U.S. EPA LID Demonstration Project

Bioretention Cell in Parking Lot

U.S. EPA National Community Decentralized Demonstration Project:
Demonstrating Innovative Approaches to Distributed Stormwater Management in Northeast Ohio

CRWP recommends that communities adopt zoning and stormwater management regulations facilitating the use of distributed stormwater practices to minimize the impacts of development. Distributed stormwater practices include riparian and wetland setbacks, conservation development, bioretention, alternative flow paths, vegetated swales, functioning open space, and other site design and stormwater best management practices (BMPs) that collectively serve to maintain, to the extent possible, the pre-development runoff hydrology of a site.

The purpose of the Chagrin River watershed LID demonstration projects is to address the barriers in Northeast Ohio to the widespread implementation of low impact development to site design and stormwater management. The barriers to widespread application of distributed stormwater management in Northeast Ohio include:

• Lack of Guidance for Distributed Stormwater Management: Developers and community engineers, planners, and other professional advisors, are reluctant to use distributed stormwater management techniques without guidance and technical support specific to the climate and soil conditions of Northeast Ohio.
  
• Minimal Flexibility in Local Codes to Allow Distributed Stormwater Management : Developers and engineers interested in distributed stormwater management are constrained by existing zoning codes that may not allow for alternative site layouts, currently require enclosed drainage channels, and provide little or no provisions for stormwater quality management.
  
• Lack of Demonstration Sites of Distributed Controls: To date a handful of projects in Northeast Ohio have implemented distributed stormwater controls. These projects have been limited to public or “green” projects and have not addressed the time, planning, and cost limitations faced by most commercial and residential projects.

To address these barriers this project includes technical support, education, and funding to design, construct, and monitor four low impact development demonstration projects. Information gathered from these demonstrations will address concerns about the role of soils, climate, and maintenance in the applicability of these practices to Ohio.

Next Steps
Design and construction of all four demonstration projects was completed in 2008, and each project’s water quality and quantity is now being monitored and will continue for 2 years through partnerships with the U.S. Geological Survey, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, the U.S. EPA National Research and Monitoring Laboratory, with additional funding from the Lake Erie Protection Fund. As well, Cuyahoga County Health Department is providing assistance with sample collection for the duration of the sampling program. CRWP will be presenting results from the design and construction phases, and monitoring program over the next 2 years to CRWP Members and the larger planning, and engineering community in Northeast Ohio through selected workshops and training events.

For more information on this project please contact Rachel Webb or (440) 975-3870.