The Contra Costa Clean Water Program’s Management Committee approved the 6th Edition of the Stormwater C.3 Guidebook, which has been published on the Program’s C.3 pages. My presentation slides are here. Every time I update the Guidebook, I appreciate anew the municipal stormwater staff in Contra Costa municipalities. These are the people who provide the information and front-line perspectives that make each new edition better than the last. And with each update, I rededicate myself to the process of continuous improvement begun back in 2004.
At the request of the Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District and Napa County Resource Conservation District, I provided an update on the New Development (“E.12”) provisions in the draft statewide Phase II Stormwater NPDES Permit (presentation slides here) and training on Low Impact Development planning and design (presentation slides here–warning 42 MB download).
I gave a presentation (slides here) at the American Society of Civil Engineers Annual California Infrastructure Symposium in Sacramento. In their provisions governing how land development projects get built, California stormwater NPDES permits include common technical errors and mistaken assumptions. It’s a challenge to communicate what those errors are, how they came to be, why they are screwing up local efforts to improve water quality, and what the Water Boards’ staff could do to fix them. I’m pursuing my own continuous improvement effort here–presenting the explanations and arguments when and where I can, and trying to hone my delivery with each iteration. It’s a long haul.