Stormwater Committee Minutes September 9, 2006

ATTENDEES

New Member

Discussion of Meetings and Events

One potential focus for the proposed inter-watershed network is planning an Inter-watershed Conference, which would include LID techniques and adopting a "Citizen's Watershed Strategy." As one of the largest watershed groups, Friends is seen as a potential main project partner.

On August 30 EPA OIG met with the County representatives to discuss their audit of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Friends of Sligo Creek was asked to present a local watershed group perspective on the Chesapeake Bay Program. Ed met with the audit team for an hour and that the meeting went well. The EPA Audit Team was very interested in Friends. Dan Harper of DEP gave them a tour of the Sligo restoration sites. Meo Curtis of DEP will be preparing the written response to the OIG.

On September 15, the Montgomery County Inter-Agency Clean Water Task Force will meet. Members include DEP, MCPS, DPWP, WSSC, DPS, and M-NCPPC. The Stormwater Partners Coalition had lobbied for more interagency coordination, County Executive Duncan authorized the Task Force. We have many issues that we would like raised. Unfortunately, the coalition will have only 15 minutes at this meeting to present our position. One of the issues we will raise is that the County regulations do not cover LID properly and badly need to be updated. Jenny updated us on her frustrations with the current codes and regulation in her Tokoma Park project (using LID practices to address runoff from a short road.) Beth noted how the city of Bowie was updating their codes and regulations so that they were more LID-Friendly.

Upcoming outreach activities were briefly discussed. On September 9, the Stormwater Committee will staff a table at Brookside Garden's plant sale. Beth suggested and will help set up the information table. October 8th, we will staff a table at the Friends of Sligo Creek Sweep Celebration in the park. We will have the opportunity to talk about raingardens/rain barrels and other LID practices. Ed will bring one of his rain barrels and the Dennis Ave. Rec. Center has the new bio-retention systems.

Ed updated us on the Rainscapes Coordinator position which DEP has advertised under the Clean Water Initiative approved by the County Council this Spring. The announcement closed August 24. DEP plans to meet with watershed groups to discuss the implementation of the initiative and LID grants.

Outreach and Advocacy

• We discussed at some length the ideas of a post card and or a petition to be used at the Sweep, trying to educate and alert the public to the importance of the litter TMDL. Ed had sent a draft post card to the Board and Ann reported on the Board discussion. The Board was somewhat negative about the usefulness of the post card and suggested a petition with a very simple message at the top. The signed petitions could go with a cover letter to the appropriate officials. The group decided to do both the post card and the petition and Ann would explain to the Board, which seems not to have completely understood our question. We believe we are complying with the Board's wishes for simplicity and focus.
• We tentatively set raingarden workdays: Oct 7, 8, and 21 for Eastern; early November for Forest Park; October 14 for Northwood.
• We talked briefly about the Northwood High School Partnership. They have delayed the kick-off meeting, waiting for all the partners to agree to the plan. Beth is very interested in working with us at Northwood because she was involved from the time they decided to rehabilitate and re-open the school. We want to showcase the LID practices the students help design and build at the school site. We are hoping that the students will eventually mentor students from other schools and do outreach to the surrounding communities.

Notes prepared by Ann Hoffnar and Ed Murtagh