The Stormwater World Podcast

After over twelve years in the stormwater industry, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. There is more to learn than ever! Whether you are brand new to the industry or a seasoned veteran, I’m sure you feel the same way. I’m talking to subject matter experts across the industry, so you don’t have to. My name is Ty Garmon, and I’ll be your host. Join me as we learn together about what is happening in the Stormwater World!

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Episodes

5 days ago

AI is NOT a Buzzword! with Kristin Kautz, CPSM from Jam Idea Agency

5 days ago

Thursday Apr 11, 2024

Special Edition - Digital Stormwater an Origin Story with Maryella Begley-Garmon, P.E.

Thursday Apr 11, 2024

Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? Digital Stormwater B2B Visibility & Digital Marketing, making a difference in stormwater 1 click at a time! They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com because best known beats best every time.

Special EditionEpisode: “Who doesn’t love a good origin story?” In this episode, host, Ty Garmon and Maryella Begley-Garmon, P.E. discuss how their company, Digital Stormwater, and the Stormwater World Podcast got started.
“What I've always loved about being an engineer, is the things that I did actually made a difference in making people's lives better.” Maryella is a civil engineer with over 25 years of experience in stormwater and drainage. When she was a “baby engineer” just out of college, she had a project that had a profound impact on her personally and how she looked at the work she was doing. “I just remember…realizing what I was doing was actually making an impact in individual lives. And that was so powerful for me as a young engineer. I was like this is what I want to do. I want to make a difference to people.” That is where her passion comes from and why the work she does with Digital Stormwater is important to here: bringing awareness in the stormwater industry to products that need greater visibility so they can make the impact they are supposed to make. “It doesn't matter how great your product is, if nobody knows it's there, it's not going to have the impact that it could have, it's not going to do its job to make stormwater cleaner to make people's lives better, if nobody knows that it exists.”

“It's important to keep in mind, just the whys about everything, you know why you do a lot of things,” Ty explains. “ I tell that to people all the time, you can't be in this industry for 12 years and not get it on. 12 years ago, I really didn't know a whole lot about stormwater. I didn't really understand the impacts. Now I definitely care about water in general and then specifically, what's going on in stormwater, way more than I did 12 years ago, when I ventured into this industry.” Ty went down the digital rabbit hole looking for ways to market the product he was selling at the time. He felt like digital was the way to go. Conferences are great, but there are so many people who can’t go to them and then never hear about the products that are exhibited at them. He was talking with his friend Doug Buch from PaveDrain about his ideas for social media “And Doug said, ‘yeah, man, whatever you're talking about, I need to do that. Whenever you do, let me know.’” So that is how Digital Stormwater began in 2019. What began as a 1 man effort on nights and weekends is now a full blown digital marketing agency. Ty explains, “So we take on all things. So what was an idea that was built around social media and exposure has come full blown business to business visibility for everyone in the stormwater industry. And it doesn't matter what you need, if it's digital, we can provide it for you.”

Quotes:
“ What we're trying to do is we're impacting stormwater one click at a time” (00:05 | Ty)
“ What I've always loved about being an engineer, is the things that I did actually made a difference in making people's lives better.” (2:27 | Maryella)
“I think it's important to keep in mind, just the whys about everything, you know why you do things.” (5:36 | Ty)
“It doesn't matter how great your product is, if nobody knows it's there. It's not going to have the impact that it could have, it's not going to do its job to make stormwater cleaner to make people's lives better, if nobody knows that exists.” (06:57 | Maryella)
“We all need to put our heads together and get that information out to the general public because they still don't have a clue.” (12:16 | Ty)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.Connect with Maryella Begley-Garmon, P.E.:
Email: maryella@digitalstormwater.com
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryella-begley-garmon-p-e-16772157/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/digitalstormwater/
Website: https://digitalstormwater.com/

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Friday Mar 22, 2024

Let's Talk TREES!!! with John Palmer ISA Board Certified Master Arborist & Consultant

