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October 1997
by
Elie Araj, P.E.
For most stormwater managers, October signals
the start of a new fiscal year. After months of prioritizing,
justifying and "right-sizing," the budget is set and
the game plan is on the way to being executed. But as you know,
it's only a couple of months before the same cycle starts again.
If previous years are any indication, the cycle
usually begins with more demands on the infrastructure and less
available resources to deal with the additional demand. Growth
and its ensuing environmental concerns have largely driven infrastructure
demand. While cities and counties are expanding, more ponds,
ditches and pipes are built to properly manage runoff, thus increasing
the maintenance responsibilities. Add to the mix a sprinkle of
new state and federal regulations, such as the municipal storm
sewer system NPDES permit, with its varying maintenance, monitoring
and public outreach requirements, and the plate becomes really
full.
Such responsibilities, on top of the ones inherited
from yester-years (and yester-"right sizing"), require
some creativity and a lot of patience to get the job done. One
strategy that has worked in Hillsborough County has been to maximize
the use of citizen volunteers.
Volunteer citizens have been used worldwide
to stretch the limited dollars available for government agencies.
The following is a description of some of the stormwater related
volunteer programs that have been implemented in Hillsborough
County:
1. One of the first stormwater related volunteer-based programs
in the Hillsborough County, has been the Adopt-A-Pond program.
This program was started, and still is, jointly funded by the
County and SWFWMD. The Adopt-A-Pond program is aimed at working
with citizens that live in the vicinity of stormwater ponds to
help them in the cleanup and maintenance of their ponds. It is
a three-year program with the pond group signing a contract with
the Board of County Commissioners pledging to maintain their ponds
in a prescribed manner. In return, the volunteers receive an
initial cleanup of their pond by County crews, and they receive
free native plants to replace any undesirable plants that were
removed. Plantings are usually scheduled on Saturdays with folks
of all ages participating in the process. Also available for
those pond groups, and those on the "waiting list",
are pond walks with a program biologist teaching volunteers about
minimizing stormwater pollution, a quarterly newsletter, an Adopt
-A-Pond three-ring binder packed with information and listings
of resources for yard and pond maintenance, plant identification
kits, a pond water quality sampling kit and training on its use,
and most importantly, neighborhood educational meetings. In the
fall of each year, all volunteers are brought together from all
over the County for an evening of fun, questions, and often, answers.
The "Pond of the Year" winner is also announced at
that meeting. Two criteria for pond adoption is that the pond
is not a natural lake, or conservation easement and that the County
either has a drainage easement over it or simply owns it.
2. The Hillsborough County Lake Management Program (Lamp)
is a volunteer program that combines the Florida LAKEWATCH volunteer
lake monitoring program and an educational program aimed at training
lake property owners to manage their lakes. Volunteers are trained
to take water samples, measure water clarity and process samples
for laboratory analysis. Volunteers are trained on their lakes
by project personnel and are provided all required equipment to
take and process samples. Each month, volunteers conduct lake
sampling in their lake, attend a two-hour lake management training
where area scientists and others involved in lake management discuss
different aspects of lake management. Volunteers are also encouraged
and taught methods to develop lake management plans. Now in its
second year, the program has 90 lakes and about 150 volunteer
monitors who sample the lakes.
3. STORMWATER-WATCH is a new initiative with a primary
objective of involving people living in or near specific watersheds
in watershed monitoring. The proposed project will include a
regional training center to train volunteers in the different
aspects of habitat/watershed monitoring. Monitors will be trained
to conduct surveys, which include: general habitat health, surface
and ground water quality, stream flow, vegetation and macro invertebrate
diversity and frequency. The project is based on successful volunteer
monitoring programs conducted by volunteer groups such as Georgia's
Adopt-A-Stream program and the Izaak Walton Leagues' Save Our
Streams program.
4. The Storm Drain Marking program provides citizens'
groups, boy and girl scouts, civic associations, and any other
volunteers with curb inlet markers. The markers are colorful
and read "Dumping Here Pollutes Our Pond," with some
customized for lakes or for the Bay. The marking kits are picked
up, or mailed, to the volunteers and contain the markers, glue,
and other educational materials such as door hangers. Neighborhoods
in the Adopt-A-Pond program and the Lake Monitoring program are
encouraged to mark their inlets as a reminder to everyone in the
neighborhood.
In addition to achieving their primary objectives
of pollution prevention, education, limited maintenance and water
quality monitoring, the above programs have had several secondary
benefits that are worth mentioning:
1. Citizens have historically equated government
with taxes and regulations. Now, they have an opportunity to
see government staff as "real people" working with them
in their own back yards to preserve and maintain their ponds,
lakes, and neighborhoods. This has resulted in a deluge of thank
you letters from affected citizens, and subsequent, and frequent,
positive media coverage, which in turn resulted in more inquiries
and more volunteers.
2. The contact with the neighborhood associations has provided
an open door for discussion with these neighborhoods regarding
Capital Improvement Projects, Master Watershed Plans, and other
planned projects that might impact these communities.
3. Such volunteer activities, that include pollution prevention
education, are strongly encouraged by the EPA, and are included
in the county's NPDES permit as part of the "stormwater management
plan.".
4. It is has been fun for everyone involved
and it's not expensive.
Elie Araj is Environmental Program Manager for the Stormwater
Utility Section in Hillsborough County. For more information
on any of these programs, you may contact him at 813/272-5912,
or e-mail at eliea@writeme.com. |