Meghan and David,
I just wanted to chime in from the shellfish program perspective! Impervious surface is a huge issue for water quality impacting shellfish growing areas, so thanks to the folks at CLEAR we include the impervious cover maps in each of our growing area reports. I also would like to support Meghan's efforts for Milford, and was hoping that we can keep in touch as you move forward with the mapping. It sounds like a huge undertaking, but wanted you to know that our program really appreciates the effort. In addition, if other coastal communities have "extracurricular" MS4 projects going on, I would love to hear more about them. We reach out individually to the coastal towns for GIS data relating to water quality as we are rotating through our 26 town shoreline sanitary surveys, which provide the basis for our shellfish growing area classifications. However we do update our survey information as new data becomes available, and if you have additional projects or data that may be relevant to water quality, I would be interested in hearing more about them.
Below is a blurb about the shellfish program and data that we utilize for our sanitary surveys, but this is not all-inclusive, and if you have other data that might be relevant such as the impervious surface or additional watershed analysis, I may not know to ask for that data.
I have also included a link to my new ArcGIS online mapping application, if you are interested in reviewing shellfish growing area classifications and shellfish beds for your town or region. This is my first independent ArcGIS online effort (the listserve is a judgement-free zone, right?), so if you have any technical advice for me after checking it out, please feel free to contact me.
The Connecticut Department of Agriculture Bureau of Aquaculture (DABA) has statutory responsibility under the CGS Sec. 26-192a to act as the lead agency on shellfish in the state, abiding by regulations that reference the National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP). The NSSP Model Ordinance requires that each state participating in the interstate shipment of shellfish identify all potential and actual sources of pollution that impact the shellfish growing areas. We perform sanitary surveys of the shoreline of each of Connecticut's 26 coastal towns every 12 years, averaging two Town surveys per year. In order to meet our federal requirements, the Bureau of Aquaculture is compiling a GIS database on a town-by-town basis of all known and potential pollution sources located along the shoreline including, but not limited to: stormwater collection systems, sanitary sewer collection systems, septic systems, industrial discharges, etc., the locations of which must be identified in reference to the location of shellfish beds.
Bureau staff contact each town to request GIS data layers (if available) for parcels, sanitary sewer collection systems (including sewer lines and pump stations) and stormwater collection systems (lines, and point data for catch basins and outfalls).
The DABA requests the following electronic GIS data layers, including only the requested associated database fields/attributes and metadata, if available:
* Sanitary sewer collections system (equivalent data to what is publicly available on paper maps-line data indicating general street locations of sewer lines)
* Storm water collection system (equivalent data to what is publically available on paper maps-point data showing location of outfalls and line data indicating general street location of stormwater system)
· Parcels: if there is any way through the assessors data or other town data to identify what parcels are served by sanitary sewers versus those on SSDS, that is of particular interest.
https://ctdaba.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=09279aef73594af58dc5c9f1bf9f598d?
Kristin DeRosia-Banick
Environmental Analyst III
State of Connecticut Department of Agriculture
Bureau of Aquaculture
Office: 203.874.0696 ext 112
Cell: 203.209.4023
Fax: 203.783.9976
Email: [log in to unmask]
www.ctgrown.gov/Aquaculture
________________________________
From: Unmoderated discussion list for Connecticut GIS Users <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Meghan McGaffin <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 10:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CTGIS-L] DISCUSSION: all EPA grants and contracts frozen - what about the MS4 permit?
Thank you David-
I’m reassured to hear that you are continuing forward.
We have only begun to prepare to begin :) We are certainly appreciative of the ms4 map put out by you folks at CLEAR<http://uconnclear.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=dcbc5b660e834cabba80fadec223889b&%20Data%20App=>. I’m hoping to do the GIS mapping regardless of the permitting/regulation outcome because I think its high value work for other purposes – we flood often for one. As far as the DCIA mapping goes we’ve had a number of ideas and Milford is fortunate to have planimetric data from an old flight that we’ve been maintaining. Our engineering department has been maintaining an outfall layer and slowly improving our storm water infrastructure data. Our fire department has done a fantastic job maintaining our building footprint data by partnering with our building department. So we aren’t starting from scratch. Our COG received Regional Performance Incentive dollars a couple years ago and we have a really nice regional GIS with very comprehensive data. They also just purchased oblique imagery and I think that, plus Google Street View may be able to help identify some disconnected surfaces from my desk.