Friday Mar 22, 2024

Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? Digital Stormwater B2B Visibility & Digital Marketing, making a difference in stormwater 1 click at a time! They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com because best known beats best every time.
Episode 022: “People think about a tree person or an arborist they think, ‘Well, yeah, he's a tree hugger.’ Yeah, okay, fine. I am. But it's just because they make me feel good. The benefits of trees have actually been qualified and quantified.” John Palmer is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist. In this episode, John and host, Ty Garmon, discuss how trees impact stormwater in urban environments and how to keep those trees healthy.
“When it comes to the practical, and when you're talking stormwater, trees, remove pollutants from water. They actually increase infiltration into soils… Trees can pull an amazing amount of water out of saturated soils. There are some estimates that a large tree can pull 100, maybe more, gallons of water a day out of saturated soils. So trees are actually a stormwater control measure. They are a stormwater utility,” John explains. There are different aspects of what the trees do in our stormwater environment that also include erosion control and streambank stabilization. “Tree roots grow differently than the way most people think. Mature trees do not have deep roots, and most tree roots are in the top 18 inches of soil. Just imagine a wine glass on a dinner plate. You have canopy, trunk, and roots. Roots do not just stop at the edge of the drip line or the canopy, they can actually extend two to three times the diameter, and they don't grow deep,” John explains. This is how trees help with erosion control. A single tree has a large root structure that helps hold soils in place.
As we continue to build, it is important to educate both designers and constructors how to properly protect existing trees and how to choose the correct new trees to be planted, and how to plant them correctly. There are 10 volumes of ANSI standards on how to do this. “It's more important to save a large tree than it is to plant new trees…because you're already getting large benefits. You plant a small tree, you get small benefits. When you plant a new tree, it's not a tree, in my mind, it's a shrub on a stick. And that's the benefits that we're getting from it,” John explains. Putting a root protection zone 20 feet from the trunk of a tree with an 80 foot canopy doesn’t work because the roots extend out 2 to 3 times the diameter of the canopy. Driving construction equipment over the roots compacts the soil around them, damaging the roots and the tree.
Quotes:
“I call it the pinball effect. When a raindrop hits the top of the tree, it bounces, it splits, it runs off, and it's like a pinball, the old pinball games” (15:48 | John)
“ It's more important to save a large tree than it is to plant new trees.” (24:50 | John)
“I think that tree protection zone with the orange snow fence, that's a that's a false sense of security that allows somebody to check a box, but it's not really protecting the tree at all..” (24:50 | John)
“The more we understand the less damage that we can do.” (34:21 | John)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.Links John mentioned during the Pod:
ANSI A300 Standards for tree care: https://tcimag.tcia.org/tree-care/standards-regulations/introducing-the-newly-designed-ansi-a300-tree-care-standards/
ISA: http://www.treesargood.org/
Morton Arboretum: https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/benefits-of-trees/#overview

Connect with John Palmer:
Email: treephd@protonmail.com
https://www.gotostage.com/channel/9cf935c1e5f24639954d2bf77fb41a9f
https://www.linkedin.com/in/veritymediatreetraininglecturesandconsulting/
https://twitter.com/CrankyArborist

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Thursday Mar 07, 2024

Meet the Clean Water Freak! with Joe Moore, Co-founder and Chief Ambassador of Siltworm & ECS

Thursday Mar 07, 2024

Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? Digital Stormwater B2B Visibility & Digital Marketing, making a difference in stormwater 1 click at a time! They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com because best known beats best every time.

Episode 021: “I have inadvertently turned into what some people would call a stormwater nerd, or I call myself a clean water freak because I think it's way cooler to be excited about it.” Joe Moore has had an interesting journey from unintentional polluter to informed advocate actively making decisions to clean up stormwater. The construction industry was hot at the time Joe graduated from college, and he got a job with a large homebuilder. He was working near the Stillwater River in Cincinnati so he was able to do the things he loved like fishing and canoe trips. Joe is an outdoorsman at heart, going back to when he was around 5 and his dad would take him out to the shores of Lake Michigan. “I didn't realize the impact I was having as a polluter to a waterway that I was using. And so I look back on all that now and say what a blessing or what an opportunity that I got to see that,” Joe says of that time. Then Joe started his own construction company and found that he was being required to buy and use products that simply didn’t work.

That was the birth of Siltworm. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to comply with stormwater regulations, he did. He just wanted to do it in a way that actually made a difference. Joe’s construction company was being forced to spend literally thousands of dollars on products and methods that didn’t work, so he decided to create something that would. Joe started looking at filter sock technology using compost for sediment control. At first, they kept it under the envelope of their construction company as a pet project. As regulations started to change and catch up to address what was and wasn’t working, they realized that their pet company project could be helpful to others in the industry. They didn’t just stop with what they had, they dug in to make it better. They split the construction business from Siltworm and doubled down on it.

