Would you like some assistance in sorting out how to implement the new stormwater regulations in your locality? Would you like assistance in tailoring your program to address specific watershed or permit goals? The Training Partnership can provide direct technical assistance in the form of a qualified Master Stormwater Practitioner right in your local government office.
What Kind of Technical Assistance is Available?
On-site technical assistance is primarily intended to assist local governments with implementing their local stormwater programs, to include assistance on technical design criteria, implementation policies, and programmatic requirements. Based on the nature of the request, the Training Partnership will assign one qualified stormwater expert to provide the on-site assistance, to be drawn from the Center of Watershed Protection, the Chesapeake Stormwater Network, or a Master Stormwater Practitioner. The Training Partnership reserves the exclusive right to assign individuals to respond to technical assistance requests.
Technical assistance will typically involve up to 2 hours of preparation time, 4 hours of informal meetings with small groups of local staff (and/or elected officials if needed) responsible for developing and implementing local stormwater solutions, and up to 2 hours of follow-up documentation and recommendations (or other such combination of 8 hours of assistance). Assistance can be targeted to a specific project or a broad array of policy decisions. Examples include:
- Recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the stormwater plan review within the overall development review process
- Guidance on dealing with challenging development sites (e.g., steep terrain, infill and redevelopment, karst, coastal plain, trout waters etc)
- Review a subset of current stormwater plans to evaluate the BMP selection and how they would comply with new regulations
- Evaluate the local BMP operation and maintenance policies (easements, checklists, inspection procedures, etc.) for use on site design and runoff reduction practices
- Guidance on BMP construction inspection and BMP tracking
- Recommendations for key program ordinance provisions, guidance documents, and technical supplements to improve implementation
- Assistance in implementing the runoff reduction spreadsheets or other compliance tools during plan review
- Presentations to elected officials to answer their questions about the impact of enhanced stormwater requirements in their community
Who is Eligible to receive assistance?
Any local government plan review and approval authority (including Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Federal Facility Management officials, etc.) located in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia or the District of Columbia is eligible to receive free stormwater technical assistance and implementation support. A maximum of 60 local stormwater assistance requests will be awarded over the next 2 years, so apply now before the application window closes.
How do I apply for assistance?
See below to apply.
What are the Terms and Conditions for receiving technical assistance and program support?
In order to request technical assistance and for that assistance to be successful, the following minimum conditions must be met:
- Local governments must clearly articulate the nature of the technical assistance they are requesting in the application. In addition, the primary contact person with the local government must conduct an advance phone call with the stormwater expert assigned by the Training Partnership. The expert may then request advance copies of current local stormwater documents from the requesting local partner or ask them to bring stormwater plans to the meeting.
- The expert will typically provide up to 2 hours of advance research on the topic, attend an informal work session at the local government offices or other agreed upon location (up to 4 hours), and provide up to 2 pages of recommendations and resources as a follow-up after the work session, if needed.
- The local partner should be aware of the basic minimum requirements of the current or proposed state stormwater law. In cases where the expert assistance becomes complicated and/or the state of local requirements are ambiguous, the assigned expert may refer the topic to the appropriate state stormwater management authority for consideration.
- In general, the work sessions should be limited to no more than 5 staff members with direct responsibility for implementing the stormwater requirements in your community. The work sessions are not workshops; rather they will involve extensive discussion and interaction on the selected topics.
- The technical assistance provided by the Training Partnership is limited to one work session. The request may be denied if it is not specific or is too large to be effectively addressed with a single session.
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