Leveraging Stakeholders for Fox River Restoration
PRESENTER: Mark O’ Leary, RES
The Fox River watershed in Wisconsin covers more than 900 square miles over six counties and 67 municipalities. More than 85% of the watershed is agricultural. As a result, the Fox River and many of its tributaries are Section 303(d) Listed Impaired Waters with degraded biological communities, high turbidity and excessive soil and nutrient runoff.
This presentation discusses how the Southeast Wisconsin Fox River Commission (SEWFRC) is working to build a coalition of stakeholders to pool resources that can be leveraged for the restoration of the headwaters of the Fox.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Using Green Infrastructure to Create Habitat
PRESENTER: Prof Neal O’Reily,UW- Milwaukee and Jennifer Phelps-Vanderberg, WGLBBO
Green infrastructure is a great way of integrating urban stormwater treatment into urban landscapes. Devices like rain gardens, bioswales, treatment wetlands, and green roofs use vegetation to provide water quality treatment and rainwater storage.
However, with the right selection of plants these devices can also provide habitats for wildlife. Drs O’Reilly and Phillips-Vanderberg will discuss how habitats for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife can be integrated into the design of green infrastructure. They will outline how micro-habitats can be designed into devices that provide food for wildlife, breeding habitats, and refuge areas. With the proper design, green infrastructure can enhance the quality of life for both man and wildlife in urban areas.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
TMDL Implementation Planning for Municipal Storm Water Permittees
PRESENTERS : Pete Wood, WDNR
The South Lakefront Framework Plan sets a community-based course for the evolution of Chicago’s historic Jackson Park and South Shore Cultural Center. Community concerns of gentrification and displacement charged this plan to deliver a vision and tools for a larger, more connected park. Centered around a water-forward strategy, the plan repositions the park’s lagoons and lakes as central, usable and unifying elements while bolstering their role as a sustainable, performance landscape.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Data Solutions for an Adaptive Management Approach
PRESENTER: Brent Brown, Jacobs Engineering
Facilities are generating more data than ever, but few are efficiently leveraging it. Traditional data storage, management, and analysis techniques are not always adequate for managing large datasets that need to support a variety of users, end goals, and even personnel workflows. A case study on NEW Water’s Watershed Adaptive Management Program demonstrates how digital tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), custom mobile applications, web-based dashboards, and automated workflows can more efficiently leverage data and more easily accomplish the management of a large, complex program.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Streamlining BMP Inspections
PRESENTERS: Kaley DuCoeur, Ruekert&Mielke
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District’s (MMSD) offers incentive funding to District landowners on a per-gallon-captured, reimbursement basis for green infrastructure strategies designed to capture and clean water where it falls through various programs, including the Green Infrastructure Partnership Program (GIPP).
This presentation will highlight how R/M worked with the District and program participants to make progress towards MMSD’s goal to “implement 10 million gallons of green infrastructure annually” and achieve Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) compliance through an efficient, streamlined green infrastructure inspection and maintenance program.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Using Iron-Enhanced Sand Filters to Remove Dissolved Phosphorus from Stormwater
PRESENTER: Joe Boxhorn,SEWRPC
Meeting water quality standards will require that MS4s reduce contributions of phosphorus to surface waters. This will be challenging because dissolved phosphorus, which is not removed by conventional stormwater BMPs, makes up much of total phosphorus.
The iron-enhanced sand filter is a new technology developed in Minnesota to remove dissolved phosphorus from stormwater. This presentation will describe how they work, show common configurations for their installation, review their performance, and discuss design and maintenance considerations.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Grant Funding for Your Water Quality Improvement Projects
PRESENTER: Todd Brieby, WCMP; Emily Rau, WCMP, and Casey Eggleston, FFLM
Learn about how the Fund for Lake Michigan (FFLM) can support your efforts to improve water quality in your community. Since 2011, the Fund has awarded more than $35 million in grants to restore habitat, improve beaches, clean up rivers and streams, and revitalize waterfronts in communities throughout Wisconsin's Lake Michigan Basin. The Fund is a private foundation and can provide flexible funding to help your community leverage federal dollars and other large grants to bring your most ambitious projects to fruition.
The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program (WCMP) staff will provide a broad overview of current funding opportunities through their annual Coastal Management Grants and the federal funding opportunity through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
The program awards federal funding annually from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management in the U.S. Department of Commerce to state, local, and tribal governments and other entities for innovative coastal initiatives focusing on wetland and habitat protection, nonpoint pollution, coastal resource planning, education, and public access. In addition, NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management has a 5-year competitive federal funding opportunity that can be passed through WCMP to other non-federal public partners to target habitat restoration; habitat restoration planning, engineering and design; and ecosystem conservation projects.
Stormwater Wetlands at Ozaukee County Parks
PRESENTER: Andrew Struck, Ozaukee County
The Ozaukee County Planning & Parks Department is working to create stormwater treatment wetlands at the Little Menomonee River Fish & Wildlife Preserve (LMRFWP), Mee-Kwon County Park and Virmond County Park, all in the City of Mequon.
Recently, the Department has completed stormwater wetland construction at the LMRFWP, preliminary engineering and design for Mee-Kwon County Park and preliminary master planning, including a stormwater and groundwater study, for Virmond County Park.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Use of Tech Standard 1100 for Large Greenspaces
PRESENTERS: Prof. Dough Soldat, UW-Madison
Turfgrass accounts for a large percentage of the pervious area in urban/suburban areas. In Wisconsin, turfgrass accounts for acreage equivalent to that of soybeans. Additionally, turfgrass area is expected to grow as urban and suburban areas continue to expand in Wisconsin, and WDNR regulations require nutrient management plans for fertilized turfgrass areas over 5 acres in size.
These facts draw attention to the importance of understanding the effect of turfgrass and its management on the environment. This presentation will review water and nutrient management strategies for turfgrass areas that promote healthy turfgrass and minimize the loss of water and nutrients from the root zone.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Impacts of Residual Road Salt from Groundwater to River Water in Southeastern Wisconsin
PRESENTERS: Prof. Charles Paradis,UW-Milwaukee and Leah Dechant,UW-Milwaukee
This presentation will show high-frequency field data from two locations on the Root River in Racine, Wisconsin during summer rain events to help answer three important questions:
1) What hydrologic component stores chloride in the summer months?
2) What is the original source of chloride? and
3) Is the water that transports chloride old or new, i.e., pre-rainwater or rainwater?
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Impacts of Climate Change on Stormwater Infrastructure Design
PRESENTERS: Rob Montgomery, UW-Madison
The Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts 2021 report presents extensive data on climate change impacts to the state's resources, economy, and infrastructure. Much of these data is useful in defining future conditions for infrastructure design in southeastern Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Rainfall Project provides rainfall statistics for current conditions using radar precipitation data, and for future conditions using downscaled Global Circulation Model projections. Applications of this data to stormwater design scenarios are presented.
Check out the presentation visuals here.
Improving Soil Heath to Reduce Nutrient Loadings
PRESENTERS: Mike Paulus, Clean Farm Families
Learn from local farmers about techniques they are using that have long term impacts on soil health and organic matter, including improved soil structure, enhanced nutrient cycling and retention, increased water retention, and increased microbial activity, all of which help to protect against soil erosion and reduce nutrient loadings to regional waterways,
Check out the presentation visuals here.