Polluted runoff is hurting our rivers.
Land use commissioners, public works officials, builders, property managers and homeowners can help reverse the trend – and even save a little money – by using techniques that capture, filter and slowly release stormwater.
The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) is hosting two half-day forums on these techniques – 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.– on March 20 in Newtown and March 27 in Seymour.
Both sessions are open to the public free of charge, and will feature architectural and landscape designs that can capture water on site, filter it through vegetation allowing it to soak into the ground rather than losing it as surface runoff.
The forums are made possible by the generous support of the Fairfield County Community Foundation – Donor Advised Fund, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund.
The Newtown forum, co-sponsored by HVA and the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition, will be at the Booth Memorial Library, 25 Main Street.
The March 27 session will meet at Seymour Land Trust’s Henry Hamel Environmental Center, 13 Chatfield Street in Seymour. It is co-sponsored by HVA and the Seymour Planning and Zoning Commission.
Mike Dietz, Connecticut NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) program director for the Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) and the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program will be featured on March 20. Chester Arnold will be featured at the Seymour event March 27. Arnold is the NEMO Program co-founder and associate director of CLEAR. Both speakers will discuss stormwater design.
Nisha Patel, PE, has been with Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) for 18 years and now serves as supervising sanitary engineer. She will be on hand at both events to talk about how towns can update their local regulations using DEEP stormwater and Low Impact Development, or LID, materials.
Paul Szymanski, PE, president and owner of Arthur Howland & Associates in New Milford will share specific examples of effective and affordable LID projects including creating stormwater wetlands and rain gardens and using porous asphalt.
In both forums, Sam Dzieken, HVA’s GIS Manager, will demonstrate how polluted runoff increases as town development covers more land. Sam has extensive GIS experience with the U.S.Department of Agriculture, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
In the Seymour session on March 27, Walker Holmes, senior associate, and Miranda Maupin, manager of community planning and design group of Skeo Solutions will highlight innovative solutions for environmental revitalization. Ms. Holmes has 10 years of experience solving land-based environmental problems. She works on community revitalization projects helping people make their communities greener, more livable and more equitable.
Ms. Maupin provides leadership and oversight for collaborative planning and design services of Superfund site reuse, area-wide brownfield revitalization and green infrastructure planning.
Terrance Gallagher, P.E., at Luchs Consulting Engineers, LLC, will discuss multiple LID strategies and techniques for large developments gleaned from 29 years of experience in civil site engineering specializing in sites with unique environmental concerns such as floodplains, wetlands and steep slopes.
To make reservations, email Elaine LaBella, HVA land protection director, at elainehva@hotmail.com.
HVA is a tri-state nonprofit citizen’s environmental group founded in 1941, which works to conserve the natural character and environmental health of its communities by protecting and restoring the land and waters of the 2,000-square-mile Housatonic watershed from its source in the Pittsfield, Massachusetts area to Long Island Sound.