MWC's 2012 Community Stormwater Solutions Conference - Keeping Your Streams Alive
More than 100 people, including municipal officials, engineers, public works staff, homebuilders, contractors and environmental advocates, gathered at Worcester State College on April 12th for the MWC Annual Meeting and Stormwater Solutions conference. Stormwater is produced by the entire community and everyone can remedy runoff. The meeting was an opportunity to share information about runoff remedies that can prevent damages and restore the health of local streams, ponds and water supplies. 
Curt Spalding, Regional Administrator for EPA's Region 1 Office, made the opening plenary presentation, detailing the challenges of implementing stormwater policies and practices that enhance the "resilience" of local communities. Curt introduced EPA New England's new Soak Up the Rain campaign, which provides educational resources to assist local efforts to infiltrate rainwater--including a new SOTR website that can be found at: http://www.epa.gov/region1/soakuptherain/. The following presentation supplied synergy as Ivan Ussach, MWC's new stormwater campaign coordinator, outlined MWC's new "BGY" Campaign to promote and document reduced stormwater runoff state-wide by 1 Billion Gallons a Year. Ivan displayed a state map showing major watersheds and the results of the BGY's initial inventory to quantify LID projects--over 120 million gallons, and counting!
Eight concurrent workshops in two sessions then supplied practical guidance on varied topics (click to view the full meeting AGENDA). Expert speakers included Glenn Mike Cole, Julie Conroy, Jerry Schoen, Mike Clark, Larry Nicolai, Robert Cantoreggi, and MWC's Debbie Shriver and Ed Himlan. Please click on topic below to view a pdf version of the Powerpoint presentation:
* Soak Up the Rain Campaign -- Curt Spalding, EPA Region 1 Administrator
* Billion Gallons A year Campaign -- Ivan Ussach, BGY Coordinator, MWC
* Stormwater & Stream Life – Mike Cole, Senior Scientist, ABR Environmental
* Growing Greener – Debbie Shriver, Massachusetts Watershed Coalition
* Stormwater Utilities – Julie Conroy, Senior Environmental Planner, MAPC
* BMPs Performance Rating – Jerry Schoen, Director of MASTEP project, UMass Amherst
* Erosion & Sediment Controls – Mike Clark, Satuit Consulting
* Essential Stormwater Solutions – Ed Himlan, Massachusetts Watershed Coalition
* Streets & Streams – Robert Cantoreggi, DPW Director, Franklin MA