It was a process of failing forward. “When we were filling with compost, our sediment retention numbers were in the mid 60s to low 70s.” The data for silt fencing products were sometimes as low as the mid 20s. Problems arose because the composted material was having organic growth, so they started looking at alternatives. There was an opportunity to recycle wooden pallets to use as the filter filling instead of compost. This also increased the sediment capture rate by 10-15 basis points. Looking into the differences between the materials to understand the sediment capture difference, Joe decided to try kiln dried softwoods and the sediment capture numbers went up to 97%! When you look back at why you are doing what you do, this addressed so many things. “Being able to have a clean product, recycled, kiln, dried softwoods gave us an opportunity to keep a lot of material that was going to a landfill out of it. We're really proud of this. In five years, we've kept over 60 million tons of that material from going into landfills.” Joe and Siltworm are continuing to innovate, most recently with the introduction of Bioworm and the regional installation company, Storm Water Pollution Prevention Services. Joe is creating a legacy in an industry he is quite passionate about, where he gets to protect this limited resource we have in our waterways.

Quotes:
“I call myself a clean water freak because I think it's way cooler to be excited about it, right?” (01:23 | Joe)
“I made a decision to get in this industry because I was spending a bunch of money on something that wasn't working,” (32:46 | Joe)
“Stormwater is gross. Stormwater should be taught, treated just like wastewater. As far as I'm concerned, we need to fix the water for everybody.” (52:48 | Ty)
“I've still never met someone who doesn't want clean water.” (48:07 | Joe)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.
Check out these Conferences Joe mentioned during the Pod:
Ohio Stormwater Conference: https://ohstormwaterconference.com/
Indiana Stormwater Conference: https://www.inafsm.net/2024-annual-conference
Indiana MS4 Annual Meeting: https://www.indianams4.org/2024-annual-meeting

Connect with Joe Moore:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemoore6/
jmoore@siltworm.com

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Monday Feb 05, 2024

Stormwater | One of Our Greatest Overlooked Resources, with Christian Hennessy, Product Treatment Manager from Oldcastle Infrastructure

Monday Feb 05, 2024

Stormwater World 020: Christian Hennessy | Treatment Product Manager with Oldcastle Infrastructure
Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? Digital Stormwater B2B Visibility & Digital Marketing, making a difference in stormwater 1 click at a time! They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com because the best-known beats best every time.
Episode 020: “My passion for stormwater really stems from my love of the outdoors. I'm an avid hiker and outdoorsman, and I desire to be a steward of that environment.” You can definitely hear Christian Hennessy’s passion for stormwater and environmental stewardship in his conversation with host, Ty Garmon, in this episode. Christian gives a little stormwater 101 where he explains the 4 aspects of stormwater design: directing, storing, cleaning, and transporting. Different sites and geographical areas have different complexities for these components.
“The whole impetus of stormwater is to try to take a built environment and make it act like the pre-developed conditions,” Christian explains. This is more than just the amount of water being released. It encompasses directing water to protect the natural environment and other built infrastructure to get it to the detention facility, infiltration for groundwater recharge, cleaning the contaminates it has picked up along the way, and, in some instances, transporting the water from areas of abundance to areas with significant drought conditions. Christians says “It's all part of the beautiful puzzle of stormwater.”
“The most important needs and challenges for the stormwater industry specifically include storing, cleaning and treating the water,” Christian continues. In urban areas where there is a lack of available land area, you need creative solutions to store the runoff until it can be released. This may be under building foundations or parking lots, so then it becomes important to ensure the structural integrity of the infrastructure above the storage. The water also needs to be conveyed for reuse potentially for irrigation, toilet flushing, or other uses. Before it can be used, however, it needs to be treated. Detention aids is cleaning by allowing sediment to settle out. Then other BMPs are used to help further clean the water. “We're seeing a push for improvement in the contaminants that these devices can remove and the overall efficiency they achieved. Most systems on the market are really good at TSS and hydrocarbons but we're seeing a need and demand for emerging pollutants like nitrogen, PFAS, 6PPD quinone,” Christian explains. “It is hard to get people to change, but I think as awareness increases around what stormwater is, and how it ultimately impacts everybody, whether or not they have the direct line of sight to see it, that's gonna push policy.”
“We're looking to innovate and improve our treatment technologies.” Christian explains 3 ways this is occuring in the stormwater industry and inside Oldcastle. First is the ongoing effort to create national standards for stormwater BMPs, STEPP. This will give users and designers a true way to compare devices before they are purchased and installed. The first standard is for Trash Capture and should be published by June 2024. Next is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed 4Q2021. This provides funding for a wide array of new and already identified infrastructure projects. And finally, Oldcastle has established an Innovation Fund with $250 million set aside for developing new technologies and are partnering with companies and researchers to develop the next generation of advanced sustainable building products. “Stormwater really is the first line of defense in protecting our environment.”
Quotes:
“My passion for stormwater really stems from my love of the outdoors. I'm an avid hiker and outdoorsman, and I desire to be a steward of that environment.” (01:15 | Christian)
“The whole impetus of stormwater is to try to take a built environment and make it act like the pre-developed conditions,” (4:32 | Christian)
“We just need to be smarter about how we are managing stormwater and looking at it as a resource, which it is, instead of just getting rid of it (27:30 | Christian)
“Stormwater is very dirty. You know, I don't think people really think about how much pollution is really carried away in stormwater” (27:30 | Christian)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.
Check out these links Christian mentioned during the Pod:
STEPP initiative: http://nationalstormwateralliance.org/stepp/
Oldcastle Innovation Fund: https://www.crh.com/media/press-releases/2022/crh-establishes-new-venture-capital-unit
Deciphering the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: https://oldcastleinfrastructure.com/insights/deciphering-the-infrastructure-investment-and-jobs-act-iija/
Connect with Christian Hennessy:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-hennessy-38085952/
christian.hennessy@oldcastle.com

