CICEET Progress Report for the period 9/01/09 Through 2/28/10

Project Title: Promoting Innovative Stormwater Solutions for Coastal Plain Communities
Principal Investigator(s): Karen Cappiella and Sadie Drescher
Project Start Date: September 1, 2008
Report Compiled By: Sadie Drescher

Contributing team members and their role in the project:
Karen Capiella (Co-PI), Program Director, Research
Sadie Drescher (Co-PI), Watershed Planner
Deb Caraco (Core Team Member), Senior Watershed Engineer, CWP Project Q
Dave Hirschman (Core Team Member), Program Director, Stormwater Services
Julie Schneider (Core Team Member), Watershed Planner
Kelly Collins (Core Team Member), Water Resources Engineer
Cecilia Lane (Core Team Member), Watershed Technician

A. Project Objectives for This Reporting Period
Project Objectives
The objective of this project is to improve the tools available to coastal stormwater managers for the design implementation and evaluation of these practices in order to meet the larger goal of increasing the widespread implementation of low impact development (LID) practices in the coastal plain.

This project involves a multi-dimensional approach to increasing implementation of LID practices in the coastal plain. The four major objectives involved with this project include:

Objective 1. Get the designs right. Collect information about successful coastal LID case studies where technical barriers to managing stormwater on coastal sites were overcome using specific design or construction modifications. Highlight these case studies in a coastal stormwater design book that features designs, photos, cost and effectiveness data, and design tips.

Objective 2. Make sure they are allowed in the community. Identify common regulatory and programmatic barriers to implementing LID practices in coastal areas, and develop a set of benchmark principles for LID in coastal regions. Using these benchmark principles, develop an audit for coastal communities to use in evaluating their codes and ordinances governing development to identify potential barriers and opportunities for change.

Objective 3. Demonstrate their effectiveness in improving the health of local watersheds. Update the Watershed Treatment Model (Caraco, 2001) to include more LID practices, updated pollutant EMCs and pollutant removal data specific to coastal watersheds.

Objective 4. Educate local officials about their benefits using successful local case studies. Develop a two-part education campaign that accomplishes the following tasks: a) educate local officials about the benefits of LID in coastal areas and b) package the tools described above and promote them to the intended users: local government planners, engineers and watershed managers in the coastal plain.

Tasks to meet objectives
Task 1. Hold a kickoff meeting to develop project approach with Coastal Plain Watershed Network
Task 2. Develop coastal stormwater design book
Task 3. Develop coastal LID COW
Task 4. Adapt the Watershed Treatment Model for coastal areas
Task 5. Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments

Progress on Tasks
This project has accomplished the following tasks:

Task 1. Hold a kickoff meeting to develop project approach with Coastal Plain Watershed Network
During the reporting period, Mike Novotney handed off a co-PI role to Sadie Drescher and this request was formalized with CICEET on 7/1/09. The Center conducted several internal meetings to develop a strong core team. This core team met to brainstorm and determine the best methods to accomplish these tasks. The Project Manager has outlined a more detailed project plan and the Center’s core team is beginning to work toward each of these tasks.

The Center’s process for project management includes designating a project manager (P) and quality control person (Q) for management of the overall grant as well as for each major task. The P and Q hold frequent (e.g., usually monthly) meetings with either the entire team or smaller subset teams to report on progress and brainstorm ideas. Meetings are organized around a set agenda with meeting minutes that clearly note all action items. Project deliverables are reviewed by the project Q as well as any identified external reviewers (e.g., experts or intended users), and regular budget updates are provided with monthly invoices to ensure the project budget is on track. For this project, the CWP P is Sadie Drescher and the CWP Q is Deb Caraco. The Center conducted several internal meetings to develop a strong core team. The first full team meeting was conducted and included the project’s core team members. This core team met to brainstorm and determine the best methods to accomplish the project’s tasks. Team meetings will be conducted bimonthly.

