LID projects making a difference in EPA Region 3: The Mid-Atlantic Region
By Michelle Alford and Neil Weinstein
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Leadership in Low-Impact Development (LID) Recognition Program. The LID Center is proud to recognize innovative and sustainable stormwater management planning, design, and program management efforts throughout EPA Region 3, the Mid-Atlantic region. Thanks to our expert review panel members for their time and input on this initial effort. Also thank you to Nan Ides and Reggie Parrish of EPA Region 3 for their feedback and time throughout the project. Finally, thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to submit an application.
The purpose of this project was to encourage and promote the use of LID as a natural resource and water-quality-protection approach. Encouraging and recognizing LID approaches will publicize sustainable environmental control strategies and highlight the need for new strategies for improving and protecting water quality. LID is currently being used in projects in EPA Region 3 and across the country, but, to many, this environmental strategy is relatively unknown. The goal of this project was to enhance public awareness and help establish criteria by which stormwater control projects can be evaluated and judged on performance.
What is LID?
LID is a stormwater management strategy concerned with maintaining or restoring the natural hydrologic functions of a site to achieve natural resource protection objectives. LID addresses stormwater through small, cost-effective site design and landscape features distributed throughout the site. LID projects and programs promote public awareness, education, and participation in environmental protection.
This article provides a list of winners, a brief description of the program, a summary of each project, and the list of LID expert panel members. For more detailed information about the program development process, application materials (including images), advertising, lessons learned, and suggestions for future recognition programs, visit www.lowimpactdevelopment.org/recognition.
Winners
Category: Built projects—Large-scale Implementation
Project Title: Low Impact Development at Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc.
Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc. (WSSI), Virginia
Category: Codes and Ordinances—New Regulations and Systems at the Local Government Level
Project Title: Lower Makefield Low Impact Development Ordinance Revisions
Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania
Category: Educational Programs—Outreach and Jobs
Project Title: MOT Senior Center Rain Garden Retrofit
Appoquinimink River Association, Delaware
Category: Leadership—Government Initiatives
Project Title: Rain Garden Retrofit in an Urban Landscape
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, West Virginia
Category: Leadership—NGO initiatives
Project Title: Aikido Club Dojo
Aikido in Fredericksburg, Virginia
Category: Technology—Innovative Non-proprietary Approaches and Uses
Project Title: Demonstrating Innovation: A Stormwater Retrofit at the Providence Supervisor’s Office
Fairfax County Government, Virginia
About the Program
Recognition Program: Through a cooperative agreement between the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Region and the Low Impact Development Center Inc., a new program was developed to serve as a leadership model for LID recognition programs across the country by creating an expert review panel to review and recognize LID projects/programs and installations. This model will be useful to stakeholders in EPA regions across the country, including local and state governments, universities, private industry, nonprofits, and individuals.
Submissions were accepted from individuals, watershed organizations, state and local government organizations, private contractors, universities, and colleges. The geographic scope of this new program was limited to projects/programs conducted in the EPA Mid-Atlantic Region (District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia).
Quantitative criteria were developed and used to assess candidate projects/programs in each project/program category. In total, 10 projects/programs were submitted for consideration. One project was conducted outside of EPA Region 3 and therefore not eligible for review under the current geographic scope of the 2007 LID Recognition Program. The submissions represent a small subset of the many outstanding LID projects and programs in EPA Region 3.
Goal: The primary goal of this effort was to establish a forum in which innovative and sustainable stormwater management planning, design, and program management efforts receive recognition. This model provides the opportunity for a diverse group of organizations to present and promote their programs to a variety of audiences.
About the Winners
Built projects—Large-scale Implementation
Project Title: Low Impact Development at Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc.
Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc.
Start Date: April 2004, Completion Date: November 2005
WSSI is the leading natural and cultural resources consultant in Northern Virginia. In 2005, WSSI outgrew its previous office facility, leaving the company with the opportunity not only to build a new office/warehouse space but also to design and implement a fully integrated low-impact site, including a green roof, a rain garden, an underground cistern, three types of permeable pavements, underground gravel detention, and preservation of existing open space, wetlands, and streams. WSSI’s new building is serviced by an existing regional pond; therefore, no onsite stormwater management was required. The project encompasses the entirety of a 5.1-acre site and includes eight types of low-impact techniques, from overall site design to proprietary pavement systems. The techniques are stitched together with a network of perforated underdrains, allowing the site to function much as it did before being built upon.
For more information please contact:
Jennifer Brophy-Price, P.E., LEED AP
Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc.
5300 Wellington Branch Dr., Ste. 100
Gainesville, VA 20155
703-679-5654
703-679-5601
jbrophy-price@wetlandstudies.com
www.wetlandstudies.com
Codes and Ordinances—New Regulations and Systems at the Local Government Level
Project Title: Lower Makefield Low Impact Development Ordinance Revisions
Lower Makefield Township (Pennsylvania)
Start Date: January 2006, Completion Date: December 2006
Lower Makefield Township is located in Bucks County, PA, bordering the Delaware River and Delaware Canal. The township formed an Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) to involve community members with various environmental-related professional backgrounds to help the community become more environmentally conscious. The EAC prepared a LID ordinance for the township. The goals of the LID ordinance revisions are to recognize stormwater as an important natural resource and maximize its infiltration into our aquifers, streams, and rivers to the extent feasible to enhance the quality of the water supply and protect natural resources. The ordinance also provides guidelines for site design.