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Monday Jan 15, 2024

Microplastics, YIKES! with Dylan Drudul, CPESC, CESSWI, CBLP from Profile Products, LLC

Monday Jan 15, 2024

Episode 019: “So I'm a product geek. I'm a stormwater geek. So I just like it when people are innovating and coming up with new solutions.” Dylan Drudul has worked on both sides of the figurative fence in stormwater. Dylan started his career on the regulatory side working for the City of Rockville, MD doing stormwater quality sampling. “I would go through the expo hall and see all these products, but I come back to my office, and I'm doing my inspections, and I'm not seeing these products in the field,”Dylan says. There were all these innovative products that he was seeing on the market, but they hadn’t made it through the local approval process so they weren’t being utilized. A lot of the older products that have existed for 30-40 years work, but there have been improvements that could push the industry to the next level.
“Was there anything that really was a tipping point in any of your projects where you can think of that, that made a difference that you'd like to share?” asked host Ty Garmon. “Yeah, absolutely,” answers Dylan. “I mean, I think just the failures of our standard practices. Look at what we're doing, here's the status quo.” Dylan said he always felt like there was animosity between the regulatory community and the product development community. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t work together for the good of the industry. Sales is education. Product developers and their salespeople have to educate the construction and regulatory communities about what is available and the benefits these new products offer over how things have always been done.
Dylan is now on the product side of the stormwater industry. He is the Regional Business Manager of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast area of the country for Profile Products. Profile Products produce different hydromulches, which are a blanket alternative for erosion control of excavated areas. There's this discussion around microplastics and concern around polypropylene and plastic base erosion control technology; we're actually making an issue from solving another one. We are trying to make water better, keeping stuff out of the water, filtering stuff from the water, and those devices actually polluting the water with micro microplastics. Dylan says, “a big initiative I do nowadays, especially working for Profile and having 100% bio based all natural, biodegradable products… is really that push to try to remove that intentional introduction of plastics into our environment.” There are solutions that exist now to get the same level of performance that do not intentionally introduce polypropylene into the natural environment. “I read an article the other day that said, you actually consume about five grams of plastic every week, it's a credit card. I mean, isn't that wild to think that we're eating that much and drinking and breathing that much plastic in on a weekly basis? It's the next thing that we are really going to have to think about,” said Dylan.
Special mention of the IECA, International Erosion Control Association. Dylan and Ty have both served on their local IECA boards, and Dylan has also served on the international board. Find out more at: https://www.ieca.org/
Quotes:
“So I'm a product geek. I'm a stormwater geek. So I just like it when people are innovating and coming up with new solutions.” (25:15 | Dylan)
“There's just a lot of stuff in our industry that's been used for 30-40 years. And I'm not saying it's, it doesn't work, but it's definitely been improved upon and can be improved upon further to just push our industry to the next level.” (2:37 | Dylan)
“I always felt like there was this, this animosity between the regulatory community and the proprietary development products type community…Why can't we all just work together to better this industry, and to move it forward?” (6:27 | Dylan)
“I read an article the other day that said, you actually consume about five grams of plastic every week, it's a credit card. I mean, isn't that wild to think that we're eating that much and drinking and breathing that much plastic in on a weekly basis? It's the next thing that we are really going to have to think about.” (10:27 | Dylan)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.
Connect with Dylan Drudul, CPESC, CESSWI, CBLP:
http://linkedin.com/dylandrudul
ddrudul@profileproducts.com

