Clean Water Works
CLEVELAND, OHIO: From the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, an in-depth and fun conversation led by Donna Friedman and Mike Uva on any and all topics related to clean water, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, and the people, projects, and programs serving Lake Erie and our local waterways and communities.
Clean Water Works
Ohio Stormwater Conference 2024
SANDUSKY, OH: Anything you want to know about stormwater management you can learn at the Ohio Stormwater Conference. This year's event was held at Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, with attendees engaging in cutting-edge discussions on environmental issues and emerging technologies. Discover the unique networking opportunities presented at the OSC, which can benefit students and others looking to enter the field.
Learn more about the annual Ohio Stormwater Conference.
This episode's guests:
David Ritter, Manager of Watershed Technical Support, NEORSD
Angela Brodie, NOWCorps Program Director
Callie Sommers, Cuyahoga Soil & Water Conservation District
Nina White, Tinker's Creek Watershed Partners
Shawn Robinson, Environmental Compliance Inspector, NEORSD
Erica Matheny, Executive Director, Tinker's Creek Watershed Partners
Harry Stark, Director of Public Services, City of Aurora
Allison Stark, Student, Kent State University
Kevin Jehl, Advanced Drainage Systems
Mike Cook, Advanced Drainage Systems
Hey, I'm going to One Water in Ohio.
Speaker 2:Okay, back up. One Water is when is that?
Speaker 1:Wastewater, a little bit of storm water, drinking water, and it's at Kalahari.
Speaker 2:Oh is it. Well, I got a lot to say about Kalahari.
Speaker 1:I'm really excited, tell me.
Speaker 2:What's your?
Speaker 1:first on your list, because the first thing on my list is how many animals did you take photos with at Kalahari?
Speaker 2:I didn't take any photos this year.
Speaker 1:Why? Because I wasn't there to be in them and make funny faces.
Speaker 2:Well, you weren't there to take the pictures. Longtime listeners of this podcast will recall that we did an episode about the Ohio Stormwater Conference.
Speaker 1:And tapas.
Speaker 2:And tapas restaurants. It's an annual conference. It's been held at the Kalahari Resort the last couple of years in Sandusky Ohio. We had the debate about how you pronounce it and whether that means you're regionally associated Kalahari.
Speaker 1:I think, just the way you said regionally, regionally Gives away Kalahari. I think, just the way you said, regionally, regionally Gives away Kalahari.
Speaker 2:So it's an annual conference and it's all about understanding stormwater and watershed management. They talk about environmental issues, new technologies, regulatory changes, pollution prevention, and it's a good opportunity for anyone interested in this field to learn what the latest and greatest advances in stormwater technology are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think they have like a student price too, like if you're a student and you wanted to go and you're in high school or in college, they have like a really discounted rate. So that's a good opportunity, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so that's one of the reasons we're doing this kind of bonus episode on the Ohio Stormwater Conference 2024. I went this year. Donna was not able to go, but I want to tell you about the food.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're starting with the food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, go ahead. They had really good food.
Speaker 1:Did they have nachos?
Speaker 2:They had those tiny little potatoes.
Speaker 1:I think they call them fingerling potatoes, oh okay, not cut small, like actually small.
Speaker 2:Like actually small, all right, asparagus.
Speaker 1:Heard of it.
Speaker 2:They had these biscuits with like a honey glaze on them.
Speaker 1:Okay, Was there chicken like fried chicken?
Speaker 2:Kielbasa.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's kind of an interesting combination, it was interesting, so it was pretty good so. I want to give a shout out to that, okay, and I also.
Speaker 2:It's a recommendation If and also it's a recommendation If you do go to this thing, the food's pretty good.
Speaker 1:Okay and there's a theme yeah, and this year's theme was Well, last year's was what?
Speaker 2:Hawaiian something.
Speaker 1:It was a whole luau.
Speaker 2:This year was country western.
Speaker 1:What do you think next year's going to be Under the sea? Dancing with the stars Lion King, I mean. I feel like that would be the most appropriate given the setting.
