http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler stories of landscapes, conservation, and people in and beyond the Rivanna Watershed Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:11:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 © lmiddleton@embarqmail.com () lmiddleton@embarqmail.com() stories of landscapes, conservation, and people in and beyond the Rivanna Watershed lmiddleton@embarqmail.com No no http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpg http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler 144 144 http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:00:17 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2009/01/08/118-you-me-and-stormwater/feed/ 0 5:34 January 8, 2009 The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) ... January 8, 2009 The City of Charlottesville, along with Albemarle County, UVA, and PVCC, are all submitted renewal applications for the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP) General Permit for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4's).nbsp; The permit describes how these entities will manage stormwater in their jurisdictions, but much of the management really rests on you and me and how we manage the stormwater that we create because of our modern lifestyle. Chilling, cold, welcome, seasonal.nbsp; These words could all describe the precipitation of the last couple of days.nbsp; Cold and chilling, as temperatures hovered below freezing, icing roads and dusting the Blue Ridge white.nbsp; Welcome, and seasonal, since we rely on wintertime precipitation to keeps our rivers and wells flowing, our groundwater replenished, our reservoirs full and to hold off the press of drought. But this water ndash; mostly clean as transits from clouds to earth ndash; becomes something else once it hits our streets, yards, and houses.nbsp; It becomes storm water ndash; and it is hardly benign.nbsp; Rather than infiltrating the soil as it does in the forests, stormwater rushes to creeks and to the Rivanna, carrying litter, oils, pet waste, and dirt, rushes in such volume and velocity that stream banks are continually scoured and the Rivanna runs brown after even a modest rain. Environmental professionals characterize water pollution sources as either "point" or "non-point."nbsp; Point sources are discrete - water from a single point or conveyance, such as the waste treatment plants at Moores Creek, Camelot, Lake Monticello, discharges from which are highly regulated with increasingly stringent controls. Non-point sources are simply the opposite ndash; pollution that enters our streams from a diffuse or general area, such as excess water that travels across agriculture or playing fields transporting pollutants such as excess fertilizer or manure.nbsp; Rainwater that traverses urban parking lots and roads into storm "sewer" systems might be considered non-point because it is a collection of water (and all that is carried with it) fromndash; my yard, my street, my neighbor's yard, the street around the corner. But the Clean Water Act defines this kind of stormwater also as a point source ndash; because it is conveyed through separate storm sewer systems (such as maintained by Charlottesville or Albemarle County in the urban areas) ndash; and through ditches and channels that direct the water, untreated for the most part, before it enters the river. And as a point source, it too is regulated by the Clean Water Act, with permits required by the state of Virginia for urban areas, industrial sites, and construction activities.nbsp; In the second phase of permitting, since 2003, Charlottesville, Albemarle, UVA, and PVCC are defined as operating Municipal Storm Sewer Systems, or MS4s.nbsp; The five-year reapplication process is underway right now ndash; applications in which these entities show how various programs are reducing the discharge of pollutants from areas and facilities under their jurisdiction to the maximum extent practicable. Now, I have read the permit application from the City of Charlottesville, and it includes descriptions of how the City will maintain structural controls, such as curb inlets and retention basins; and how it will maintain public roads (and try to minimize pollutants coming off of them).nbsp; I've read how Parks and Rec. will minimize use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.nbsp; How the City will permit and monitor erosion and sediment control practices on construction sites.nbsp;nbsp; But the bottom line is this:nbsp; much of the pollution that ends up in stormwater results from how we citizens live our day-to-day lives.nbsp; After all, you'd have to keep a fleet of street cleaners busy 24 hours a day to keep most of the street wastes out of the storm sewer system ndas... Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Education,,Neighborhood,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Stormwater,,Water,Quality lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/11/102-stormwater-at-the-dell-righting-a-wrong/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/11/102-stormwater-at-the-dell-righting-a-wrong/#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:42:15 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/11/102-stormwater-at-the-dell-righting-a-wrong/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/09/11/102-stormwater-at-the-dell-righting-a-wrong/feed/ 0 00:01:01 September 11, 2008 The University of Virginia's Stormwater Management Program has resulted in transformations of the built environment while at the same time improving water ... September 11, 2008 The University of Virginia's Stormwater Management Program has resulted in transformations of the built environment while at the same time improving water quality. The Dell is once such transformation. This show originally aired in September 11, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net Last night after a meeting at UVA's Newcomb Hall, I strolled across Emmet Street to The Dell for a quiet moment on the water. At the end of the hot day, the air temperature was falling as the undersides of clouds darkened with gray. From a bench across the