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com

Wednesday Dec 06, 2023

What is a Preserver & How Does It Work? with Lance Hoff, P.E. from Momentum Environmental

Wednesday Dec 06, 2023

Episode 018: “The best way to get into what it is and what it does is to talk about the origin story.” Lance Hoff, P.E. created The Preserver over 10 years ago to address the specific issues that his home state of Minnesota found with pretreatment devices in high flow situations. MNDOT was regulated as an MS4 and needed to provide reporting on measurable goals. They started by testing all of the existing infrastructure they had in place. They had a study done at St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota. What they found was that the existing units did well at removing sediment at low flows, but did not perform the same at high flows. Trying to find a fix to retrofit the existing equipment was extremely costly. This is how The Preserver was developed, it could be retrofitted into existing sump manholes at a lower cost and worked well at higher flows as a hydrodynamic separator.
The high flow events are not the normal events, but did need to be addressed. “The problem is the high flows, everything scours out. How can we take these sump manholes MN DOT has, and make them work better. They were looking for a product that was retrofittable into sump manholes, and could prevent that scour from happening. They [wanted] to have energy dissipators to prevent the scour and improve removal efficiency at a fraction of the cost, and you don't have to place them offline.” Lance breaks down the exact problems The Preserver was designed to address. Lance says “So The Preserver's a system, it has two components. It has an energy dissipater which goes on the inlet or inlets if you have multiple inlets, and you have a skimmer that goes on the outlet. You're just trapping any floatable pollutants. Functional wise, it's got some benefits in that it's retrofittable and it's adjustable. But function wise, it's just skimming off floatable pollutants, trapping anything that floats trash, oils, greases, hydrocarbons, leaves, and helps with organics. Then the dissipator is a perforated sheet, essentially, that has a curved shape and connects at the inlet. So it's got a bunch of holes in it. Those orifices are what create the energy losses. They also work to control the flow regime and the structure and spread that flow out and makes the sump very quiet.”
Lance and Ty discussed the difficulties for innovative technologies to be recognized and utilized. Everyone knows what they have always done, so that is their first thought when they have a new project. Just because it is what you have always done, doesn’t mean it is the best solution. “So anybody watching this that wants to promote innovation, that's probably the best way to do it, is keep an eye out for new technologies, especially some of these smaller companies, and help support them and promote those products,” Lance states. To learn more about The Preserver, visit Momentum’s website: https://thepreserver.com
Quotes:
“If I put my spoon in my glass, and I stir it up, stuff drops to the bottom, perfect. That works. If I blast that same cup with the fire hose doesn't work as well in the big storms.” (10:38 | Ty)
“Let's start doing the math. If we can take half of the sediment before it gets in the pond, and just clean it with a vac truck, it’s way cheaper for us in the long run. We maintain a pond every 60 years, instead, every 30 years, and you run the numbers.” (21:13 | Lance)
“ The state just finally made a requirement…what they like about it is even different, because they're responsible for the waters of the state, and they are just big picture. If you're pre treating stormwater, everything downstream of it's working better.” (21:13 | Lance)
“ So anybody watching this that wants to promote innovation, that's probably the best way to do it, is keep an eye out for new technologies, especially some of these smaller companies, and help support them and promote those products..” (29:58 | Lance)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.Connect with Lance Hoff, P.E.:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-hoff-6817a216/
https://thepreserver.com/

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com

Thursday Nov 02, 2023

The Magical World of Flocculant with Kyla J. Wood, PhD from Applied Polymer Systems, Inc.