Speaker 2:Because of all the animals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like Lion King, or Under the Sea because you're at a water park. You would really get away with both.
Speaker 2:A couple of people from the sewer district were there hanging out. Learned a little bit about our drone program.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So I got some ideas for future episodes. I think we got to talk about drones, oh, okay, so I got some ideas for future episodes.
Speaker 1:I think we got to talk about drones, Sean Robinson kind of a new guy here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dave Ritter was there, our master planner. Talk to him. Speaking of students, I talked to a couple of students from the NowCore program. Oh, great.
Speaker 2:And that's one of the reasons we want to promote the Ohio Stormwater Conference. I know we do this recap, but I really want to encourage anyone interested in the field, especially students, to get on the mailing list of the Ohio Stormwater Conference. If you go to ohstormwaterconferencecom, you can subscribe for email updates to get a heads up next time around. So it's a good thing to go to the students, talk about what they're getting involved in and why it's a good networking opportunity, and talk to the organizers of the event again and also talk to some of the vendors. We're going to hear a little bit from a bunch of people here, and here we go. We are here at the 2024 Ohio Stormwater Conference, and helping me test the mics out is our own David Ritter. David, how are you Good? Good, how are you doing, mike? Doing all right? Are you excited for the Ohio Stormwater Conference? I'm always excited, mike.
Speaker 5:Yeah, have you been here before? Yes, I've been participating in the Ohio Stormwater Conference, I think, since its inception, and it's pretty surprising the amount of growth that it's had over the years. It's really become a national or almost international conference these days, so it draws in a lot more people than it did back in the days.
Speaker 2:I heard there were like 900 people.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's kind of crazy. There's a lot of stormwater nerds out there.
Speaker 2:Now, are you presenting here this year, or are you just here to walk through the booths?
Speaker 5:I'm not presenting. Interested in learning more about the science of climate change and also some of the newest things related to modeling and so forth?
Speaker 2:Do you want to talk a little bit about master planning and your role at the sewer district.
Speaker 5:I'm manager of watershed technical support so my group gets into a variety of different activities at the sewer district. Master planning was a major focus back at the beginning of the stormwater program. Since then we've taken those master plans and are doing advanced planning, so taking the more complicated, larger, expensive projects and breaking those down into bite-sized pieces that we can hand over to the design group for them to work on the projects. All of our projects go through a nomination process to end up on the construction plan. So my group facilitates that nomination process and coordinates with a lot of different folks to get 400 plus projects into the system and scheduling them according to cash flow and then the time frames as far as when we can get those projects done.
Speaker 2:So you're looking at all the problems throughout Cleveland and our 61 communities and kind of prioritizing all those problems.
Speaker 5:Correct, yeah, and the problems are. We're specifically focused on those problems along the regional system, so typically defined as 300 acres or more. The solution to some of those larger problems has to happen farther up, within the watershed or within the sewer shed. We also work on property acquisition for our construction projects on the stormwater side going, going out, knocking on doors, introducing ourselves to folks and potentially purchasing either their homes or a property interest such as an easement.
Speaker 2:What's the general reaction when people get a knock on the door and Dave Ritter is standing on the porch offering them money for their home?
Speaker 5:It's all over the place. Some people are very grateful, especially if they've experienced a lot of flooding issues. Other people are very skeptical. You know each negotiation is its own individual animal. Did you go to a presentation this morning? I did. I had a presentation from ODOT and OSU and Iowa about debris getting into inlets along highways, which can be an issue around the Cleveland area, for sure during large storm events, and then also looking at 2D modeling, using that in master planning 2D not 3D, they're only a 2D, just two we're just a, two Mike.
Speaker 2:One thing at a time, very good. Well, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 5:Yeah, sure, mike, thank you.
Speaker 2:We're here at the Ohio Stormwater Conference and last year we got to talk to folks involved with the NOWCORP program. Angela Brody is here. She runs the program. She's the program director. Hi, Angela, Hi.
Speaker 6:How are you Good? How are you?