pond I could see blue and orange shirts and shorts moving on the basketball court. The pool before me reflected the action in segments clipped by a row of young arbor vitae planted along the edge of the court. Above me, bats streaked through darkening air, criss-crossing over the water partaking of misquotes. The sound of Emmet Street traffic was constant, but the longer I sat, the more it started to blend with a new sound ndash; one of flowing water from somewhere beyond a large English boxwood leftover from a former landscape. I was sitting by a section of Meadow Creek that has been rehabilitated and restored, brought to the surface after being contained in the 1950's. When the construction of the dorms at McCormick Road altered the topography of Meadow Creek near its headwaters at Observatory Hill, the water, still answering to gravity and the lay of the land, needed somewhere to go ndash; and in the conventional wisdom of that era, concrete, drain pipe, and culverts were employed to route it away and downhill. The project at The Dell is now famous for bringing this section of Meadow Creek back to the light of day ndash; while creating a mixed habitat alongside the restored stream flowing in to a formally landscaped retention pond ndash; the floodplain real estate shared with the basketball courts, tennis courts, and walking trails. The Dell, and other innovative storm water projects at UVA have been much publicized. This month's Landscape Architecture magazine has a multi-page glossy spread about the project, along with the redevelopment of the stream valley of Meadow Creek just downhill several thousand feet downstream at the John Paul Jones arena. There, roof and parking lot rainwater are collected in planted swales and rain gardens engineered to slow the water so that it can infiltrate through the layers of soil and feed the creek in the slow but sure way of groundwater. Jeff Sitler, UVA's Environmental Compliance Manager ndash;says he's giving about a tour a week these days, and rightly so. Five years since the completion of the Dell, the university knows that its working; the plants are filling out nicely; and it has become a place that attracts wildlife, students, neighbors, and the occasional citizen like me who can't resist a water feature of any kind. Between the pond and the copse of woods where the creek emerges from its containment is a greenway spotted with picnic benches. The designers used the change in elevation to replicate the three main physiographic regions of Virginia. Mountain laurel and hemlock in the upper reach speak for the Blue Ridge. Along the stream, stepped into riffle by strategically placed boulders are the plants, of the piedmont, dogwoods and species of ilex and magnolia only found in this region. Finally as the water emerges in to the open stretches of pool and pond, it has arrived symbolically at the coastal plains, the flatland marshes, arrow plant and cattail, wetlands doing the work of nutrient and sediment uptake as they do in the tidal reaches of the Chesapeake Bay. As I sat in the shadows, much of the beauty of the Dell was beyond my sight ndash; in the way that storm water has often out of sight, channeled away from the places WE want to be. But it was we humans who named it storm water to begin... Charlottesville,,Meadowcreek,,Native,Landscaping,,Rivanna,River,,Stormwater,,Wetlands lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/14/98-the-restoration-of-meadow-creek/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/14/98-the-restoration-of-meadow-creek/#comments Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:49:25 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/14/98-the-restoration-of-meadow-creek/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/08/14/98-the-restoration-of-meadow-creek/feed/ 0 00:01:01 August 14, 2008 One of the most degraded streams in Charlottesville, Meadow Creek, will get a major restoration in 2009 when The Nature Conservancy ... August 14, 2008 One of the most degraded streams in Charlottesville, Meadow Creek, will get a major restoration in 2009 when The Nature Conservancy along with its partners rebuild and restore 7000 feet between the City and County.nbsp; This show originally aired in August 14, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net You know something is not right when you walk up to the edge of MeadowCreek behind Kmart off Hydraulic Road. The bank drops down vertically to the stream bottom where a small flow trickles over the rocks. You are not sure how close you can get because looking upstream, you can see places where high water flow from storms has tunneled into the bank leaving just a flap of grass, hinged and drooping over the edge like the unruly bangs of a boy overdue for a haircut. And you've seen this kinds of washed-out bank everywhere in the watershed, and especially as you walk along the Rivanna Trails encircling Charlottesville. For years, you may have said to yourself, this canrsquo;t be right, all this dirt eroding away, headed downstream in a brown muddy mess. But how do you ever go about fixing something like this? And can it even BE fixed? Well it turns out that it can ndash; or so a growing number of resource managers think ndash; and for the last decade or so, there has been a learning curve as steep as these banks in developing the science and art of restoring streams. On this warm sunny afternoon, I'm learning about one project in the planning stages that will hopefully bring a mile and a quarter of Meadow Creek back in to equilibrium with its banks. This restoration project being undertaken by The Nature Conservancy will involve physically rebuilding the shape of the river and carefully placing structures and planting new vegetation, so that the creek should be able to withstand the damaging flows that wash down from its watershed. And what a watershed it is! This section of Meadow Creek gathers the rain and runoff from the University below O-Hill, the stadium area, Barracks Road Shopping Center, the Giant Shopping Center, and small subdivisions flanking 29 North. Flattened and paved, it is mostly roofs and roads, asphalt and houses and