The Coastal Plain Watershed Network project yielded vested coastal practitioners that are building base knowledge, locating new research, identifying potential case studies, and building collaborative relationships for this project. The Project Manager has outlined a more detailed project plan, timeline, and budget and the Center’s core team is beginning to accomplish these tasks.

This task is complete.

Task 2. Develop coastal stormwater design book
Using CWP’s national reach, project partners, prior experience in coastal plain watersheds, land use planning and watershed expertise, and the coastal Network a coastal LID case study database (n>50) was built. From this database, about fifteen case studies were selected to develop further and were selected based on the following priority areas: geographical location, economic data, maintenance information, obstacles, education and outreach, research collected, collaborations and partnerships, and LID practice. In the next year, CWP will develop project summary sheets, perform site visits, and compile a “coffee table” style book that highlights these real world examples of LID implementation projects in coastal areas. The Center has produced five draft case studies.

In addition, to build in climate change to this project as suggested in the CICEET proposal reviews, CWP discussed this project at the Adaptation in Coastal Communities: A Network Approach to Outreach, 2009 Sea Grant Climate Network Workshop (Charleston, SC, November 9 to 11, 2009) and developed a draft logic model with meeting participants. As follow up to this meeting, Sea Grant requested a project proposal for SEED funding. In January 2010, CWP submitted a SEED grant proposal to the National Sea Grant office to perform a Coastal Community Data Gap Analysis using Task 2 of this project. If awarded this grant CWP will determine coastal community climate change knowledge, tools available, and identify data gaps to better address land use planning, stormwater management, and future climate change effects. Integrate climate change into the current projects, “Promoting Innovative Stormwater Solutions for Coastal Plain Communities” and “The Coastal Plain Watershed Network” to better understand coastal plain communities’ knowledge and needs related to climate change and develop some recommendations for adapting to climate change.

This task is ongoing.

Task 3. Develop coastal LID COW
After receiving input from the three Intended Users (April Turner, SC Sea Grant Consortium; Scott Thomas, James City County, VA; and Dan Ahern, Beaufort County, SC) were contacted and their initial feedback is being built into Task 3: Develop coastal COW. In November, CWP staff that participated in the original 1998 national roundtable that originally developed the twenty-two model development principles that encourage friendly development (the COW) were updated on the project’s progress to date, consulted for current products, and helped guide future direction. CWP is updating the COW to include recent research on the model development principles, provide updated codes and ordinance examples, and create a coastal addendum. The updated COW is organized by four areas: 1) street design; 2) parking design; 3) stormwater management; and 4) development layout and natural resources. These changes will improve the usefulness of the COW and applicability to coastal areas.

In addition, an abstract for oral presentation was submitted to the StormCon 2010 conference that focused on the coastal LID COW.

This task is ongoing.

Task 4. Adapt the Watershed Treatment Model for coastal areas
The Watershed Treatment Model (WTM) is a user friendly spreadsheet model that estimates pollutant loads and determines the cumulative effect of structural and non-structural management practices in a watershed under current and proposed conditions. The current publicly available version of the WTM (Version 3.1) uses event mean concentrations (EMCs) for nutrients, sediment, and bacteria removal based on national averages and there is a need to update the information and include coastal specific attributes. The WTM does not include the latest LID practices because the pollutant removal data from the two most comprehensive databases (the National Pollutant Removal Performance Database and the International Stormwater BMP Database) are for structural practices.

During the reporting period, the following items were completed on this task:

• Updated the model to incorporate runoff reduction and LID practices;
• Improved the lawn care management portion of the model based on more recent research;
• Updated the model to incorporate a more detailed analysis of septic systems;
• Modified treatment of groundwater/surface water interactions in the model with a simple partitioning coefficient;
• Completed agricultural source and management  practice research,  and are currently incorporating into the model; and
• In anticipation of a workshop presentation/interactive session at the Center’s workshop, “Rooftop to the Bay” to be held on March 8-10 Staunton Virginia, prepared training materials, and created a “Beta” version of the model for review by workshop participants.  This session will serve as an initial review session to focus remaining updates.

