Upstream Suburban Philadelphia Cluster William Penn Foundation Watershed T our November 9, 2016 Patrick Starr, Executive Vice President Pennsylvania Environmental Council
Upstream Suburban Philadelphia Cluster • Wissahickon • Pennypack • Poquessing • T ookany • Cobbs Five hydrologically separate watersheds 2
Physical Characteristics • Intensive land development – 402,000 pop. • 25% impervious surface • Widespread water use impairments
Civic Characteristics • Fragmented political structure – 36/287 • Many previous plans and studies • Strong watershed associations
PWD Watershed Partnerships • Precursor/history of collaboration • Act 167’s and other studies • Extensive education & outreach • Prior BMP projects
Theory of Change: Learn by Doing Project Design and Modeling T/A to Create Project Future Project Implementation and Pipeline Quality Assurance Developing Coordination Land Stewardship Monitoring at three and Public levels Outreach Collaborative Municipal Outreach 6
Restoration Targets and Goals • Improve management of stormwater runoff • Improve/increase riparian buffers • Improve hydrologic conditions of streams and connectivity to floodplains and wetlands • Increase investment in WWTP and sewer systems 7
In-the-Ground Projects Narberth Library rain garden Years 1 thru 3 $4.3 million in GSI projects $1.5 million NFWF $2.8 million leveraged Abington Friends School rain gardens and riparian restoration College Settlement 8 wetland
Progress Made and Challenges Faced Education and Outreach Water Quality and Volunteer Monitoring Temple and Villanova Technical Support Five Individual Watersheds 9
Education and Outreach Overview- Susan Myerov Work Plan Development Audience, Message, Purpose, Outcomes, Evaluation Metrics 10
Education and Outreach Audiences Elected Officials Municipal Staff Municipal Appointed Officials Large Landowners Citizens 11
Coordinated Education and Outreach “above -the- ground” Supplement Subwatershed Programs • • Municipal MS4 training • Engaging Elected Officials Provide Direct Programs • • Large Landowners/Best Practices • Municipalities/Good Housekeeping Training Citizen Stewards • 12
Education and Outreach 13
Education and Outreach 14
Education and Outreach Metrics 860 municipal officials and stakeholders reached • 2,082 citizens at clean-ups, plantings, and education • events 3,624 volunteer hours • 12 master watershed stewards trained • Wissahickon CreekWatch Training 15 Saint Joe’s Stormwater Workshop Poquessing Watershed Day
Education & Outreach Challenges
Rea Monaghan Water Quality and Volunteer monitoring 2014-2016 Review
STREAM MONITORING & ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (STREAM MAP) Measure and communicate WQ trends Inform and improve watershed health Assess habitat conditions and biological communities 13 sites / 24 hour monitoring station
WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAM USPC Water Quality Cluster Lead Continuation of Stream MAP Identify new projects for collaboration Baseline data at project sites Monitor for chemical and physical parameters Macroinvertebrates Habitat assessments
FOCUS AREAS Restoration and green infrastructure Partner with Temple / Villanova/ municipalities Education and outreach Public at large / elected officials / corporate partners
CREEK WATCHERS AND WADING TEAM 60 volunteers / 36 sites / 27 sites monitored by wading team 9 sites monitored quarterly by WVWA Early detection / Eyes and ears Data analyzers / quarterly blog updates Launch revised program in 2017
STREAMKEEPERS Darby Creek Valley Association Lower Merion Conservancy Pennypack (Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust) Poquessing (Friends of the Poquessing Watershed/Bucks County Conservation District) Tookany/Tacony-Frankford (TTF Watershed Partnership, Inc.)
