URBAN WATERS A Partnership Restoring Urban Waters, Revitalizing Communities WLEB Urban Waters Partnership Meeting - 4/29/2021 NOTES D. Foster; C. Rice Mike Young, Woodlawn Cemetery and Toledo Design Collective Erica Cross, US Senator Brown's Office Tim Schetter, Metroparks Toledo Kalyn Swihart, Sen Portman's office Kris Patterson - Partners for Clean Streams Meija Knafl, SE Michigan - River Raisin Watershed Steph Miller ODNR Forestry Tory Gabriel Joe Perlaky, Maumee Valley Growers John Kusnier, (for Sally Gladwell) Mannik & Smith Group Sandra Kosek-Sills, Ohio Lake Erie Commission Dave Lampe, US Geological Survey Laura Johnson, Heidelberg University Marylyn DuFour, City of Toledo and Rain Garden Initiative Deborah Millsak, USFWS Contaminant Specialist Chris Orvin, EPA UWFP team Lead Patti Toneff, Woodlawn Cemetery Cheryl Rice, USDA NRCS Ray Paoletta Patekka Pope-Bannister, City of Toledo Drinking Water Commissioner Sandy Bihn, Lake Erie Waterkeepers Sara Guiher - Toledo Council of Governments Shanna Towns - Toledo Stormwater Shannon Nabors, Ohio EPA NW Ohio Office Paul Thomas, USEPA Kent Ring - Marcy Kaptur's Office Amber Bellamy USFWS Paul Buszka USGS Edith Kippenhan, City of Toledo Kris Patterson, Director, Partners for Clean Streams PCS was established in 2007. Typically, PCS has a 3- 5 member staff. Programs are about education and outreach related to water so they can really take ownership of local waters. There has been much work on marine debris programs removing trash, fishing lines lead, and lures. Also, Clean Your Streams programs, prevention programs working with local partners to collect fishing line so it can be recycled, debris awareness, boat trips on the Sandpiper, and storm drain marking. PCS on Adapting to COVID Pandemic - Requiring masks, small groups, individual based/ household activities. Promoting Clean Swell application to track trash that was picked up promoted and used to connect families with stewardship when they are out and about. ------- On-line workshop to participate in the Merit Badge program. Rain Barrel Sale, Staff and Family Clean-up, AOC Meeting and grant writing; AOC meetings and updates to our non-point source programs. Clean Your Streams programs - Supplies and data cards were lent out to groups - 51 miles, almost 2,000 lbs. of trash picked up. Partnered with NW Ohio River Runners and Toledo MetroParks - Maumee river Islands and Swan Creek. Clean Your Streams Day - 431 safe distance volunteers, 79 sites cleaned and +33K items removed $17K pounds of debris moved. Food wrappers have now become the majority this year (plastic pieces vs cigarette butts which has led as the dominant trash item in the past 25 years). Many of the programs will continue as virtual programs although getting out there and meeting with partners and friends was missed. PCS in 2020: Over 6000 volunteers in 2020 and 20K pounds of trash removed. Laura Johnson, Heidelberg University loading Program. Began monitoring sites in 1974 and have 23 sampling locations. Each station has a building with automated samples. Samples are collected three times a day. Analyze all samples during large storm events and otherwise sample once a day. Trends Across the WLEB: Maumee - What is the cause of the return of blooms to Lake Erie? (Most common question) Long-term trends in annual nutrient concentrations 1974 2019. Nitrate-Nitrogen and Particulate Phosphorus has been reduced due to agricultural BMPs. Dissolved reactive Phosphorous is really easy for algae to use. DRP availability can also be correlated with drought years. Shared 5-year trends in Maumee, Sandusky, Honey and Rock watersheds. The trends are based on agricultural use and soil type/land use. Note: In the Cuyahoga trends have been tracked and there has been a steady decrease due sewer treatment plant effluent. Finding is that most P and N comes from land runoff. See OEPA Report 2018. Harmful Algae Blooms - Data from 2011, 2015, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2020 is able to show how closely related P loading and flow are correlated. This is an interesting way to track other external inputs into the system if they are outside the parameters of the flow. For instance, in 2019 it was a really wet overall spring and crop planting did not occur so there was a 30% decline. Particulate P in 2020 can be related to the fact that farmers were now preparing filed for planting again and thus this contributed to higher rates of particulate P. Still learning loads about the Maumee and