Putting A Price On Riparian Corridors As Water Treatment Facilities

An article by Dr. Ann Riley, Watershed and River Restoration Advisor for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, has been posted on the ASWM website. The article compares the monetary value of natural riparian environments in providing water quality treatment functions by processing nutrients, storing sediment, moderating temperatures, and other services to the costs associated with the construction of brick and mortar water treatment plants built to achieve similar functions.

Historic Dam Failure Documented on Website

Lately, F. X. Browne, Inc. has been working on some Emergency Action Plans for various dams as well as some expert witness work for a failed dam. We thought we would share this classic dam failure sequence from the Teton Dam in Idaho in 1976 for your viewing education. It was compiled by Arthur G. Sylvester, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. This is literally the "textbook" dam failure. Many engineering classes study this as an example of why we design some of the safety factors and devices into our facilities now.

Posted by Joe Mina, Group Manager

EPA Watershed Webcast on Sustainable Wastewater

EPA’s Watershed Academy is sponsoring its 29th free Webcast Seminar on February 20. This month's topic will be "Wastewater Utilities Using Sustainable Watershed Approaches,"
by Andy Crosland, Sustainable Infrastructure Coordinator, U. S. EPA, Kevin Shafer, Executive Director, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, and Stephanie Farrell, Engineering Services Coordinator, Hallsdale-Powell Utility District. According to EPA's Watershed Academy website, the seminar will cover the following: "Much of the drinking water and wastewater infrastructure in the U.S. was built in the 30 years following World War II, mirroring the increase in population. Utilities are facing tremendous costs to rehabilitate and replace this infrastructure. EPA has a new initiative to promote Sustainable Infrastructure and help utilities identify the best practices to address a variety of management challenges. This Webcast will provide a brief introduction to EPA’s Sustainable Infrastructure Initiative and will highlight the work of two utilities to use sustainable watershed management approaches."

NJ Municipal Smart Growth Grants

New Jersey municipalities are encouraged to apply to the 2008 Smart Growth Planning Grant Program from the Association for New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC). ANJEC will award 1-to-1 matching reimbursement grants of up to $20,000 each to municipalities or counties for local or regional plans, ordinances, studies or document reviews that protect natural resources and establish the land use patterns envisioned in the State Plan. The grant and matching funds may be used to hire a consultant to carry out project tasks. Applications are due March 31. Suitable projects include, but are not limited to:

• Natural/environmental resource inventories (NRI/ERI)
• Open space and farmland preservation plans
• Master plan conservation elements
• Capacity studies, such as build-out analysis, or septic capacity and groundwater supply analysis
• Land use ordinances for LEED/green building, renewable energy or energy efficiency
• Brownfields or revitalization plans that include new open space
• Bicycle/pedestrian network or trails plans
• Master plan and zoning ordinance revisions that incorporate smart growth concepts and open space preservation such as cluster development, conservation design or downzoning (the grants are not intended to fund routine master plan tasks required by state law)
• Ordinances that protect critical areas, including steep slopes, stream corridors and wellhead areas
• Intermunicipal or regional plans to protect common or connected resources (greenways, open space, etc.)

F. X. Browne, Inc. can assist your municipality with preparing smart growth plans, land use plans, master plans, ordinances, open space plans, and greenways plans. Contact us at info@fxbrowne.com for more information.

Reduce Costs by Using Low Impact Development Practices

The U.S. EPA has released a new report "Reducing Stormwater Costs through Low Impact Development Strategies and Practices," which contains 17 case studies from across North America that show the economic viability of LID practices. The goal of the report was to compare the projected or known costs of LID practices with those of conventional development approaches. LID techniques can reduce costs by such methods as decreasing the amount of materials needed for paving roads and driveways, eliminating or reducing the need for curbs and gutters, reducing the size and cost of flood-control structures, and reducing the costs associated with regulatory requirements for stormwater control.

The report concludes that applying LID techniques can reduce project costs and improve environmental performance. In most cases, LID practices were shown to be both fiscally and environmentally beneficial to communities. Total capital savings generally ranged from 15 to 80 percent. In all cases, LID provided other benefits that were not quantified financially or factored into the project bottom line. These benefits include improved aesthetics, expanded recreational opportunities, increased property values due to the desirability of the lots and their proximity to open space, increased total number of units developed, increased marketing potential, and faster sales. The case studies also provided other environmental benefits such as reduced runoff volumes and pollutant loadings to downstream waters, and reduced incidences of combined sewer overflows.

More research is needed to quantify the cost reductions that can be achieved through improved environmental performance, reductions in long-term operation and maintenance costs, and/or reductions in the life cycle costs of replacing or rehabilitating infrastructure.

F. X. Browne, Inc. specializes in creating environmentally-sensitive, low-impact site development plans for projects ranging from small commercial sites to large planned residential developments. We have been 100 percent successful in obtaining local, conservation district, and state approvals for all of our site development projects. We are experts in designing innovative, environmentally sound stormwater management systems to control the volume and quality of stormwater runoff. For information on how LID can reduce costs and improve the environment in your community, contact F. X. Browne, Inc.