PHASE I ACCOMPLISHMENTS Data Collection Analysis Sharing Outreach Training
CHALLENGES October 20 USPC water quality meeting yielded solutions: Staff and funding to continue/expand monitoring and outreach efforts Translation of data in a format/language understood by a variety of audiences
Temple CSC Suburban Cluster Team 3. Modeling 2. Project support 1. Monitoring
Types of monitoring Water level (12+) Available for loan Temperature (12+) Turbidity (12) Conductivity (12) DO (6) Dissolved Organic (2) Nitrate (1) Phosphate (1) Discharge Water quality Some biological monitoring Time lapse camera Available for loan
PENNYPACK Stormwater sampling Nutrient uptake st
TOOKANY Nutrient study Discharge msmts Riparian buffer study
WISSAHICKON Support both SCM and TMDL monitoring
All priority watersheds have models • Evaluate how SCMs impact pollutant loadings • Improve model calibration SWMM
Project support • 33 projects • 85 SCMs • Site assessment • Concept development • Meetings • GIS support
Challenges 1. Monitoring 2. Project support 3. Modeling • Prioritization • Calibration data Complexity • Landowner • Parameter Small team engagement uncertainty • Construction time
Villanova University Update Project team: Andrea L. Welker, PhD, PE John Komlos, PhD Samantha Butwill Sergio Carvajal-Sanchez
Our focus areas Monitoring at “project scale” Mathematical modeling of selected stormwater control measures Train volunteers Disseminate results widely Phase 2 planning (later)
Project-scale monitoring Successes Two sites instrumented to monitor at highest level One site instrumented to get pre-construction data One site selected for visual inspections Challenges Initial lag between project start and construction of projects Linking project scale results to watershed wide monitoring
Mathematical modeling Successes Calibrating and validating SWMM model for East Branch of the Indian Creek Modeling rain garden using HYDRUS Challenges – just need to keep working!
Train volunteers Successes • Municipal Stormwater Workshop – Master watershed steward training – One session with WVWA on – inspection of individual SCMs Yearly research open houses – Challenges • Villanova better suited to do – workshops, seminars, watershed training No reports of individual SCM – inspections have been filed by volunteers
Disseminate results Successes • Journal articles published/in press – Results presented & published at – national conferences Results presented at regional – technical meetings Active Twitter feed – Challenges • Need a universal hashtag (#DRWI?) – Need more data from the monitored – sites before we can publish results about performance
Cobbs Partners Upstream Suburban Cluster Maurine McGeehan Jaclyn Rhoads Lower Merion Darby Creek Valley Conservancy Association
Narbrook Park Streambank Stabilization Headwaters of East • Branch of Indian Creek 51-home historic • neighborhood Consultant, TEND • Landscaping, Inc.
Lower Merion Conservancy • 50+ volunteers • Narbrook Park Improvement • 250+ volunteer hours • Association 6 coir logs, 400 plantings • 3 community visioning workshops •
Narberth Windsor Avenue Bioswale Highly-visible • pedestrian street 225 feet with • contributing drainage area of 10,236 sq. ft. Stormwater • capture volume of 1.56 inches
27 New Rain Gardens Funding through • 2014 NFWF Innovation Grant • Ethel Sergeant Clark Smith Memorial Foundation • Royal Bank of Canada • Program has funding through 2019 via Growing Greener grant. • Darby Creek Valley Association received support from NFWF in 2016 to install additional rain gardens. Public gardens are planned for the ESCSC service areas, through volunteer labor – residents that receive one must help build 2. Public work crews and volunteers also help. Also creating a Private residential program for Haverford Township.
Stream Smart House Calls 2016 Innovation Grant • A partnership between PRC, DCVA, • EDCSC, and LMC Goal is to complete stormwater assessments on private properties: assess current stormwater • characteristics offer property owners ways to • improve and manage stormwater on their properties Objectives: Provide each property owners with • concrete suggestions for property Improve contact with property • owners in watershed & increase opportunities for BMPs
Monitoring Sites Started monitoring in 2014 2 on Cobbs and 2 on Naylor’s Run Added Sites in 2015 Total of 3 on Cobbs and 3 on Naylor’s Run Received Additional funding from Academy of Natural Sciences in 2016 Increased site monitoring for a total of 10 locations on Cobbs and 3 on Naylor’s Run Samples are collected quarterly from all sites and monthly monitoring using Hach kits All volunteer help with one part-time paid student through Darby Creek Valley Association
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