This task is ongoing.

Task 5. Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments
While LID practices are implemented across the country, there is no central database of successful examples that are complete with photos, designs, and cost and effectiveness data to pull from for coastal regions. The University of New Hampshire and Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) has a LID database called the Innovative Stormwater Management Inventory. CWP will work with NEMO to integrate this project’s products into the LID database and NEMO teaching materials. Currently, CWP is adding the case study projects into NEMO’s LID database, organizing photos for the photo library, and investigating using Flickr for the photo library. 

CWP will develop a two-part education campaign for this project. The first is a presentation directed to local officials about the benefits of LID in coastal areas. A collection of photos and case study examples will provide educators with a stock presentation that can be tailored for the community and local officials. The second educational piece is to package the coastal stormwater design book, coastal COW, and coastal WTM into a toolkit that promotes to the intended users: local government planners, engineers and watershed managers. In addition, in November, CWP staff met with NEMO to discuss how to best integrate the coastal stormwater tools into NEMO education programs for local elected and appointed officials Task 5.1.

This task is ongoing.

Summary and Next Steps
The Core Team will meet bi-monthly to discuss task and project progress and share information bilaterally. The Core Team will build in outside team members, as needed. The Center values and practices open communication between and among team members and this project will build on and benefit from this standard operating practice. The Core Team and team members will develop and refine the project approach as needed and will seek CICEET’s guidance and input, where appropriate. Team members will review the draft products and the key findings will be included in the final report to CICEET. The Coastal Plain Watershed Network, which is a primary source of information for this project, recently provided an updated and vested pool of coastal practitioners to form a knowledge and capability base for this project. Therefore, the timeframe for project completion will be later than anticipated. We will work with CICEET to follow and plan for a more realistic timeframe based on these unanticipated issues.

B. Knowledge Dissemination Activities

• Attended the Network Approach to Outreach, 2009 Sea Grant Climate Network Workshop (Charleston, SC, November 9 to 11, 2009) as a Community Partner
• Submitted abstract for Task 3: Develop Coastal LID COW as an oral presentation for StormCon 2010 that will be held August 1-5 in San Antonio, TX (submittal approved)
• Submitted abstract for “Promoting Innovative Stormwater Solutions for Coastal Plain Communities” as an oral presentation for The Coastal Society 22 Conference that will be held June 13-16 in Wilmington, NC (submittal approved and five page paper submitted)
• Submitted abstract for “Promoting Innovative Stormwater Solutions for Coastal Plain Communities” as an oral presentation for the 2010 Nonpoint Source Pollution Conference that will be held May 17-19 in Plymouth, MA (submittal approved)
• Provided CICEET team member Dolores Leonard with the Task 2’s LID case study excel database for future use, as needed by CICEET or collaborators (e.g, UNH Stormwater Center).
• Met with CT NEMO to discuss Task 5 (Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments) collaboration
• Workshop preparation of WTM session for the “Rooftop to the Bay: Implementing Stormwater Management Strategies in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed” to be held in Staunton, VA on March 8-10, 2010.

C. Original Approach Changes

• In the previous Progress Report (8/09) CWP requested the following: We would like to extend the northern geographic range northward from New Jersey to Connecticut in order to include the CT NEMO and their local projects. We plan to collaborate extensively with CT NEMO to carry out Task 5: Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments.

• Requested and received a one year no-cost extension for the project through CWP’s project manager, Richard Langan (Awarded)

• On February 4, 2010, CWP requested a 12-month, no-cost extension for the project entitled “Promoting Innovative Stormwater Solutions for Coastal Plain Communities.” The current end date is March 1, 2010 and a one year no-cost extension will make the project’s new end date March 1, 2011. The extension is needed since the project built on the CICEET project entitled, “The Coastal Plain Watershed Network: Adapting, Testing and Transferring Effective Tools to Protect Coastal Plain Watersheds,” which was extended. Therefore, this project’s beginning was delayed substantially and the end date needs to be extended to complete the year and a half timeframe for tasks outlined in the proposal.
• Period of Performance extended to 3/1/11 (via Lisa Scigliano on 2/17/10).

