Academies teach stormwater
regulations, BMPs

Stormwater regulations in North Carolina and across the country are targeted on best management practices (BMPs) designs.

To learn how to use BMPs to comply with these regulations, more than 300 members of the development community, including engineers, planners, landscape architects, surveyors, developers, environmentalists and concerned citizens have attended stormwater academies in North Carolina in Winston-Salem, Wilson, Lenoir, Wilmington, Asheville and Raleigh.

The academies are so popular that they've also been held in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Arizona.

Neuse Education Team (NET) member Dr. Bill Hunt, who is lead instructor, and others, such as Bill Lord, NET member and N.C. Cooperative Extension agent in environmental education and Jonathan Smith, Extension assistant in water quality, teach the courses. Other instructors include Bradley Bennett and Todd St. John of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

"These academies are very valuable because there just aren't that many sources for information out there right now," says Mark Senior, a stormwater services engineer for the City of Raleigh. "Developers and builders have to meet the new stormwater regulations, and they'd like to do that. It helps if you have somebody who can tell us how to proceed and what it will cost.

"Bill is providing the information so we can do the job. And he's doing a lot of hands-on work - what's working, what's not - with actual practices on the ground," he says. "That's helpful because people can actually look at and feel the BMPs, not just a lot of pictures in a book."

Says Hunt, "This training's goal is to briefly review existing stormwater BMP design standards, introduce new research and suggest changes to the design standards based upon the research. It's a great opportunity to learn what's coming down the pike and give your valuable suggestions to the people who write the rules."

Participants gain valuable insight into present and future stormwater BMP designs, including stormwater wetlands, level spreaders, permeable pavements, bioretention areas and green roofs, Hunt says. The classes review current stormwater BMP design standards and learn about new research that affects the design standards. Depending on their technical level, participants learn either how to design stormwater BMPs, or at least where to site them and how they work. Hunt encourages registrants to submit their design questions in advance of the workshop so presenters can prepare accordingly.

That customized approach is another popular feature of the classes.

Ron Sutton, a civil engineer in Wilson, says the tours offered as part of the courses "allow us to ask questions on the spot regarding the BMPs' designs, costs and maintenance. That's important from a design decision viewpoint, because each site is different, and you might not use the same BMP on every site."

North Carolina professional engineers and registered land surveyors may claim six credit hours for the one-day program. Landscape architects and planners may appeal to their respective boards to obtain professional education credit.

NC State University, the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources jointly sponsor the academies' North Carolina versions.

To register: Kathryn Murray, 919.515.7154; e-mail: soils_training@ncsu.edu; fax: Attention Kathryn @ 919.515.7494; on the Web: www.soil.ncsu.edu/training/ or by snail mail to: Kathryn Murray, Soil Science Dept., Box 7619, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695-7619.

Also: Gretchen Steelman, NC State Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department, gusteelm@unity.ncsu.edu, 919.515.2675

Web site: http://www.soil.ncsu.edu/swetc/stormwater2/2003/main.htm

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