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New Albany's K-1 Elementary School on Swickard Woods Blvd. found treating parking lot runoff in wetland swales can reduce initial construction costs and long term maintenance. It can also greatly improve the quality of the water leaving the site and entering the nearby streams and waterways.

The New Albany, OH project has become a demonstration model to illustrate to other school districts the advantages of this contemporary water management practice.

If past practices are an indicator, destroyed wetlands are much more easily mitigated at far away wetland banks. Such is not the case for a recent wetland mitigation site on Olde Ridenour Road in Gahanna, Ohio. Thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Big Walnut Creek and Tributaries, the Columbus International Airport , Parks and Recreation, Williams Creek and many other concerned groups and individuals a destroyed wetland rose again in an area that drains into Big Walnut Creek.

Mitigation is required for impacts to wetlands. According to Vinnie Tremonte of Williams Creek Consulting who designed the project, "The airport in their desire to be good stewards of the land, wanted to provide local in-watershed mitigation. The site was chosen in coordination with Gahanna Parks and Recreation. The existing grading of the site was such that there was always standing water in the parking lot whenever it rained. So the project eliminates a water problem for the city and provides mitigation for the Airport. The site also indirectly receives storm water runoff from the development up the hill that was also contributing to the flooding problem in the parking lot."

Keeping a watershed mitigation in the local area has obvious advantages to the water quality and beauty of the local watershed. It's a recent trend that could continue if these in-watershed sites meet EPA and local expectations.

These pictures were taken on a foggy morning on Olde Ridenour Rd in Gahanna, OH ...

MORPC’s Rocky Fork Watershed Action Plan Fully Endorsed by Ohio EPA and Ohio Department of Natural Resources

(Columbus-March 29, 2010) The Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Rocky Fork Watershed Action Plan has been officially endorsed by the Ohio EPA and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The Rocky Fork Creek Watershed Action Plan is a comprehensive plan that addresses water bodies within the watershed that are in need of repair and protect areas that are meeting the Ohio EPA water quality standards. The goal of the plan is to restore and maintain the physical and biological integrity of all water bodies within the watershed. This includes jurisdictional streams and wetlands.

The Rocky Fork Watershed is a sub-watershed of Big Walnut Creek located in Franklin County, Ohio, within the townships of Plain, Jefferson, and Harlem; within the municipalities of New Albany and Gahanna; and within the City of Columbus, Ohio. The length of the mainstream of Rocky Fork Creek meanders 13.0 miles from the headwaters in Delaware County, Ohio, until it reaches the confluence with Big Walnut Creek in urban Gahanna. This sub-watershed drains approximately 30 square miles.

“Having an endorsed plan means that stream improvement or protection projects seeking federal or state grant funding receive higher priority, increasing funding opportunities,” states David Rutter, MORPC Watershed Coordinator.

For more information contact David Rutter, Watershed Coordinator, drutter@morpc.org, 614-233-4186 or Kurt Keljo, Watershed Coordinator, kkeljo@morpc.org, 614-233-4209. To view the plan, visit www.morpc.org and select Programs under Energy & Environment.

Hamilton-161 wetlands
NACo could face penalties at site

Thursday, February 22, 2007

By GALE CADY WILLIAMS
ThisWeek Staff Writer

The New Albany Co. could face penalties from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to file a perpetual conservation easement on 57.59 acres of wetlands.

The land is on property the company owns at the northwest corner of Dublin-Granville Road and North Hamilton Road.

The property is within the boundaries of the city of Columbus but is at the New Albany border. The northwest quadrant is on a wetlands area that helps purify the drinking water for a large portion of the local watershed and is a hatching area (rookery) for great blue herons.

The fact that NACo has never filed a perpetual conservation easement document with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the development site was revealed nearly at the end of testimony at the Rocky Fork-Blacklick Accord meeting by NACo president Bill Ebbing. The panel heard more than four hours of testimony Thursday night from a standing-room-only crowd in New Albany council chambers on a proposal from NACo and Casto to develop the 128 acres of property at the North Hamilton-Route 161 Interchange there.

During an open-forum meeting prior to the 7 p.m. accord meeting, National Wildlife Federation leader Toni Stahl, moderator of the forum, distributed packets of information local environmental groups had compiled on the wetlands area at Route 161 and Hamilton. The packets included a copy of a letter from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Ebbing, dated Jan. 21, 2000.

The letter, signed by James M. Richmond, chief of the north permit section, ordered NACo to obtain a permit. The letter refers to a "preconstruction notification" submitted on NACo's behalf by EMH&T Inc. on Dec. 6, 1999, to "place fill or dredged material adversely affecting 2.58 acres of wetland, located above the headwaters of an unnamed tributary of Big Walnut Creek. According to your application ... the work is required to construct roads and office grounds located east of the ... Hamilton Road extension and north of state Route 161."