Speaker 2:Give us a little background on NOWCORP.
Speaker 6:Okay, so NOWCORP is Northern Ohio Watershed Corps and we are an AmeriCorps program funded through Serve Ohio, so Ohio's Commission on Service and Volunteerism, and our members serve for one year at government organizations or nonprofits throughout northern Ohio and they focus on service that helps improve our watershed. So our members, some do education and outreach, some of our members are more involved in water quality testing, in recruitment of volunteers, and then some of our members do more hands-on stewardship, removing invasives, planting trees, and they all get a little mix of all of those things.
Speaker 2:And is it typically students or people at the start of their careers?
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's typically people either at the start of their careers or at a career change, so maybe they moved and are trying something different, or want to transition out of one career to another.
Speaker 2:Kaylee Summers is working with Cuyahoga Soil and Water. Kaylee, how are you?
Speaker 3:Hi, good, how are you?
Speaker 2:And Nina White is working with Tinker's Creek.
Speaker 7:Hi there.
Speaker 2:A little bit about how you came to participate in NowCore and what you're doing at Tinker's Creek.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so I kind of stumbled upon NowCore. And what you're doing at Tinker's Creek. Yeah, so I kind of stumbled upon NowCore, but I'm so happy that I found it. So I just graduated college and I was just looking for a career to start to get my feet wet Sure, just get some experience.
Speaker 7:And yeah, I found NowCore and I've really gotten that experience and kind of I've seen a little bit of what the environmental world has to offer. It's been really cool. So far, I feel like I do a lot of public education on watersheds and stormwater and I do a lot with volunteer water quality monitoring, checking on the health of our Tinkers Creek and our Brandywine Creek.
Speaker 2:Has it given you some idea about work you'd like to do in the future?
Speaker 7:For sure it has given me a lot of exposure, exposure onto all kinds of different environmental careers Like when you think environmental scientists, it's kind of a big vague thing, but Nalcor has kind of given me some specific paths that I could take.
Speaker 2:Kelly, how about you? What's your background and what are some of the projects you're working on?
Speaker 3:I'm actually a recent Midwest transplant. I just moved here in the past summer from Arizona. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:And I'm a former educator. So I spent seven years in the formal classroom. I taught K-12 science education at public high schools and junior highs in Arizona and I knew that I loved education, I loved working with kids, I loved working with the public and I really loved science, especially the environmental focus. But moving to Cleveland, I didn't know anyone, I didn't have any connections and I really wanted to get to know the area I moved to and get to know the people and get to know what makes this area so great. So it's been a really great way to get to know the city and hopefully find where I can build my next career while I'm living here.
Speaker 2:If people want to get involved with NowCorps, what's the best way to learn more about it?
Speaker 6:So the best way is to go to our website, tinkerscreekorg, slash NowCorps or just go to tinkerscreekorg and you can follow it from there. Our program year runs from October through the end of September, so we will very soon be posting opportunities for next program year.
Speaker 7:I guess one thing that has been really cool through NowCorps is getting the opportunity to inspire people about protecting and loving their environment. Taking people who, taking people who just had no idea what stormwater could do in their backyard, being, oh, that is something I could do, or oh, wow, that is a really gorgeous park and I'd love to do something to help protect that. And just helping to inspire that love for their environment has been a really impactful part of my service.
Speaker 2:We are here with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's own, sean Robinson. Hello Hi, what's your role at the sewer district?
Speaker 9:So I am an environmental compliance inspector in the environmental assessment group, I'm on the fish biological survey team and I am a Part 107 drone pilot.
Speaker 2:We do have a pretty robust drone program, don't we?
Speaker 9:Yeah, so the drone program started in like 2017, which really kicked off, and we averaged 67 flights per year, oh wow. So, yeah, we're really full force and we're just getting more and more as the years are progressing.
Speaker 2:Why do we use drones? What's the importance of having that capability for our work?
Speaker 9:Yeah, it's a great way to get an overall representation of a whole segment of stream. You can take photos on your phone. You can visit the site, but you don't really get the full aspect. You can get a larger picture. You can really track changes that are going on over time.
