Watershed

Philadelphia’s Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan Update seeks to meet regulations of the National CSO Control Policy and US EPA through a comprehensive watershed-based approach. The advantage of this broad approach is that it identifies multiple solutions (land-water-infrastructure based) that are cost effective measures. These solutions are localized site specific improvements to problems caused by the impacts of CSO and non-CSO sources of pollution on water quality.

Protecting Florida's Springs: Land Use Planning Strategies and Best Management Practices created a coordinated, clear public policy to protect Florida's more than 600 freshwater springs and unique limestone topography. The publication explains the spring systems and details specific strategies to govern development. The manual pulls together best practices into one easy-to-digest resource that helps planning departments to educate developers and citizens and better protect the state's natural resources.

Extensive walking and bicycle paths are part of green community planning; permeably paved streets lined with bioswales returning 97 percent of runoff to the watershed are part of award-winning innovation in green community planning. But the streets were just one of the creative features that won UniverCity its APA National Planning Excellence Award. The project of Simon Fraser University's SFU Community Trust is home to a community of exclusively multi-family buildings, including a buildingwith solar-boosted hot water and 20 300-foot-deep, liquid-filled geo-exchange wells that draw heat from the earth.

The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) spearheaded a collaborative approach to protecting the largest groundwater resource in Southwest Ohio. This effort centered on planning the best way that the economically deprived Village of New Miami could best protect drinking water for itself and its neighbors. OKI had to work through hidden agendas, regulatory tensions, and political turmoil. The Ohio EPA finally endorsed the Drinking Water Protection Plan for the Village of New Miami. The grant partners shortly thereafter came to an agreement on the legislation crafted by the village council that passed a drinking water protection ordinance.