Washington Conservation District: Educational Opportunities

EDUCATION FOR MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS

Everyone wants to live in a community with clean, safe drinking water and easy access to pollution-free lakes and rivers. Zoning ordinances and city planning can play a large role in creating policies that keep our water resources clean. Find out how your city can have economic development without harming natural resources and learn ways to ensure that developers in your community follow the best practices for managing stormwater pollution.

St. Croix on the Water

Thanks to all of you who joined us on the water onJune 29, 2011. It was truly inspiring to see so many community leaders engaged in learning about and protecting the St. Croix River. You can find materials from the workshop on-line at the Minnesota DNR, along with handouts and presentations from previous St. Croix workshops.

You can also refer to the Tangible Tools activity from our 2010 workshop for nine example community scenarios with goals, action steps, resources and case studies, along with contact information and links for further information and assistance.

NEMO

The NEMO program (non-point source education for municipal officials) includes a number of educational workshops to help your city's elected officials understand the ins and outs of water pollution, stormwater management and low-impact development. The Washington Conservation District is working with NEMO to bring these workshops to communities throughout Washington County. Contact Angie Hong at (651) 275-1136 x.35 to schedule a workshop for your community.

NEW! Watershed Game

Looking for a fun and informative way to familiarize yourself with best management practices that improve water quality, in addition to helping your city council, planning commission or citizen advisory committee understand how land use impacts water quality? The Watershed Game is the perfect teaching tool! Contact Angie Hong to learn more.

Glossary of Acronyms

A vast and confusing array of acronyms awaits you as you begin to learn more about water pollution and stormwater management. Below is a list of common acronyms you may come across.

LID
Low Impact Development (LID) is an innovative stormwater management approach with a basic principle that is modeled after nature: manage rainfall at the source using uniformly distributed decentralized micro-scale controls. LID's goal is to mimic a site's predevelopment hydrology by using design techniques that infiltrate, filter, store, evaporate, and detain runoff close to its source.

NEMO
NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) was created in the early 1990's to provide information, education and assistance to local land use boards and commissions on how they can accommodate growth while protecting their natural resources and community character. The program was built upon the basic belief that the future of our communities and environment depend on land use, and, since land use is decided primarily at the local level, education of local land use officials is the most effective, and most cost-effective, way to bring about positive change.

BMP
Best Management Practices (BMP's) are a set of field activities that provide the most effective means for reducing water pollution from a non-point source.