So there are a lot of good tools available already for us to begin. When the 1 ft contours are available from the state I was going to test calculating the slope of all the driveway features in town in an attempt to eliminate any driveways back pitched from the main road as those would very likely be disconnected anyway. Then I figure that as the years go by, perhaps we can integrate some kind of notation in our ViewPermit system (also created with state dollars) to track impervious surface disconnections. Perhaps something on street opening or roofing permits where the inspector can glance at the down spout and see if it points to the driveway or not.
I think the other difficulties in DCIA are going to come from 10 commercial properties with onsite stormwater management systems and 2) parks with hard surfaces like tennis courts and basketball courts.
I envision our biggest struggles will be to separate our watersheds from those maintained by the DOT. We’ll need guidance on what to do about overpasses/underpasses and watersheds. We’ll want our data to be compatible with other communities so the state can get the big picture they need. The testing requirements are out of my domain and I see the struggle that the regulations are going to impose on the engineers. Hopefully CLEAR has luck with DEEP.
-Meg
From: Dickson, David [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 8:50 AM
To: [log in to unmask]; Meghan McGaffin
Subject: Re: [CTGIS-L] DISCUSSION: all EPA grants and contracts frozen - what about the MS4 permit?
Hi Meghan,
Haven't heard that any of the regulations have been suspended, at least not yet, so we are still moving forward. We are working on some DCIA mapping approaches here at CLEAR with a couple pilot communities. In some of our testing the delineation of outfall catchment areas proved time consuming and problematic so we are looking at other approaches and talking to DEEP about what they might accept as sufficient. We will keep all informed once we get some guidance. In any case, you may want to hold off before you get too far on the DCIA mapping front.
Would be curious to hear who has attempted to start calculating DCIA and if they have found an easy way.
We will also have new statewide (2012) 1m impervious cover data available this summer to help those towns that don't have better data.
I know some of the COGs have been working on this on a trial basis with a couple towns.
-Dave Dickson
UConn CLEAR
________________________________
From: Unmoderated discussion list for Connecticut GIS Users <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Meghan McGaffin <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 8:34:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [CTGIS-L] DISCUSSION: all EPA grants and contracts frozen - what about the MS4 permit?
GIS people – are you still going ahead with preparations to be compliant with the MS4 permit? How does the changing federal climate affect policy at our state level?
Seeing as all things are inherently temporary anyways, I would like to continue with the Directly Connected Impervious Area (DCIA) mapping, re-delineating our watersheds with the new lidar data and mapping out our storm water infrastructure. Anyone else looking to take a similar or different approach?
Here’s an article on the EPA freeze:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/epa-freezes-grants-cdc-cancels-climate-change-summit-article-1.2953986
Foreseeing sweeping changes in President Trump's White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention canceled a climate change conference and the Environmental Protection Agency froze all of its grants and contracts.
With fossil fuel enthusiast Scott Pruitt slated to lead the EPA, the new administration appears poised to gut the 46-year-old department. It reportedly suspended its contracts and funding for air quality, climate change and emission reduction programs and ordered its employees to secrecy.
Citing leaked emails, ProPublica reports<https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-administration-imposes-freeze-on-epa-grants-and-contracts> the nationwide restrictions — which include task orders and assignments — are in place pending further instructions from the Trump administration.
In addition, the agency will enforce tougher screening for media requests, pass public appearances and website changes through the new administration, and funnel all social media activity through a digital strategist, according to the Huffington Post<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/environmental-protection-grants-staff_us_5886825be4b0e3a7356b575f?pon75akll8ei5dn29>.
The EPA’s final Twitter dispatch was a blog post from outgoing Administrator Gina McCarthy praising her agency’s work under the Clean Air Act on Jan. 19.
The modifications signal the administration's initiative to reverse Obama’s environmental legacy, which started almost immediately after Trump assumed the presidency with the White House striking most mentions to climate change from its website.
Possibly anticipating conflict with a right-wing White House, the Atlanta-based CDC nixed a conference on climate change’s impact to health — without explanation.
Meg McGaffin
GIS Analyst
City of Milford, CT<http://www.ci.milford.ct.us/>
203-783-3232
[log in to unmask]
CT GIS User Network<http://ctgis.uconn.edu/index.htm>
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