For more information please contact:
Terry Fedorchak/Jim Bray, Township Manager
Lower Makefield Township
1100 Edgewood Rd.
Yardley, PA 19067
267-274-1101
tfedor@lmt.org
www.lmt.org
Educational Programs—Outreach and Jobs
Project Title: Middletown/Odessa/Townsend (MOT) Senior Center Rain Garden Retrofit
Appoquinimink River Association
Start Date: January 2006, Completion Date: June 2006
The Appoquinimink River Association (ARA) is an environmental nonprofit organization that works to educate residents on how they can help prevent water pollution. The ARA implemented a stormwater retrofit within the Town of Middletown’s jurisdiction, at the MOT Senior Center, and within one of the more impacted areas in the headwaters of the Appoquinimink River. The ARA took a dry pond stormwater management area and retrofitted it into a bioretention area, or rain garden.
For more information please contact:
Sara Wozniak, Executive Director
Appoquinimink River Association
P.O. Box 341
Middletown, DE 19709
302-382-0335
sara@apporiver.org
www.apporiver.org
Leadership—Government Initiatives
Project Title: Rain Garden Retrofit in an Urban Landscape
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
Start Date: April 11, 2006, Completion Date: September 26, 2006
This project involved the partnering of three groups as well as in-kind contributions from seven other groups. The three primary partners were West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, the state environmental agency; City of Martinsburg, a municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) municipal government located in Berkeley County, WV; and Berkeley County Commission, a county MS4 located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. This group installed a rain garden retrofit as a demonstration project to raise public awareness of the benefit and function of rain gardens.
For more information please contact:
Sherry Wilkins, West Virginia MS4 Coordinator
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
601 57th St., SE
Charleston, WV 25304-2345
304-926-0499, x1048
swilkins@wvdep.org
www.wvdep.org
Leadership—NGO initiatives
Project Title: Aikido Club Dojo
Aikido in Fredericksburg
Start Date: Permitting June 2004, Completion Date: Targeted December 2007
Aikido in Fredericksburg (AIF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. AIF is constructing a new headquarters facility on a 20.4-acre parcel in Spotsylvania, VA. The facility’s design concept is to minimize environmental impact and utilize existing infrastructure to the extent practicable.
Facility Design Elements
- Dojo building—approximately 7,200 square feet (with “green” design elements) and ancillary facilities
- A 2,400-square-foot pavilion
- Required parking and minimal paving
- Landscaping including LID stormwater management measures (reforestation area, grassed swale, rain barrels, biofilter, infiltration trench); an organic vegetable garden; an ornamental garden; wildlife habitat improvement; and screens/buffers
- A small greenhouse
For more information please contact:
Aviv Goldsmith, Chief Instructor
Aikido in Fredericksburg
6147 Hickory Ridge Rd.
Spotsylvania, VA 22553
540-582-9600
aviv@aikidoinn.com
www.familyaikido.org
Technology—Innovative Non-proprietary Approaches and Uses
Project Title: Demonstrating Innovation: A Stormwater Retrofit at the Providence Supervisor’s Office
Fairfax County (Virginia) Government
Start Date: June 2005, Completion Date: September 2005
Fairfax County is a 414-square-mile jurisdiction consisting of 30 watersheds located in northern Virginia. The Providence District Supervisor’s Office conceived a stormwater retrofit project for improving water quality and decreasing water quantity related to stormwater. The office subsequently formed a partnership with the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services and the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. This successful project encourages similar partnerships. The project site covers 0.87 acre and is located within the Accotink Creek watershed. The completed project serves as a demonstration project for an integrated system of LID practices including a landscaped bioretention basin, permeable pavers, and an extensive green roof. This project has been included in various annual county reports including the 2004, 2005, and 2006 Stormwater Management Status Reports, which can be found at http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/stormwater/ms4reports.htm.
For more information please contact:
Irene Haske
Public Information Officer II
Department of Public Works and Environmental Services
Stormwater Management Division
12000 Government Center Parkway, Suite 449
Fairfax, VA 22035
703-324-5821
irene.haske@fairfaxcounty.gov
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/stormwater
Expert Review Panel Members
- Environmental—Melanie Shepherdson, Staff Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council
- Private Sector Development—Doug Beisch, P.E., Senior Water Resources Engineer, Williamsburg (VA) Environmental Group Inc.
- Regulatory—Rich Dooley, Planner, Arlington County (VA) Planning Division, CPHD
- Technical—Amy Leib, P.E., Office of Watersheds, City of Philadelphia (PA) Water Department
- Academia Research—Robert Traver, Associate Professor, Villanova University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Academia Design—David Myers, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Maryland Landscape Architecture Program, Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture
- Government—Ted Graham, Water Resources Program Director, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
- Stakeholder—Brian Van Wye, Riverkeeper, Anacostia RIVERKEEPER
- Builder—Michael Luzier, President, National Association of Home Builders Research Center
- Political—Delegate David Bulova, State of Virginia
Questions and comments for any aspect of this recognition program should be e-mailed to contact@lowimpactdevelopment.org.
Low Impact Development Center
4600 Powder Mill Rd., Ste. 200
Beltsville, MD 20705
301-982-5559
www.lowimpactdevelopment.org
Michelle Alford is an environmental research scientist at the Low Impact Development Center in Beltsville, MD. Neil Weinstein, P.E., R.L.A., AICP, is the executive director and one of the founders of the center.
SW November/December 2008
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