From Brian Zumhagen at WNYC:
New York Looks to Philadelphia for Ideas on Sewer Overflow Issues
When it comes to meeting federal clean water standards, New York and other older cities like Boston and Albany are decades behind. One reason is all the human waste that’s discharged every time a storm overwhelms the capacity of 19th century combined sewer systems, which collect rain and sewage in the same pipes. Now New York is looking to another old East Coast city, Philadelphia, for new ideas….
Earlier this spring, a plan came out of Baltimore “Baltimore Waterfront Healthy Harbor Initiative Creating a Swimmable, Fishable Harbor” (emphasis added).
This peaked our interest here at S.W.I.M. headquarters for two main reasons:
1. The vocal purpose of the plan is to attain swimmable, fishable water in an urban center. You mean the Clean Water Act can be met in a city? This document goes to the public with this existing regulatory goal to create a popular incentive for broad collaboration on water quality improvements in the watershed – the expanded use of inner harbor waters for swimming and fishing.
2. The nature of the group releasing this plan seems to be a broad coalition of interest. The Healthy Harbor Initiative partners include: The Waterfront Partnership (something between a standard non-profit and a business improvement district), the Mayor’s Office, agency folks from Public Works and City Planning, technical guidance from BioHabitats, and a long list of business and development partners on the harbor. For a downtown commercial district, this seems to represent the area…any Baltimorians reading who can chime in?
So what can S.W.I.M.ers learn from this report? Of late, water quality planning has been taken on by the Mayor’s Office (PlaNYC and the Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan) and by NYC DEP (The Long Term Control Plans)…see our Resources section for links to both. We have heard “recreation” as a planning goal, but recreation can mean anything from visual contact to swimming, and that’s an important range of options in terms of water quality. Also, if you look for an acknowledgment page in these plans (and find one), you won’t find the kind of public/private/technical alliance behind it as page 2 of the Baltimore Waterfront Healthy Harbor Initiative. Is that partnership element what enables the swimmable/fishable statement? More importantly, will it make the swimmable/fishable goal ACHIEVABLE?
Discuss!
…via our friends at Stormwater, The Journal For Surface Water Quality Professionals
EPA Forum on Protecting US Waters
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public input on how the agency can better protect and improve the health of our waters. For a two- week period, EPA is holding a Web discussion forum on how the nation can better manage some of the most significant water pollution problems facing our nation. The feedback received on the online forum will help shape the discussion at EPA’s upcoming conference in April, Coming Together for Clean Water, where we will engage approximately 100 executive and local level water leads on the agency’s clean water agenda.
“We look forward to reviewing the ideas and feedback from the public,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator EPA’s Office of Water. “This online discussion is for anyone who wants to share their best solutions for restoring healthy waters and creating sustainable communities across the country.”
EPA wants to receive input from water professionals, advocates, and anyone interested in water quality issues about best solutions—from planning, scientific tools, low impact development, to green infrastructure and beyond—in controlling water pollution and how resources can be better focused to improve these efforts.
This in from Mike of culturesystem.org:
“Came across this photo of people swimming in a river that runs through Zurich. I thought it was a beautiful image, the idea of being able to swim in a river in a city. Thought maybe you’d like to share it with your readers.”
Photo by Severin Koller
