Do You Wonder How Lower Mainland Local Governments Will Use On-Site Rainwater Management to Address Regulatory Requirements?

The 'Course on the ISMP Course Correction' Will Showcase Tools and Case Study Experience to Help Restore Watershed Health

The commitments by Metro Vancouver and member municipalities to develop ISMPs (Integrated Stormwater Management Plans) and implement on-site rainwater management are spelled out in the region’s Integrated Liquid Waste & Resource Management Plan. To help local governments fulfil their regulatory commitments, the City of Surrey is hosting a 2-day Course on the ISMP Course Correction on November 9-10.

The course is designed for planning, engineering, environmental, asset management and other practitioners who make decisions that ultimately impact on land use, infrastructure or stream health.

“The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has identified the interflow system as an incredibly important and yet fragile component of a watershed. Interflow is critical for maintaining stream health and the fishery resource. The course will teach how to protect and restore interflow by installing a simple Interflow Replicator on development sites. The function is to replenish low flows to the stream.” To learn more, click on "Understand How Water Reaches the Stream and Design for Interflow", urges Department of Fisheries and Oceans

“Two primers will provide the technical foundation for the course curriculum. The Hydrology Primer and the Watershed Modeling Primer will cover the basics and will be suitable for engineers and non-engineers. The primers will help everyone make informed decisions about how to apply a science-based understanding to restore watershed function,” states Jim Dumont, Engineering Applications Authority for the Water Balance Model Partnership. He is a member of the teaching team.

LAST WEEK TO REGISTER: Click on http://www.civicinfo.bc.ca/event/ISMPCourseCorrection.aspRegistrations close Friday, November 4.

TO LEARN MORE: To access the ISMP Course Correction 'homepage' on the Water Bucket website and learn more about the program design, click here.  

“We are moving from guidelines to tools,” states Corino Salomi of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) . He is Area Manager, Oceans, Habitat & Enhancement Branch, Lower Fraser Area. .

“It helps to look back to understand how we got to here. In November 2000, DFO released the 4-page Urban Stormwater Guidelines and Best Management Practices for Protection of Fish and Fish Habitat, Draft Discussion Document. That document set a direction."

"By 2007, however, we had concerns about how the document was being interpreted and applied. The Beyond the Guidebook initiative initiated a course correction that will help local governments and the development community establish what level of rainwater runoff volume reduction makes sense at the site, catchment and watershed scales."

"The objective is protect stream health, which is broader than how much volume one can infiltrate on a particular development."  

To read the complete story posted on the Water Bucket website, click on Application of the "DFO Urban Stormwater Guidelines" has evolved over the past decade to protect stream health.