Thursday Nov 02, 2023

Episode 017: “We started this over 25 years ago when nobody knew what it was. It was like magic powder.” Dr. Kyla Wood has spent her whole life in the flocculant and erosion control world. Her father started Applied Polymer Systems, Inc. and she literally grew up in the business. She even attended her first IECA conference when she was 12 or 13. Building on the foundation of learning, she went on to get her Masters from Northern Michigan and her PhD from Clemson University.
“So basically, what a polymer flocculant is, is it's a very long chain molecule. It's a water soluble polymer that's able to bind to particulates in the water, like sediment and metals, forming them into bigger, larger particles that can then settle out of the water column or be captured. So basically, flocculation is just the process of making little particles into big particles so we can get them out of water,” Kyla breaks down Flocculant 101 for us.There are all kinds of flocculants used for different purposes, but the ones used in stormwater sediment control must be safe to be released into the environment without causing damage. APS uses anionic (negatively charged) polyacrylamide (PAM) formulas that do just that. The negatively charged ions will be repelled by the negative charge of fish gills so that they do not clog them and cause adverse effects in natural waterways. It is important to test samples of the water and/or the soil from a location to ensure you use the correct flocculant. Even if it doesn’t hurt the environment, the wrong mixture won’t be effective. Flocculant is also not meant to replace physical BMPs, they work well together to produce better water quality. Kyla says “Our products are not supposed to replace your traditional BMPs.We want to be using our materials in conjunction with all the other good BMPs that we have for sediment and erosion control. We're an enhancement.”
In addition to the more well known uses for flocculants like water treatment and erosion control, there are lesser known uses for which flocculants are extremely effective. Flocculant can be used for dust control, demucking, large scale dredging, removing water from sediment, and pond and lake management. To learn more about these uses, visit APS’s website: siltstop.com
Quotes:
“It does look like magic when you take 500 NTU cup of water and turn it into near drinking water in 20 seconds. So it is somewhat magical.” (9:15 | Kyla)
“ So basically, flocculation is just the process of making little particles into big particles so we can get them out of water.” (5:47 | Kyla)
“the other main [point] would be treating our [physical] sediment control BMPs, if you use the, the granular silt stop with those, you basically turn those sediment control devices into water clarification devices.” (14:39 | Kyla)
“ I think what sets us apart is that from planning, to implementation to maintenance to completion, we don't charge for anything but products, [but] we're there every step of the way.” (23:12 | Kyla)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.Connect with Dr. Kyla Wood, PhD:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyla-iwinski-wood-phd-958890228/
https://www.siltstop.com/

Connect with Ty Garmon, LEED AP:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
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Did you know that this podcast is produced by Digital Stormwater? They do all things digital. Check them out at DigitalStormwater.com

Thursday Sep 21, 2023

PaveDrain Case Study & DIY with with Tom Batroney, P.E., CFM & Doug Buch from PaveDrain

Thursday Sep 21, 2023

Link to the photos mentioned during the podcast: Sidewalk Photos
Episode 016: “The majority of our impervious surfaces are not in the public realm, they’re not in the street, they’re on private land,” shares Tom Batroney, P.E., CFM (Professional Engineer and Certified Floodplain Manager). Tom spends not only his professional life, but also his personal time dedicated to stormwater and improving his impact. In 2020 he needed to repair the damaged sidewalk in front of his home. He looked into replacing it back with slab concrete, but after looking at cost and using his stormwater knowledge, came up with a better solution. “We’re so conditioned to just put it back, to just keep doing it. You got sidewalk, just put the new sidewalk back. And people need to see there’s other ways out there, especially when it’s stormwater. I think it’s a change of mindset,” said Batroney. He used a PaveDrain permeable paving system, which turned out to be less expensive, as well as allowing stormwater infiltration. He still has people stop and ask him about it. Doug Buch with PaveDrain says, “We’re getting into more and more of the residential work every year. We’re doing more driveways, most of them heated, and sidewalks around the country.”
Tom is also on the board for the Upstream Pittsburgh watershed organization. They work with local councils to make sure that residents can put pavers and stormwater management practices on their private property. The work of the organization in helping to get regulations put into place is what allowed Tom to be able to use PaveDrain instead of having to use traditional, non-permeable, concrete paving for his sidewalk project. Be sure to check out their website to see the great things they are doing to help identify smart solutions for our environment that help people live better lives: https://upstreampgh.org/ This is an example of a code they wrote that allows permeable pavers: https://ecode360.com/8423785.
Doug said PaveDrain is working with a group in Milwaukee right now putting out funding for private land owners to implement products like PaveDrain. The challenge is that it’s hard to find those individuals who own 90% of the impervious area. Including 10-20% of a product like PaveDrain in an impervious area like a parking lot will go a long way towards getting a lot of water back into the ground and keeping it out of MS4s as runoff and all the ancillary things that create costs in the public sphere.
Quotes:
“Here's Tom’s moto: I don’t point fingers, I point thumbs. I do it myself.” (1:08 | Doug)
“I think this is a good opportunity to to remind everybody, those of you maybe that haven't dealt with permeable paving or haven't dealt with pave drain, specifically: permeable paving one on one, the majority of permeable pavers are out there, the blocks themselves is what's permeable. PaveDrain is a permeable system. So the block itself is not permeable, and you don't fill in the joints with any aggregate; that's where the infiltration comes in.” (20:22 | Ty)
“The majority of our impervious surfaces are not in the public realm, they’re not in the street, they’re on private land” (35:26 | Tom)
“We’re so conditioned to just put it back, to just keep doing it. You got sidewalk, just put the new sidewalk back. And people need to see there’s other ways out there, especially when it’s stormwater. I think it’s a change of mindset.” (30:21 | Tom) The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.
Connect with Tom Batroney, P.E., CFM:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tombatroney/
https://tombatroney.github.io/