• Request the following change in Task 5 (Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments) due to shifted project timeframe.

Proposal project tasks:           

Task 5. Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments
Task 5.5. Present the toolkit at NEMO U and at one special topic NEMO workshop
Task 5.6. Present the toolkit at the Coastal Zone ’09 conference

Proposed new project tasks:
Task 5. Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments
Task 5.5. Present the toolkit at NEMO U and at one special topic NEMO workshop (or equivalent workshop/training)
Task 5.6. Present the toolkit at the Coastal Zone ’10 conference (or equivalent workshop/training)

D. Stakeholder Collaboration: Activities, Project Changes, and/or Project Relevance Confirmation 

• Added Neely Law, PhD, Senior Research Analyst to the core project team

E. Future Work Plan and Objectives
Over the next six months, work will begin or continue on the following tasks in support of the objectives outlined in section A above (Project Objectives):

Task 1. Hold a kickoff meeting to develop project approach with Coastal Plain Watershed Network

Task 1.1. Identify key members of the Coastal Plain Watershed Network and other appropriate coastal researchers, planners and watershed experts to include in project work sessions. (Complete)
Task 1.2. Hold formal project kickoff meetings with project team members to discuss the overall project approach. (Complete)
Task 1.3. Develop a detailed research work plan with specific assignments, roles and deadlines as a result of project meetings and conversations with other coastal researchers, planners and watershed experts. (Complete)

Task 2. Develop coastal stormwater design book

Task 2.1. Conduct research to identify specific examples of coastal LID practices across a range of coastal plain communities. (Complete)
Task 2.2. Conduct site visits to up to 12 selected case study sites to collect necessary documentation, photos, life history, and data for each case study. (Continue)
Task 2.3. Hold a work session to discuss the case study content and synthesize findings into a series of design guidelines or tips for coastal LID practices. (Continue)
Task 2.4. Develop draft coastal stormwater design book and send to network for review. (Begin)
Task 2.5. Finalize coastal stormwater design book based on reviewer comments.

Task 3.1. Conduct interviews with coastal researchers, planners and watershed experts to identify common local regulatory barriers to implementing LID. (Continue)
Task 3.2. Hold a work session to identify coastal LID principles (Continue)
Task 3.3. Develop a draft codes and ordinances worksheet for coastal LID and send to network for review. (Begin)
Task 3.4. Finalize coastal LID COW based on reviewer comments.

Task 4. Adapt the Watershed Treatment Model for coastal areas

Task 4.1. Hold a work session of WTM users and potential users to identify elements required for update and recommended revisions for coastal areas (Complete)
Task 4.2. Compile data for updates and make revisions to the WTM (Complete)
Task 4.3. Pilot test the revised WTM with up to two coastal communities (Begin)
Task 4.4. Update the WTM based on pilot study results (Begin)
Task 4.5. Update the WTM User’s Manual (Begin)

Task 5. Conduct coordinated education campaign for local governments

Task 5.1. Meet with NEMO to discuss how to best integrate the coastal stormwater tools into NEMO education programs for local elected and appointed officials. (Complete)
Task 5.2. Develop a slideshow to educate municipal officials about the benefits of LID. (Begin)
Task 5.3 Develop slideshows to promote and/or provide technical guidance on each of the coastal stormwater tools. (Begin)
Task 5.4. Package coastal stormwater tools into a toolkit for local governments and disseminate the toolkit.
Task 5.5. Present the toolkit at NEMO U and at one special topic NEMO workshop
Task 5.6. Present the toolkit at the Coastal Zone ’09 conference

E. Additional Activities, Accomplishment, and Obstacles (not already addressed)
None