NEMO

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 […]

Harnessing Student Power to Find Greener Stormwater Options

If you were out and about in the towns of North Haven, Milford, Hamden, West Haven or Cheshire this summer, you may have seen a team of four young adults writing on clipboards, snapping pictures of parking lots, laying their phones down on the sidewalk, and peering down into storm drains. These four intrepid UConn […]

CT’s First Stormwater Utility!

Earlier this summer, New London became the first municipality in Connecticut to establish a stormwater utility which goes into effect January 1, 2019.  This means they will begin charging all property owners a fee for their contribution to the city’s stormwater runoff.  Previously, New London relied on property taxes to fund maintenance of their stormwater […]

Another win for rain gardens

It’s well known that rain gardens are great for infiltrating stormwater but people may not realize that they also help destroy common stormwater pollutants. Several studies have found that rather than accumulating pollutants in their soils, rain gardens tend to biodegrade them instead.  One study (LeFevre et al., 2011) investigated petroleum hydrocarbon levels in 58 […]

New Hampshire’s Green Snow Pro: Would it Work in CT?

March 20, 2018 Presented By Ted Diers from the NH Watershed Management Bureau & Mary McCarthy, Program Manager, Educational Outreach The State of New Hampshire has developed a novel way to provide for effective snow management and removal while also reducing impacts of chlorides on the environment. The Green Snow Pro program provides training and […]

What is a CFS anyway?

Certified Forestry Surveyor? Calculated Fournier Series? A recent conversation (most likely over a beer, but that doesn’t really factor in here…) with my neighbor provided fodder for this post. We were mapping out our route for opening day of fishing season, and I commented that the Fenton was running over 150 cfs, so it might […]

Consequences of Road Salt Use in Connecticut

February 14, 2017 Presented By Mike Dietz, UConn CLEAR & Lukas McNaboe, UConn Grad Student Road salt use continues to increase in cold regions of North America. State Departments of Transportation and Municipal Public Works managers need to provide safe travel conditions for the public, however all of the salt applied to our roads ends […]

Drought in Connecticut? Who knew?

Connecticut is not the first place that would likely come to mind if I asked you to come up with a part of the country that experiences drought; the desert southwest and California might typically be first on the list. However, southern New England has received less than normal amounts of precipitation for the past […]

Groundwater 101

November 9, 2016 Presented By Dr. Gary Robbins, Dept of Natural Resources & the Environment, University of Connecticut Connecticut has an abundance of good quality groundwater owing to its geologic past. In this webinar, Dr. Gary Robbins, Hydrogeologist at UCONN, will discuss our groundwater resources—where they are, how much we might have and use, their […]

NEMO Program to Help Communities Navigate the New Stormwater Permit

  CLEAR’s venerable, award-winning NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) Program is embarking on a five-year program to assist Connecticut communities in complying with the state’s revised “General Permit for the Discharge of Stormwater from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems,” or the MS4 permit. Stormwater runoff is a major source of flooding, erosion and […]

A Firsthand Rain Garden

Stormwater is one of the largest polluters of surface water in our area. When rain falls to the ground and lands on impervious surfaces (such as roads, rooves, driveways, and more), the water collects all of the pollutants on this impervious cover and dumps them in concentrated amounts wherever the stormwater drains to. Often, the […]

New Stormwater Regulations Spur a Look Back

Our family gatherings often involve interesting discussions (aka arguments) on politics, religion or other fun topics. Occasionally the conversations stray into the environmental arena. Although many in my family argue against “big government” getting in the way of everything, they have had to agree that some federal regulations like the Clean Water act and the […]

Low Impact Development in CT: Policies, Drivers, and Barriers

April 5, 2016 Presented By David Dickson & Chet Arnold, UConn CLEAR The concept of low impact development (LID) has been around for quite some time now. So….is Connecticut buying it? If so, how much? If not, why not? New research by CLEAR’s NEMO Program provides some answers to these questions. This webinar will review […]

A Map in an App: Drainage Class for 25 States

The Rain Garden App  In case you haven’t heard, a couple of years ago, NEMO (David Dickson and Mike Dietz) created a cool smartphone app that is all about building rain gardens.  It is full of background information including what a rain garden is, how it works, pictures of existing rain gardens and even videos about how […]

Rain Garden 2014 Growing Season Time Lapse

The rain garden demonstration site at the Middlesex County Extension Center in Haddam (CLEAR and NEMO’s home-base) was installed in May 2012. It was originally installed to be featured in two new NEMO projects, a smartphone application and a “how to” rain garden website, both now complete. The two projects focus on helping people easily […]