Connect with Doug Buch:
https://www.pavedrain.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbuch/
https://www.hydrocad.net/pavedrain.htm

Connect with Ty:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/
Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Friday Aug 25, 2023

THE Best Management Practice with Barry Fagan, P.E. from Fagan, LLC

Friday Aug 25, 2023

Episode 015: THE best management practice for effective stormwater management is communication. “It's really hard to lead people or influence people or even work with people if you can't communicate,” says Barry. Communication is a learned skill. As you look at the bigger picture of our stormwater world and why we haven’t accomplished our goals, it all boils down to a lack of communication. That’s been Barry’s mission for the past few years, to help folks get better at managing communication. Barry speaks about the 5 pillars of construction. He feels you have to manage your communication first, then manage stormwater, erosion, and sediment. Effective communication is simply when our intended message is received by the intended audience or listener.
Stormwater professionals have the ability and a responsibility to influence others from wherever they may be sitting in the organizational structure. We can't hope to influence people we aren't willing to hang out with. The general public still doesn’t even get what stormwater is. (Ty) The Clean Water Act was passed over 50 years ago, with goals to restore the quality of our water by 1985. We passed that goal almost 40 years ago. “It's all how we’re communicating with the public. We talk to (only) each other all the time…we were able to put together an event called The ASA Table Talks, and we brought in not just stormwater inspectors and stormwater professionals. We brought in mayors and Public Works directors and City Engineers, and we talked about funding and opportunities for funding and the real source of those flooding issues in that area. And I think we're gonna have to do more than that. And, you know, laying on the ASCE report for that sort of thing, and actually talk to people about it, just keep talking to each other.”
Keep an eye out for Barry’s upcoming article in the IECA Environmental Connection Magazine’s October print version and on their website:https://www.ieca.org/IECA/Resources/Environmental_Connection_Magazine_.aspx.
Quotes:
“Barry loves dirt. He loves water. He loves the challenge of keeping those two separate” (1:18 | Ty)
“Well, I think communication is the best management practice and for us, the reason I got into communication…Well, number one, I suck at it..” (4:05 | Barry)
“For the first time in the history of that report card and 2021 ASCE added stormwater infrastructure, as you know, one of the critical elements of our nation's infrastructure, which is absolutely great news that we're finally at the adult table, with the bad news our first grade is a D.” (7:46 | Barry)
“We're all in positions of influence matter where we sit in the organizational structure, we all have that circle of influence, we've got an obligation to get better every day and all that we do” (38:24 | Barry)
The views expressed are that of the individual and do not represent the opinions of any companies past, present or future.Connect with Barry Fagan:
Company Website: https://faganllc.com/
Email: barry@faganllc.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barryfagan/

Connect with Ty:
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tygarmon/
Sign up to be a guest: https://forms.gle/whijSz9Tio3iZda57
Check out The Stormwater World Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9hVXVJ5oXplf_V9XOPpR6A
Podcast Website: https://stormwaterworld.com
Stay Informed! Sign-up for the Stormwater World Newsletter: https://stormwaterworld.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Stormwater World Podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!

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