lawns ndash; all the man-made surfaces that discourage the slow infiltration of rain into the earth that is necessary for refreshing groundwater -- and that reduces the volume and velocity of water from storms that are the engine of erosion. About the only good thing about all this upstream development is that there are not a lot of remaining opportunities to cut trees and further harden the earth with pavement ndash; but even so, any restoration project has to take in to account the likely upstream changes, such as the soon- or sometime-to-be-built Albemarle Place. Walking along the streams margin, I learn more about the Meadow Creek Stream Restoration project from Diane Frisbee of The Nature Conservancy and her colleague, Dan Sweet, a stream restoration specialist who has helped define the segments most in need of help and will be involved in designing the new channel and creating pools and riffles ndash; building back in the curves and dips that slow the flow and create healthy habitat for the bottom of the aquatic foodchain that is presently overwhelmed by sediment-laden run-off. Diane explains that this project is being funded by the Virginia Aquatic Resources Trust Fund ndash; one of the mechanisms used in Virginia to ensure the "no-net-loss of wetlands" requirement of the Clean Water Act. When site development impacts wetlands, and there are no practical means of avoiding or mitigating this loss on the site, the developer may have the option to pay in to the Trust Fund to compensate for wetland loss -- and this money can be used elsewhere in the State to restore important but degraded wetlands and segments of impaired streams. It is bitters... Albemarle,County,,Charlottesville,,Chesapeake,Bay,,Geology,,Meadowcreek,,Stormwater,,Water,Quality,,Wetlands lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:07:12 +0000 admin http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/ http://www.cvillepublicmedia.org/rambler/2008/02/28/78-the-reluctant-gardener-faces-non-native-dilemma/feed/ 1 00:01:01 The winter garden starts to beckon at this time of year. Now is a good time to think about whatrsquo;s native, and whatrsquo;s ... The winter garden starts to beckon at this time of year. Now is a good time to think about whatrsquo;s native, and whatrsquo;s not, and how to make amends for ignorant landscaping choices of the past. This show originally aired on February 28, 2008 on ldquo;The Rivanna Rambler,rdquo; a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net. February 28, 2007 I am a reluctant gardener. The seasons conspire against me here in Central Virginia. In the winter, when I should be planning the vegetable garden, pruning shrubs, and tidying the lawn, I crave the quiet of indoors where I hibernate, in between bursts of outdoor activities that take me into the woods or by the river or to the tops of the ridges. Much the same happens to me in the springtime rush, a time of not enough time ndash; when I am called by the waters to paddle rivers bursting with green while the weather is still tolerable. For sure, when spring emerges, I do spend a few days tethered to lawn and plants ndash; affirming my environmental responsibility to this City acre and my good fortune for having land at all. Summer, when vegetables want thinning and harvesting and weeds go to seed, Irsquo;m retreating to any place removed from heaviness of the humidity. By the time fall rolls around, I vainly try to make up for lost time, tidying and raking in anticipation of the winter. This is a roundabout way of saying that I have not yet done anything about the invasive plants in my yard that I boldly named a couple of summer s ago on this show: the English ivy and bamboo I inherited when we bought our home, and the others that I actually planted before becoming enlightened to the issue of natives versus non-natives. My yard boasts not one, but two, firebushes, that I planted, now over seven feet tall, their little green buds forming round and ready for spring as I speak. And the large and small leafed privet ndash; whose fragrant blossoms provide a welcome olfactory memory of summers on Cape Cod ndash; well, we actually planted more to balance the ones already there. Folly, I now see, as sprigs emerge uninvited amidst the quince and holly. Irsquo;m resigned to periodically pulling the ivy from its ascent up tree trunks and pulling the privet from where it is not wanted. I will, with time, find replacements for the butterfly bush -- also not a native to our region. And, I will continue to cope with bamboo roots running underground webs across the upper lawn. But what is really troubling me this season is that I now realize that the sediment that smothers the life our of river and its tributaries comes not just from fields, or pastures, or construction sites ndash; it also comes from city lots like mine, where the lawn has become patchy, or the piles of sand and mulch from an old garden project lie open to spring downpours, or the border of the driveway reveals a gash of red Virginia clay ready to become runoff. There is the slope of land between at the front of our house lawn and street, where I spent our first years of living here painstakingly removing the English Ivy and the poison ivy, to give room to periwinkle, whose sweet blue flowers and lush evergreen seemed to tidy our yard and match our cottage home. But I now know that this, too, is a non-native ndash; an imported ornamental that is hearty precisely because it has found in our climate optimum weather and minimum ecological constraints. The irony is that, while the poison ivy would not have been easy to live with, its white berries are food for many species of birds ndash; one of the best reasons for choosing native over non-native plants. So my quandary is this hellip; I want to replace the vinca with a native groundcover, but I know that doing so will expose a slope of soil that is rich and poised to wash right into the storm drains on its way to the river ndash; and to prevent this will require from me careful planning, silt fencin... Charlottesville,,Native,Landscaping,,Rivanna,River,,Sediment,,Stormwater lmiddleton@embarqmail.com no No