April 17th, 2023 1:00-2:00PM Presented by: Juliana Barrett and Chet Arnold; UConn CLEAR Emeritus In this presentation by Juliana Barrett and Chet Arnold we will explore what riparian buffers are and why they are a critical component of both our coastal and inland communities. Riparian buffers play a critical role in water quality and watershed protection, provide […]
NEMO
CT Stormwater Quality Manual Webinar 3: An Update on Stormwater Management in CT Recording
February 27th, 2023 12:00 – 1:00PM Presented by: Mary Looney & Dave Dickson, UConn CLEAR; Kathleen Knight, Chris Stone, & Nicole Kibbe, CT DEEP; Victor Benni, North Branford This webinar is the final one of our CT Stormwater Quality Manual: An Update on Stormwater Management in CT. Stormwater management and its impact on our water […]
Extension Educators Launch School-Based Green Infrastructure Initiative
A few of CLEAR’s Extension Educators were featured in today’s UConn Today article, Extension Educators Launch School-Based Green Infrastructure Initiative. Mike Dietz and Dave Dickson talk about their $100,000 grant, awarded by EPA. With this grant, Dietz and Dickson, along with their team – the Natural Resources Conservation Academy, are focused on partnering with local […]
The New Stormwater Quality Manual: What You Should Know
September 26th, 2023 1:00 – 2:00PM Presented by: Mary Looney & Dave Dickson, UConn CLEAR The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP) has recently updated the 2004 Stormwater Quality Manual and plan to release the newly revised Manual this Fall. CT NEMO has teamed up with CT DEEP to help provide more […]
Regional Stormwater Utilities Efficiencies and Challenges
February 22nd, 2023 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Presented by Jeff Colella, Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority, PA For this webinar, we invite Jeff Colella, Stormwater Division Manager of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority (WVSA) to discuss the program’s experience as a regional stormwater utility and MS4 Administrator in Pennsylvania. In this webinar, we will hear […]
Connecticut Institute of Water Resources Expands Groundwater Safety Efforts
CLEAR’s own Mike Dietz has done it again! Dietz was featured in UConn Today’s Connecticut Institute of Water Resources Expands Groundwater Safety Efforts to discuss his new funding to increase groundwater testing for rural drinking wells. Over the next two years, Dietz is hoping to increase the availability of the service from 25 homeowners to 1,000 homeowners. […]
State of Water in Connecticut
Our very own Mike Dietz was interviewed for UConn Today’s article, State of Water in Connecticut. Dietz talks about the new extremes the state is experiencing with regards to our summer rain, how we can work to become more resilience to droughts and heavy precipitation, and other water issues to stay on top of. Make sure […]
Gaining Public Support with Your Stormwater Utility: The City of Dover
October 5th, 2022 Presented by Gretchen Young PE, City of Dover For our fourth webinar of the series, Gretchen Young PE, the Environmental Projects Manager for the City of Dover, New Hampshire, will discuss the city’s current standing in their process of implementing the state’s first stormwater utility. After an initial unsuccessful attempt at establishing a […]
Stormwater Utility Trends Across the US
June 15th, 2022 Presented by Dr. Warren Campbell, Western Kentucky University Dr. Warren Campbell from Western Kentucky University has been collecting and analyzing information on stormwater utilities in the US for 15 years. He has been described as a human encyclopedia of stormwater utilities. In this webinar, he will dive into how widespread stormwater utilities are […]
UConn Team Wins Second Place in EPA’s 2021 Campus RainWorks Challenge
A group of UConn students, faculty, and staff have won second place in EPA’s 2021 Campus RainWorks Challenge! The team presented a new look for the Avery Point Campus, redesigned with native plants and green stormwater infrastructure in order to better mitigate and reduce the impacts of stormwater pollution. This proposed disconnections of impervious cove, […]
Stormwater Utility Webinar Series: South Burlington
Introducing out next stormwater utility webinar, Starting A Stormwater Utility: Learning from the South Burlington Experience! In this webinar, the Stormwater Superintendent of South Burlington, VT, Dave Wheeler, will discuss the process of establishing the first stormwater utility in the state. This webinar will provide further detail on various aspects of setting up and […]
You Might Want to Consider a Stormwater Utility
April 5th, 2020 Presented By Dave Dickson and Mary Looney, UConn CLEAR In the 2021 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a law authorizing all CT towns to set up a stormwater utility/fee. Stormwater utilities are often touted as an equitable way to help pay for increasing municipal stormwater management costs while also helping […]
The NEMO Rain Garden App – Reborn!
March 24, 2021 Presented By Dave Dickson, UConn Extension and CLEAR Nearly eight years ago, CLEAR’s NEMO program first launched an app to help homeowners, landscapers, developers, and municipalities properly site, size, install, and maintain a rain garden to help protect their water resources. The app has since expanded to include state-specific rain garden sizing […]
Water Quality Challenges in Groundwater Influenced Streams
May 20, 2020 Presented By Dr. Ashley Helton, UConn Department of Natural Resources and the Environment Groundwater discharge zones along river networks sustain water flow and provide thermal refugia for aquatic organisms while also acting as conduits of legacy contaminants, including nitrogen. Efforts to protect and manage groundwater-influenced stream ecosystems, however, are limited by our […]
Green Snow-Pro Training: Proven to Reduce Road Salt Impacts
May 6, 2020 Presented By Dr. Mike Dietz, UConn Department of Extension, CLEAR, CT Institute of Water Resources Let’s face it, the weather is improving (slightly), and the last thing anyone wants to think about is winter and road salt. However, now is the time to start planning for next year! New Hampshire’s Green Snow Pro […]
Collaboratives & Utilities: New Options for Municipal Stormwater Management
March 30, 2020 Presented By Amanda Ryan, CLEAR MS4 Extension Options for funding stormwater management efforts in Connecticut are expanding. While our region has been slow to adopt stormwater utilities for raising funds for stormwater management efforts, that may be beginning to change with the state’s first-ever stormwater utility approved in the City of New […]
New option for taking nitrogen samples
There wasn’t a cheap and simple way to take field measurements of Total Nitrogen (TN). Samples had to be sent to a lab – until now! To help reduce water quality testing costs, CT DEEP agreed to allow MS4 communities to use less expensive field tests for nitrate and ammonia to estimate Total Nitrogen. If […]
Is your water safe to drink?
If you are like most people, as long as water comes out of the tap, you don’t give it much thought. If your water is supplied by a water company, stringent testing is required by law, and you will periodically receive results of the testing. If you are one of the 40% of Connecticut residents […]
Stormwater Utilities in Connecticut
October 1, 2019 Presented By Amanda Ryan, UConn CLEAR, David Dickson, UConn CLEAR, Joe Lanzafame, City of New London and Randy Collins, CT Conference of Municipalities (CCM) Stormwater utilities are used across the country as a way for municipalities to cover the costs of installing and maintaining their stormwater infrastructure. The concept has been slow […]
New Template for Mapping Your Stormwater System
A new tool is available to make it easier for communities to create or enhance a map of their stormwater system. The CT GIS Network‘s Standards Committee has collaborated with the CT Department of Transportation (CTDOT)to develop a Stormwater System Mapping Template. The template provides a framework for mapping everything from your catch basins to […]