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Stormwater Committee Minutes
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The meeting opened with a quick review of the Committee's accomplishments of the 2005/2006 year. The committee has accomplished a lot. The accomplishments are listed at the end of the minutes.
August 22, Drainage Bill coordination meeting to be held at 2:00 p.m. in Rockville at the DEP office. Jenny will try to attend. The language of the proposed bill was quickly reviewed. We are concerned that the bill, as written, may discourage rain gardens, etc. due to the requirement that these systems control run-off from 2.5" rain storms.
Late August, date not yet firm, the Stormwater Coalition is having a potluck dinner. We will encourage Friends to attend. (At the gathering, the Coalition will discuss the MDE draft NPDES permit proposal, which is to be published in September. The Coalition will have an opportunity to comment in October. Jeremy and Ed will help review the draft.)
On August 30 EPA OIG meets at DEP to discuss their audit of the Chesapeake Bay Program. Friends of Sligo Creek was asked to join to represent local watershed groups. Ed and Ann will attend.
October 8th, the Stormwater Committee 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. Ed will lead.
November 3 or 4, there will be a one-day Landscaping Conference in Bethesda. The audience is to be developers, pointing out that development can be done responsibly and profitably. Jenny will keep us informed of developments. We discussed the possibility of having an information table at the conference.
Eastern Middle School. Ed reports that there will be one more planting in the fall. The project is nearing completion.
Forest Park. More planting is planned in the upper raingarden in the fall - possibly coupled with a dedication event. The dedication would have to be handled primarily by Takoma Park members of the Committee. A dedication could result in good publicity and news coverage. The dedication at the American Elm Park in 2004 went very well.
Jenny is working with Takoma Park on other projects as well, though not as a representative of Friends of Sligo.
There is no local watershed group. It would be great if we could use this project to help get a watershed group going. Ed has asked the local Civic Association to participate (Glen Echo Heights Civic Association) and they have expressed interest.
To promote LID, we hope to plan at least one tour. We could advertise to church groups or other audiences. Ed and Alison are working on a brochure now.
Ed and Alison also plan to work on a powerpoint presentation that can be given to citizen groups and posted on the web.
During the Sweep the Creek and follow-up celebration on the following weekend, we would like to get participants to sign a petition or sign post cards to urge action by MDE taken on including trash reductions in the NPDES stormwater permit. To be effective, other watershed groups need to participate. Alison has ideas on postcard advocacy from her experience with the libraries. We need to work with the Litter Committee on this idea.
Accepting the Stormwater Partners Coalition suggestions about the NPDES permit, Perez, Levanthal and others proposed a resolution (which passed) asking DEP to report on how points raised by the Stormwater Partners Coalition are being addressed.
Ed and Diane have been working on a proposal to fund a Multi-Watershed LID Outreach coordinator. (see attached working draft). We are looking to obtain funding possibly from the Clean Water Initiative. Volunteers will not be able to take LID to the next level of implementation; we will need a paid coordinator. A multi-watershed coordinator will also help bring the various watershed groups closer together to act in a more coordinated manner.
Notes prepared by Ed Murtagh and Ann Hoffnar