwater utility, and its education system is a model for other communities. The city’s middle school and high school students have been learning environmental science through a state program called River Watch. The WaterSHED (Stormwater Habitat & Education Development) program is aimed at students in first through sixth grades. One of the program’s activities is storm drain stenciling, and it provides lessons targeted to individual grade levels. Kevin McBride, senior stormwater engineer for water quality, says the utility has found that every group wants to “preach their message in the schools,” so the WaterSHED program went a different route: “We integrate our program with the exact thing that the children are studying in their class.” For example, first-graders study plants, so the program takes students to a stream or a wetland near the school to observe the differences in plants from different areas. Third-graders study water, so the program concentrates on the rain cycle. The program modules correlate to the state science standards, making it more likely to be accepted by the school. The students observe water bodies that vary in size from a tiny wetland to the Poudre River. McBride notes that it is extremely difficult to measure awareness of stormwater issues and adds that air quality has been more of an issue in Colorado. “I don’t think there is a perception about the connection between urban drainage and the environment,” he remarks but also points out that illegal dumping into storm drains is not a big problem in Fort Collins. Previously the utility sponsored water-quality open houses, but few people attended. The WaterSHED program, though, had 6,000 contact hours last year, and that is the standard by which the program measures effectiveness. And, McBride adds, “Phase II will raise everyone’s awareness.”Dee West, director of environmental services for Alpharetta, GA, believes that education needs to be a strong component of any program. She reports that her community is fairly well informed, but education is a continuing challenge: “If people have an understanding of the what and why, they show more willingness to do things differently.” The Alpharetta department provides workshops for such groups as Boy Scouts and parents, as well as an educational program for area schools. “Green School” has taught more than 38,000 students, and West points out that those students teach their parents, siblings, and other people.In Ohio, New Albany High School is involved in Rocky Fork Watershed projects. Funded through the school district, a program known as the Environmental Science School to College Program involves students in environmental studies. Students monitor the Rocky Fork Watershed and an Ohio Department of Transportation—mitigated wetland on the school campus. By taking turbidity measurements at, above, and below development sites and conducting biocriteria monitoring, students provide a database for these water bodies. Observes Bill Somerlot, environmental science instructor at New Albany High School, “There is definitely an increasing awareness, and I would attribute that to grassroots organizations and excellent cooperation with the Village of New Albany government officials.” He still sees problems with chemical treatment of lawns and golf courses, development of riparian areas, and cumulative effects of urban sprawl on aquatic habitats. But he notes that as the students learn about environmental science through hands-on experience, maybe some of them will become the next scientists to make breakthroughs in the field.