NEMO

CT MS4 Guide

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maps and other tools are available online for municipalities working with the MS4 guidelines
The CT MS4 Guide is all available online through UConn Extension’s NEMO program.

The CT MS4 Guide website (http://nemo.uconn.edu/ms4) was established to provide a repository for NEMO trainings, materials, tools, and templates that towns can use and modify to meet local needs. Every year, NEMO will also be providing webinars and workshops to help towns and institutions address the more complex portions of the permit.

In the first year of this program, NEMO educated towns on the new requirements through a series of webinar presentations reaching nearly 500 viewers, travelled to 20 town halls to help staff understand and plan for the new requirements, and held a statewide workshop on detecting and eliminating pollution from the stormwater system. NEMO’s Connecticut MS4 Guide (http://nemo.uconn.edu/ms4) is an online repository for guidance, templates, data, and other tools to help communities comply with new statewide stormwater regulations. NEMO also developed templates that towns could use to create a Stormwater Management Plan, an annual report with town progress for DEEP and citizens, and model local ordinance language to respond to requirements in the permit.

Article by Amanda Ryan, Dave Dickson and Chet Arnold

Stormwater Research from Extension

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stormwater running into a street drain

Our UConn Extension educators working in land use, and the environment have recently published two articles:

Extension Educators Mike Dietz and Chet Arnold have an article, Can Green Infrastructure Provide Both Water Quality and Flood Reduction Benefits?, in the May issue of the Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment. You can read the article online at: http://s.uconn.edu/476

The UConn CLEAR NEMO team recently wrote an article on our State of LID in Connecticut study that was published in the Watershed Science Bulletin. The study looked at what is being required for stormwater management practices by Connecticut municipal land use plans and regulations. Much of the leg work for the study was carried out by our Extension intern a few years ago. The article can be read online at: http://s.uconn.edu/477.

Install a Rain Garden This Spring

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rain garden appWhat is a Rain Garden?

A rain garden is a depression (about 6 inches deep) that collects stormwater runoff from a roof, driveway or yard and allows it to infiltrate into the ground. Rain gardens are typically planted with shrubs and perennials (natives are ideal), and can be colorful, landscaped areas in your yard.

Why a Rain Garden?

Every time it rains, water runs off impervious surfaces such as roofs, driveways, roads and parking lots, collecting pollutants along the way. This runoff has been cited by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a major source of pollution to our nation’s waterways. By building a rain garden at your home, you can reduce the amount of pollutants that leave your yard and enter nearby lakes, streams and ponds.

Learn more, and use our app or resources to install a rain garden on your property.

CLEAR, 20 Years Online

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By Kara Bonsack

Websites have come a long way since the inception of the Internet. While the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s, 1991 is considered the year the World Wide Web went live. In 1995 the last usage restrictions were lifted, clearing the path for the internet to become what we now know it to be today. (history of the internet)

This year marks 15 years CLEAR has been in existence, it became an official UConn center in 2002. However, there are a few programs within CLEAR that predate it, most notably the CT NEMO Program. CT NEMO has been a part of UConn Extension since 1991. And for much of that time, CLEAR and its related programs have been using the power of the internet to help engage and educate its target audience, Connecticut citizens, its towns, municipalities and community leaders.

Chet Arnold, CT NEMO and CLEAR founder and director, likes to point out, NEMO had a website before our University had a website. I’ve done some research into this, and as far as I can tell, he may be right. Using the Way Back Machine, an online archiving website, the first time it created a screen capture of the NEMO website (see image below, left) was in 2000. However, that screen capture shows a text line on the web page noting the site had been visited 20,770 times since July 18, 1997, AND a screen capture a year later adds to this line, “September 02, 1996 if viewing from the older address”. The first screen capture for the University I found (also below, center) was from December of 1996. Either way, an impressive feat, considering I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what the world wide web was in 1996. CLEAR had its own website soon after its official debut in 2002 (first CLEAR homepage shown below, right).

first CLEAR sites

Read more….

Exploring the Results of Low Impact Development (LID)

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ct mapIn addition to reviewing the land use regulations of towns, the NEMO team created an interactive online “Story Map” allowing users to explore the data further (http://s.uconn.edu/stateoflid). The story map combines interactive maps, text, graphics, photos and other media to tell a more compelling story than could otherwise be done by a publication or website. Through the story map you can review the recommend changes to local land use regulations and explore which of those are most (and least) common in CT. It also serves as a database of LID regulations in the state, al-lowing towns to search for where LID-friendly regulations have been adopted and link directly to the actual text and page number. Which makes stealing from your neighbors easy, productive and encouraged. So steal away. Visit the Story Map at http://s.uconn.edu/stateoflid.