Speaker 2:So you can compare drone footage from a year ago and see if anything's changed Exactly? Okay, what's the part of your job that you like the most?
Speaker 9:I really love doing the electrofishing surveys.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 9:Yeah, it's great. We have a great crew. We stun the fish, we count them, we see what's living there and then we re-release them.
Speaker 2:Right, Send them back into the water right.
Speaker 9:Yeah, it's important work that we're doing, and not everyone gets to go fishing for a week.
Speaker 2:Right, right, fun job going out in the boat.
Speaker 9:Yeah, definitely, and then it's cool, and then on the off-season we can supplement that with flying drones. It's a really cool technology that we're using.
Speaker 2:And the advances made in drone technology in the last decade. It's crazy.
Speaker 9:We've already gone through, since the inception of our drone program, like four major drones because they just keep upgrading and the technology keeps changing. Cool, because they just keep upgrading and the technology keeps changing Cool.
Speaker 2:We're here talking to two of the key organizers of the event today.
Speaker 4:So I'm Erica Matheny, I'm the executive director for Tinkers Creek Watershed Partners and we are the sponsoring or host organization for the Ohio Stormwater Conference, which is in its 17th year 17, okay.
Speaker 8:And I'm Harry Stark. I work for the city of Aurora, but I also do some work for Tinkers Creek and help with the planning for this great event bringing all the people to geek out over stormwater and watershed management, especially for somebody that works in government, you know there's so much knowledge out there and if you have a problem in stormwater management and you come to this event, you should be able to find something that you can try. There's so much expertise here from the speakers and then all the expertise in the booths. It's really like a one-stop shop for stormwater and watershed management.
Speaker 2:Can you talk a little bit, either one of you, about the relationship between Tinkers Creek and the sewer district?
Speaker 4:We have a great relationship. We are provided with some funds to do the watershed work that we do. We help with public education and outreach around all sorts of different watershed and stormwater associated sorts of problems. So we do rain barrel workshops and a lot of sewer district communities. They can get that credit back on their sewer district.
Speaker 2:Right Stormwater bill.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 4:Their stormwater bill, thank you, which is a great incentive to help people manage stormwater on their property. We also put in rain gardens or educate people about how to put in rain gardens with the Master Rain Gardener Program. We've had a great partnership for a number of years I don't know, harry, it's been eight years, maybe is my guess with the sewer district.
Speaker 8:Whenever the sewer district started with their watershed agreements, I mean that was huge. I mean that was huge as a newer nonprofit right. You know funding sometimes is difficult, sure, and you need to get staff to do work, and I'll never forget when they first started that it was like, you know oh my God, this is awesome. You know it really helps getting some operating funds. Right, it's tough to just get operating funds. It's huge. Yeah, yeah, it's been a. It's been a great relationship over the years, right yeah?
Speaker 2:new stormwater related challenges or trends or things that people are talking about this year that haven't been as much of a focus in the past I think climate resilience is a big one.
Speaker 4:That's been on everyone's mind. So, yeah, that's. There's more session, I think, around it and people are just talking about the increase in storms and the intensity of storms and figuring out how we're going to manage stormwater in the future.
Speaker 8:I mean your team knows, you know. I mean the rain events have definitely changed and shifted. I mean I used to live in Florida and the rain events up here sometimes near what happens in Florida where it just dumps on you right. You don't get those nice gentle rains that we used to get. And you know we have challenges in dealing with, you know storm events All communities have that you know old infrastructure.
Speaker 8:I've got a sanitary sewer line that is actually sagging, causing major I&I issues, and it's going to be a million-dollar fix and when you go underground, nothing's cheap and we need to find a way to retrofit to deal with what we have and then also look at new development.
Speaker 2:We have a special guest, Allison Stark, who is the daughter of Harry Stark, who we just spoke with a couple moments ago. I imagine you've been to a couple of these conferences before.
Speaker 10:Yeah, this is my fourth year in a row coming, so I came here first time as a senior in high school.