The letter continues: "You have proposed to compensate the loss of the 2.58 acres of ... wetlands by purchasing 3.9 acres credit at the Little Scioto River mitigation site and preserving the remaining 57.59 acres of wetland through conservation easements ... your proposed work is permitted ... subject to the terms and conditions of the enclosed material. ... Nationwide Permit 26 is currently scheduled to expire on April 14, 2000. ... If you have commenced ... this activity prior to the expiration date, you will have 12 months from the expiration date to complete the activity."

The 57.59 acres is the northwest quadrant of land at the intersection.

NACo's land-use attorney, Ben Hale Jr. of Columbus-based Smith & Hale, and Ebbing spoke up several times during the accord meeting, saying the company was giving up its request to develop the wetlands area and promising it would preserve 38 acres there as a wetland.

The size of the acreage for the wetlands also was called into question. Local environmentalist Bill Resch questioned the acreage on the wetlands area, asking how a 57.59-acre wetland site referenced in the U.S. Army Corps document would fit into the 38-acre preservation-zone site.

Accord member Andy Show, who represents Columbus on the panel, asked Ebbing if the deed restriction on the 57-plus-acre wetland ever was filed with the Ohio EPA.

"We did not file a conservation easement because we are not sure of the southern border," Ebbing said. "We just want an opportunity to go back and delineate that southern boundary."

After Ebbing told the panel the company hadn't submitted the perpetual-conservation-easement document by Jan 21, 2001, the seven accord panelists voted unanimously to table any further discussion of NACo's development request. Prior to that vote, some panelists voiced their opinions.

"Why ask about (developing) it now when that was seven years ago?" accord chairman Doug Burnip, a New Albany resident, asked. "I am disappointed that deed was not filed."

Show reacted angrily when panelists realized the application for the necessary permit was never submitted.

"If it was 57 acres in 2000 and there was a deed restriction required and that wasn't done, and now you've come back and say, 'Now we want to develop it,' that stinks," Show said.

The accord is a first-step zoning panel that serves two partners: the city of Columbus and the village of New Albany. Representatives from both entities make zoning decisions that affect issues concerning both communities. Development projects first must obtain approval from the accord before moving to the Franklin County Planning Commission.

The seven-member accord zoning panel heard from representatives from the Columbus development department, as well as representatives and attorneys for NACo, Friends of the Big Walnut and Tributaries, National Wildlife Federation, the Casto development company, New Albany Park Homeowners Association and other speakers.

Resch said what occurred at the accord meeting is not an issue of environmentalists versus developers.

"It's a question of full compliance with the Clean Water Act of 1972, the wetlands protection provision, section 404," he said. "The issue here is full compliance to that provision -- nothing more, nothing less."

The Ohio EPA is the appointed local agent for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in overseeing the protection and enforcement of the Clean Water Act, Resch said. The Ohio EPA 401 Department issues an oversight permit that allows a developer to fill in a wetland and replace it (mitigate) either on site or elsewhere.

Dr. Susann Moeller is the coordinator of the Friends of the Big Walnut and Tributaries environmental protection group. She outlined in an e-mail Friday what steps are next from the Friends group.

"The Friends of the Big Walnut and Tributaries will track all wetland mitigations from this parcel. They will trigger public hearings to lobby for denial of the developer's permits due to the environmental sensitivity of removing any existing wetland 'kidneys of nature' that cleanse the raw water source for eastern city of Columbus and its suburbs," she wrote. "The water intake for the Columbus Potable Water Treatment Plant is only two miles downstream from these wetlands."

NACo has tried to foster a good-neighbor approach to development, said Ebbing, who recently told ThisWeek of his company's promise not to develop residential sites that would negatively affect the local schools for a period of three years. NACo development director Tom Rubey said Monday that his company never intentionally disobeys environmental laws. The project at Route 161 and Hamilton is not one of Rubey's projects, and he was not at the Thursday meeting, he said. Both Hale and Jeff Brown of Smith and Hale were unavailable for comment.

"We apparently are in violation; apparently, we did not file with the Corps on this," Rubey said. "There is a process you have to go through with the Army Corps when you are developing a project, but it's not uncommon to have to go back and forth several times. They have to agree to what you are doing, and clearly, there was an oversight here and something was not done that should have been done, but it's not us trying to get away with something, you know?"

The next step for both sides likely will come at the next accord meeting, scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 15, in New Albany Village Hall council chambers.

<center>gwilliams@thisweeknews.com

The following article is reprinted with permission from "This Week New Albany", October 19,2006, Pg A8, by Collene Gregory. It honors Bill Resch a Board Member of the Friends of Big Walnut Creek.

Honoring a Community Leader

Few people have had a more profound impact on their community than Bill Resch. To those who appreciate the New Albany "Idea." they understand that New Albany is about more than classic architecture. New Albany is about people collaborating for the common good. It's about life long learning and neighbors helping one another. New Albany is about appreciating the environment and our rich history.

