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INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Sustainable Watershed Resources Management -
the Shepherd Creek Pilot Project
Sustainable watershed resources
management is an approach to
ecosystem restoration and
management that incorporates social
equity, economic stabilization, and
environmental quality, and seeks to
preserve what is valued most about
our national water resources by
finding solutions that are more
natural and easier to implement and
to sustain. Through this form of
resources management, citizens,
regulators, and service providers
work together to address particular
environmental problems.
For example, urbanized conditions
in mixed-use urban and rural
watersheds increase the risk of
downstream flooding, stream
channel degradation, and damage to
both aquatic and terrestrial
ecosystems. There is a dearth of
experience and data on retrofitting
watersheds to minimize these
environmental impacts. To fill this
gap in knowledge and sustainably
meet resource management needs in
a small urban watershed, in 2004 the
Shepherd Creek Pilot Project was
started as a field research program.
Project Site
The project site is located in the
Shepherd Creek watershed, a mixed
land-use watershed located near
Cincinnati, Ohio. Here, suburban
development converts precipitation
into large volumes of runoff that
affects stream ecosystem health, and
contributes stormwater to waste-
water systems, leading to combined
and septic sewer overflows.
Urban storm flow
(shown at right) and a
rain garden (far right)
installed as a part of
the Shepherd Creek
Pilot Project.
Project Overview
The goals of the project were to
determine the effectiveness and
feasibility of using economic
incentives to encourage more
sustainable watershed or regional
land and resource use. To meet those
goals, EPA scientists have
researched the problem of excess
stormwater runoff from the
perspectives of the environment,
economics, and the law. To address
the environmental perspective,
hydrologic, biogeochemical and
ecological impacts were monitored.
The core of the project is its
assessment of economic incentives
to promote retrofitting of stormwater
management practices (SWMPs) in
a suburban watershed and to
decrease excess storm water runoff.
Although storm water is typically
conveyed to centralized detention,
retention, or treatment structures,
there is great potential for residents
to reduce stormwater runoff through
source control, water detention or
water infiltration.
Landowners are keenly aware that
while parcel-level SWMPs might
generate significant social benefits,
the costs may be privately borne.
These costs can be adequately offset
by providing an economic incentive.
Yet, offering landowners too little an
incentive is ineffective while
offering too much is inefficient.
Voluntary programs that use reverse
auctions as incentives were implem-
ented to spur citizen participation in
effective and sustainable stormwater
management. Two reverse auctions
were held (spring 2007, 2008),
which led to 83 rain gardens and 170
rain barrels being installed.
EPA researchers probed these basic
research questions in the project:
• Can a market-based mechanism
provide appropriate incentives to
install on-lot SWMPs throughout a
small Midwestern watershed?
• Will the incentives induce the
placement of an adequate number of
SWMPs, and will implementation
result in quantifiable hydrologic,
ecological, and water quality
improvements in this watershed?
Monitoring
An important part of the project is
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
EPA 600-F11016
June 2011
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the gathering of baseline ecological,
hydrologic, and water quality data.
Monitoring allows inferences to be
made about what contributes to the
effectiveness of economic incentives
and to the resulting distribution of
SWMPs in meeting environmental
management objectives.
Baseline ecological, hydrologic, and
water quality data collection took
place from 2004 through the spring
of 2007. Monitoring continued
through May 201 latter the
installation of stormwater
management practices.
Ecological data were gathered from
October to May of each year from
2004 to 2007 to quantify the
presence, absence, and composition
of periphyton and macroinvertebrate
assemblages. Methods were
bolstered by the Qualitative Habitat
Evaluation Index protocol.
EPA researchers installed a
hydrologic monitoring infrastructure
to measure discharge (across several
spatial scales) from rain gardens and
rain barrels, neighborhood
stormwater outfalls, subwatersheds,
and the outlet of the watershed. An
updated soils assessment, baseline
stream geomorphic surveys, and an
assessment of impervious surface
connectivity at the parcel level were
completed between 2004 and 2006.
Results and Conclusions
Given a 22% participation rate
(which is impressive for these types
of programs) and the fact that an
average of 66% of participants bid
$0 for one garden and up to four
barrels, we concluded that the
incentives were a success; they were
well-tuned to citizen expectations
and perceptions of what they could
do to help mitigate the stormwater
problem The rain gardens and rain
barrels have added a considerable
amount of detention capacity to the
watershed.
The initial hydrologic analysis
showed that there was an overall
significant decrease in runoff,
though this decrease was quite
small. This suggests that the effect
of the treatment has reached a
threshold point and that if additional
stormwater management practices
(e.g., swales in the right-of-way to
moderate road runoff, more citizens
to participate, etc.) were
implemented, the benefits would
accrue more quickly.
EPA continues to study the
effectiveness of these measures in
ongoing research projects.
Project Team
Co-Leads: WD Shuster, H Thurston
Law and Policy: A Garmestani
Water Quality: O Shanks, L Boczek
Biology and ecological assessments:
J Beaulieu
Collaborators
Hamilton County Soil and Water
Conservation District; Hamilton
County Engineers Office; Cincinnati
Health Department; Cincinnati
Metropolitan Sewer District;
Cincinnati Parks: EPA Region 5;
EPA Region 5 Central Regional
Laboratory; U.S. Geological Survey;
U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Natural Resource Conservation
Service
Publications (reprints available
upon request)
Parikh, P., M. Taylor, T. Hoagland,
et al. (2005). "At the Intersection of
Hydrology, Economics, and Law:
Application of Market Mechanisms
and Incentives to Reduce Storm
Water Runoff." Environmental
Science and Policy, 8, 2: 133-144.
Shuster, W., H. Thurston, E.
Warnemuende, et al. (2005).
"Impacts of Impervious Surface on
Watershed Hydrology: A Review."
Urban Water Journal, 2, 4.
Thurston, H. (2006). "Opportunity
Costs of Residential Best
Management Practices for Storm
Water Runoff Control." Journal of
Water Resource Planning and
Management, 132, 2: 89-96.
Shuster, W., R. Gehring, and J.
Gerken. (2007). "Prospects for
Enhanced Ground Water Recharge
via Infiltration of Urban Storm
Water Runoff- A Case Study." J.
Soil Water Conservation, 62: 129-
137.
See also:
Mt. Airy Rain Catchers
www.mtairyraincatchers.org/
Contact
William Shuster, Ph.D., Office of
Research & Development, 513-569-
7244, shuster.william@epa.gov
Hale Thurston, Office of Research &
Development, 513-569-7627,
thurston.hale@epa.gov
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
EPA 600-F11016
June 2011
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