Speaker 2:Okay, and you are just graduating now, or you're a student.
Speaker 10:Yeah, I'm a current student. I'm graduating in December. I'm at Kent State University and I'm going for environmental studies.
Speaker 2:Did you always have an interest in environmental work?
Speaker 10:I've always been involved with it through my dad. Coming here as a senior in high school definitely helped shape that perspective and I just kind of ended up really enjoying it.
Speaker 2:And your major. Again, I'm sorry.
Speaker 10:Environmental studies.
Speaker 2:They have a good program down there. They do.
Speaker 10:Yeah, it's relatively new but there's a lot of students in it. We've talked to alumni and everything and it seems like it's very successful. They set you up very well. A lot of students don't come to conferences and I just think that it's a really beneficial thing to do the connections you make here, even just coming in and just saying, hey, I'm here, I don't know what I want to do, and then talking to other people and hearing their stories and perspectives, it helps you kind of get a better understanding for the industry and the different types of jobs. And then you make great connections and they say you know, I've heard multiple times hey, if you're looking for an internship, here's my business card reach out to me.
Speaker 10:And I think that's a very beneficial thing that a lot of students, whether it's in an environmental industry or any other industry, just don't really take advantage of.
Speaker 2:We have a couple of guests from Advanced Drainage Systems. Kevin Yale and Mike Cook are with me. Tell me a little bit about your company and the work you do and what you're seeing here at the Stormwater Conference.
Speaker 11:Sure, we're a water management solutions provider. We manufacture pipe, underground detention and water quality variety of different products that provide those solutions.
Speaker 2:Walk us through what a typical project for your group would be, something you specialize in.
Speaker 12:Kind of break it up into four parts. You know, at our company the actual capture of stormwater, catch basins, stormwater units that capture runoff rainwater, conveyance of stormwater we manufacture pipe. We have a couple Ohio manufacturing plants. Any site that's built has to store stormwater before it's released to the street or the conveyance sewer. So underground stormwater detention and infiltration is a big part of what we do. And then, finally, treatment water quality treatment.
Speaker 11:Those four things are covered at this conference extensively, and so it's a perfect partnership for us.
Speaker 2:Have the technologies in your field remained the same over the last couple of decades, or have you seen a lot of advancements in the way you do things and the materials you use?
Speaker 11:I would say it's constantly changing on both sides. Regulations are constantly changing and the bar is being. I would say it's constantly changing on both sides. Regulations are constantly changing and the bar is being raised higher and higher, greater expectations for water storage and treatment levels, and our company is constantly evolving and increasing our innovation levels with material science, new products and technologies.
Speaker 12:What always gets me excited about this conference on an annual basis is the ideas that are brought to this conference. This is a very good conference and a lot of new ideas are talked about here before they really hit the industry. One of the things we're doing is we take recycled plastic and make it into stormwater pipe. Oh cool Almost half a billion pounds of reclaimed plastics we turn into stormwater pipe every year.
Speaker 2:Plastics, like the stuff that you recycle from homes and that kind of thing.
Speaker 12:Yeah, there's plenty of post-consumer, as we call it. That's the laundry jugs, that's the water bottles, but really, what people don't see, that makes up a big component of it, is post-industrial. So plastics manufacturers that have waste plastic as a part of their manufacturing process, we'll take that waste plastic and we'll put it to use.
Speaker 11:Yeah, it's a really neat story for us to tell and we talk. It's one of the ways that we can kind of bridge that relationship with the community, because everyone knows that they put their recycling bin out every week but they don't necessarily know where that goes. And from our perspective polyethylene material in particular we will take all we can get of that material and we'll prevent that from going into a landfill and turn into a structural pipe product that can last 100 plus years. Thanks guys, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So there you have it. There's our roundup of the Ohio Stormwater Conference. Again, ohstormwaterconferencecom. Sign up and be sure to have it on your calendar for next May, at Kalahari Again, I would imagine, because the food's so good.
Speaker 1:Or maybe somewhere else. We will find out.