Perhaps no person understands this better or has contributed more to this pursuit than Bill Resch. Although he would be quick to acknowledge others, Bill is the architect of the nationally acclaimed Eastland Environmental Science Program situated in New Albany's Nature Preserve. It was his vision along with a unique public private partnership involving the schools, village, NACO and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), that made the 30+ acre Wetland Nature Preserve a reality.

The Nature Preserve serves as an environmental laboratory for all New Albany students, as well as Columbus Jewish Day School students. Since its inception, the Environmental Science Program has become a magnet program, drawing students from 16 other Central Ohio high schools.

More importantly, the program impacts student' s lives in profound ways. An example is Jon Pryor. Jon was, by all accounts, an average student until he met Resch and the Environmental Science team. As a student, Jon's participation in the program turned his academic life around. He emerged from the program an energized "A" student bound for the University of Washington to continue his studies in Environmental Science.

Unfortunately, his plans were derailed by a tragic automobile accident, but to this day, Jon's love of the Environmental Science Program continues to enrich lives through a scholarship which bears his name.

As residents of New Albany. there are examples of Resch's contributions all around us. The Rose Run Streamside Park and William H. Resch Park, both are made possible through the collaboration of the NACO. the State of Ohio and Federal Greenspace Grants, were Resch passions. The preservation of many remaining woodlands, wetlands, and streams were the result of his tireless advocacy and his leadership as a former member of Village Council, and current chair of the Parks and Trails Advisory Board.

Bill brings passion to everything he does, whether it be his family. his church. his advocacy for the school district and the community or for the Ohio State University Wetland Research Program. And while all of us who live in New Albany benefit from his love of the community and nature, perhaps the greatest beneficiaries will be our children and future generations of New Albany residents.

Listening Sessions on Cooperative Conservation

an Editorial by Susann Moeller, Watershed Coordinator for Friends of Big Walnut Creek and its Tributaries

…… so I went to the auditorium of The Ohio State University Department of Agriculture – and I listened…………….

I sat with all the other speakers in the audience facing a “listening panel.”

Each of us was given 2 minutes to comment before a reconnaissance crew of the Bush administration testing the waters, (pun intended) for the launch of a voluntary conservation program, for such is the meaning of “cooperative conservation.”

The silent panelists had introduced their mission as one by which to achieve environmental protection while continuing the path of economic competitiveness. It escapes me how anyone in these times can actually pursue such an agenda when we are approaching with lightening speed the point where both goals are mutually exclusive. We have exploited, scarred, marred and wounded our environment to such degree that its recovery has slowed down if not stopped altogether.

If we followed federal recommendations, pretty soon anything deserving would depend on “charitable volunteering,” of which we currently don’t have enough to begin with. Add to this the abolition of governmental regulations for the environment and we will find ourselves in a predatory world embroiled in a last ditch effort to exploit nature’s remains for capital gains. As long as the underlying ethics on this continent measure in quantity only, including the educational system, that is, as long as the majority of the so-called developed countries turn a green buck into a golden calf, that which could sustain us will be lacking: true reverence for and our indebtedness to the natural world that surrounds us.

Following its mission statement, the panel encouraged all members of the audience to go and find out what our community members think about the environment. Lest we have been sleeping behind the wheel, that is precisely what all grass roots and not-for-profit organizations do – just like any product and services industry respectively. In fact, most of our funding requests are earmarked for public involvement programs. We reach out to our fellow citizens because the majority of them is too busy to learn about their environment, stretched too thin to make amends with nature, too specialized in their profession to shift gears, too pressed for time, too afraid of reality, too complacent – but not uncaring. So we continually try to wake them from their slumber, and have them cut a sliver from their time to give back to nature.

Most of those fellow citizens have little if no idea how impaired nature really is, and the severity of assaults to which nature is subjected daily escapes their wildest imagination. In essence, nature as well as its users and abusers are all in dire need of responsible stewardship and compassionate guiding principles. These were once thought to come from government and to this day, we expect you to heed this role. Thus entrusted by the people for the people and not for itself, any given government needs to put in place “cooperative conservation” in the TRUE sense of the word: act with the understanding that all tribes, villages, cities, counties, states, countries, nations and continents are connected by the omnipotent rule of nature expressed in vast phenomena and catastrophes, both life-giving and life- taking: a little snowball can turn into an avalanche – pest management can lead to the extinction of an entire plant or animal species, a small subterranean rumble can cause a tsunami. We lack the foresight of the consequences inherent in this macrocosmic interdependency – for most of us don’t even comprehend this reality in our very own microcosm “where everything goes downstream.”

Let’s expand the scenario currently explored by the government: Why are we stopping with the environment? How about swapping laws for voluntary action in the field of national security or transportation or commerce, to name just a few. Without ordinances and legal repercussions we will only become emasculated onlookers, disempowered witnesses to the demise of the environment and ourselves. No, I say also to the swapping of arms for legs like clean water for clean air when both are in fact inseparable and interdependent. There is no difference – we are loosing our limbs!