Lake Erie Blooms, but dissolved Nitrogen continues to be the primary concern. MetroParks Toledo, Reforestation Project, Tim Schetter MetroParks Toledo -12,700 acres, 17 open parks, 180 mile of trails, three ecoregions (Oak Openings, Lake Erie Marshes, Forest), 77 endangered or threatened species. Land Use is primarily agricultural(78%) Urban Development (12%) and Natural Areas (10%). Habitat and Water quality are the two overarching Reforestation Objectives. Social Objectives include Environmental Justice and Community Engagement. Since 2019, planted 148,000 trees. Many partners enable this Clean Ohio Fund, NFWF, GLRI, USFS and many others. Overview of USFS grants - Secor Metropark (Oak Openings Region) expanding parks into more urban areas and reforestation of past agricultural lands. 70 acres of new forest will be added to the landscape of 610 acres. Contracted planting. ------- Garfield Greenway Reforestation - Planting 4,600 trees with volunteers and members of the community. Very close integration with Toledo School. Ravine site soils were too poor to support tree planting, looking at using dredge material for future use. Work Plan Discussion - Destinee Henton and Peg Donnelly Request for partners to add their projects. This information is valuable to the partnership for congressional inquiries, site visits and funding. Existing and possible projects are welcome. WLEB UWFP requests partners to share some thoughts on the work plan, process for updating the work plan and/or projects. Peg may know of funding that EPA and USACE may have available. UWFP Five Star program is funded by many partners all the funds go Partners Updates: Newsletter Updates from WLEB UWFP - Many funding opportunities, also send any news to Destinee Henton and she will add it to the monthly newsletter in an interim newsletter if it needs to be timely. Cheryl Rice - on recent NRCS updates in the WLEB Basin Three new Regional Conservation Partnership Projects were selected and recently announced - https://nrcs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Shortlist/index. html?appid=ab6aa86f9aea48e2af92edl65450dll0 Patekka Pope-Bannister - Looking at putting a dryer in our spent line waste facility and finding a use for it. One Water Summit, American Rivers - Looking at planning in the city of Toledo. Working with partners on a lead pipe removal project per an environmental justice project. Patekka will reach out to American Rivers to create a plan. Edith Kippenhan, City of Toledo has trash traps and is planning on working with Partners for Clean Streams to get them into the water. Having the funding for long term maintenance of the trash traps. Scheduled to put 7 (3 Ottawa River, 4 Maumee). Possible presentation in a future WLEB UWFP. Sandra Kosek-Sills - Ohio EPA and OLEC are actively looking for nutrient reduction projects for our next GLRI grant so contact myself or Rick Wilson if you have anything (that is identified in a 9-element plan). Paul Buszka the USGS of UWFP is a program within USGS water quality that supplies 50% of the cost of water quality data collection within an UWFP location. Funds have covered Gary, stream flow gages to facilitate gaging. The funding can last up the 3 years with long-term funding via internal USGS funding or other funding if/when it comes available. It is a cost share funding program, but the cost share cannot be in-kind it must be cash. Marilyn DuFour - Toledo Rain Garden Initiative and Sacred Grounds Toledo is in the process of installing rain gardens or pollinator gardens at Queen of Apostles School (Old South End), Redemption Baptist Church and Ironwood Community Garden (East Toledo), Friendship Baptist Church (West Toledo) and Congregation B'nai Israel (Sylvania Township) this spring and working on a planning guide, a self-guided tour and video story-telling for some of our faith communities with MidStory. Thanks to NFWF and USEPA for the flexibility to finish the financial piece and continue with the on-the-ground work. Many faith communities have been remote since last March. Amber Bellamy USFWS - USFWS is preparing to head out in a week or so for field work in support of the Maumee, Black, and Cuyahoga AOCs. ------- Steph Miller ODNR Forestry - For anyone who has tree and forest work, please remember that the Ohio Division of Forestry has both Service Foresters and Urban Foresters to consult you. Destinee is available to all. Reach out to her with any questions, funding etc. Next Meeting: Thursday, July 29, 2021 ------- |