Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District

Wet Weather Initiative

Meeting Minutes

May 23, 2002

Present: Tom Ryther, Chair; Holly Utrata-Halcomb, HCSWD; Jeff Leedy, HC Public Works; Ken Edgell, HCDOES; Nancy Ellwood, MCWC; Jim Rozelle, FMSM; Karen Ball, HC Commission (Portune); John Hunter, LWVCA; Ann Lyon, Greenacres Foundation; Sam George, City of Cincinnati SMU/MSD; Marty Umberg, MSD; Frank Rothfuss, Woolpert LLP; Jason Hanauer, HCGHD; Brian Bohl, HCSWD; Ali Bahar, SMU/MSD; LuAnn Winkle, Little Miami RP; Bret Henninger, Hamilton County Park District

IMPACT OF RECENT STORMS ON FLOODING IN HAMILTON COUNTY Jeff Leedy, Hamilton County Public Works Department, reported little damage throughout the unincorporated areas of the county. The system established by the Counties Earthworks Regulations in 1990 seems to be working well. Problems tend to be on older properties where the owners modified water courses, a practice not allowed by current regulations.

Sam George, Cincinnati Stormwater District, reported that the system worked very well. Problems consisted of clogged storm drains and some hillside slippage where older properties were constructed on fill.

LuAnn Winkle reported that Little Miami Flooding was not severe during recent rain events.

Nancy Ellwood, MCWC, reported that Sharonville and Evendale had virtually no problems with flooding during these events. A fairly significant log jam has accumulated on Mill Creek near the West Fork junction.

Group consensus was that, while total rainfall has been high, spacing and duration of events has minimized flooding impacts.

HAMILTON COUNTY STORMWATER TASK FORCE UPDATE - Jim Rozelle
The HC Storm water Task Force Steering Committee has developed recommendations for a two phased approach to dealing with storm water issues. Initially, a small Storm Water District would be organized under ORC 6117 (as is MSD) and would have 5 -6 employees. This District would be responsible for administering the NPDES Phase II Permit program on a county-wide basis. The Storm Water District approach has received widespread interest and support from jurisdictions throughout the County. Once this District is in place and the Phase II Permit Application and Implementation Plan has been submitted to Ohio EPA, then the Storm Water Study Executive Committee would address other storm water issues such as flooding and erosion control to determine if some or all of the local governments in the County want to expand the role of the Storm Water District to deal with these areas of concern.

Karen Ball asked if the plan was to form the Stormwater District before the end of 2002 or 2003. The sequence should be: establish District; establish Phase II Permit for the County; develop and implement stormwater management plans. Fees are need earlier rather than later in order to provide funds for the process.

OHIO STORMWATER TASK FORCE UPDATE -Holly Utrata-Halcolmb
The Ohio Stormwater Task Force (OSWTF) is a grassroots organization made up of a wide variety of stakeholders throughout the state. They are funded by a Section 319 grant of the Clean Water Act to look at watershed management issues throughout the state. . Holly is chair of the Stormwater Task Force Communications Committee. OSWTF has joined with and become a stormwater subcommittee of the Water Management Association of Ohio in order to benefit from WMAO's established structure and related committees. Several categories of membership have been created to meet individual needs.

OSWTF held a planning retreat for a newly formed Urban Stormwater Committee. The committee plans to raise awareness of stormwater management as an urban issue, building on the success of the earlier workshop, "Taking the Tri-state by Storm". Anyone wishing to be on the mailing list for minutes and updates should give their name to Holly.

COMPASS/PLANNING PARTNERSHIP, STORMWATER EDUCATION COMMITTEE, UPDATE - Brian Bohl
The Committee is developing a Directory to Stormwater BMPs, a training manual, a training program for presentation to interested communities. The program will have a trial run-through for the City of Wyoming Planning and Zoning Board. The presentation might be suitable for a future Wet Weather Initiative meeting.

COMMITTEE REPORTS
WWI chair, Tom Ryther urged all members of the WWI to serve on at least one committee and circulated a copy of WWI committees, goals, and actions. Committee membership signups were as follows:

Stormwater Management -Jom Rozelle, Chair
Ali Bahar, Tim Brankamp, John Hunter, LuAnn Winkle.

Data Collection- Ann Lyon, Marty Umberg; Co-chairs
Ali Bahar, Ken Edgell, Jason Hannauer, Bret Henninger

Education - Holy Utrata-Halcomb, Chair
Brian Bohl, Nancy Ellwood, Sam George, Ken Leedy

Karen Ball will serve as an ex-officio member of all three committees.

Stormwater Management Committee Jim Rozelle accepted the appointment to be Chair of the Stormwater Management committee. Members interested in serving on the committee should contact Jim or Tom.

Education Committee Holy Utrata-Halcomb, committee chair, proposed that WWI develop a directory of contacts for immediate response to water quality and quantity problems. Karen Ball suggested that a MSD "hotline" that redirected calls to the appropriate agency might be easier for people to use. Marty agreed to work with the committee on the idea.

A second committee proposal was to develop a stormwater educational program for regional audiences to supplement the Hamilton County Stormwater Task Force presentations to officials of the various jurisdictions. The "Stormwater 101" powerpoint program developed by the Ohio Stormwater Task Force would be appropriate for that purpose. Low turnout for general public meetings was a concern however the broad attendance at the "Taking the Tri-State by Storm" stormwater workshop was cited as evidence that the level of interest is high enough to suggest that low turnout need not be assumed.

Signage committee subcommittee report - Nancy Ellwood The Colerain Township Watershed Signage and Awareness is well underway. Signs are reflective white on blue with the name of the watershed with a small sign identifying the stream underneath. Signs have been placed at road crossings over tributaries of the Great Miami River and the West Fork Mill Creek within Colerain Township. Five graduate students from the Miami University Institute of Environmental Sciences are carrying out the effort as a public service project with partnering by Hamilton County Engineers Office, Colerain Township, WWI's Watershed Signage Sub-committee, and the Mill Creek Watershed Council. The project is partly funded by an OEPA grant. Surveys completed before and after the signage was installed indicate significant increased awareness by area residents. It is hoped that the Hamilton County Engineers Office will take over maintenance of the signage.

Data Collection Committee Ann Lyons and Marty Umberg, Co-Chairs, reported. A monitoring workshop was held at MSD in March. A report will be presented to WWI at the June meeting. There are many organizations carrying out water monitoring projects throughout the area. A database of organizations with monitoring data is being developed. The Little Miami River Volunteer Monitoring Database is available at its website, http://129.137.4.197/lmr/. Ultimately, the plan is to have monitoring data available as a layer on CAGIS.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS
The County Commissioners are considering a stream flow monitoring pilot project covering pre- and post-development flows in order to determine if a need exists to improve water retention regulations. Marty Umberg was asked to provide a draft copy of the RFP for the pilot study at the next WWI meeting. A motion was made, seconded and passed without dissent for the Chair to submit a letter of support to the County Commission for the monitoring pilot project.

Nancy Ellwood announced that the Mill Creek Watershed Council will hold a Flood-Proofing Workshop for property owners in the fall of 2002.

Brian Bohl announced that HCSWCD will be holding a Streamside Stormwater Management workshop on September 12, 2002. He will have more information at the June WWI meeting.

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the WWI committee will be at 9:30 am at DOES, 250 Wm. Howard Taft, on Thursday, June 27, 2002. The program will feature a presentation by Marty Umberg, MSD, on the status of the RFP for stream modeling.