President's Message
Well, it is hard to believe that we are already advertising our Call for Abstracts for the 2015 Annual Water Conference. It seems like we were just attending this past years' conference. But it is that time again so please be thinking about what projects you plan to present, and start working on your abstracts. Our conference will be in Richmond again at the Doubletree by Hilton beginning Sunday, March 8th and wrapping up on Tuesday, March 10th.
We plan to have all abstracts in by the middle of November so that we can have the conference program established by the first week in January. Being proactive helps us advertise the conference program early which helps drive attendance, and it also reduces the administrative costs of putting the conference together. So please do not be late - you may miss your chance.
There is plenty going on in Virginia involving stormwater management and regulatory compliance this year so I'm certain we'll have some great presentation to look forward to. Hope to see you there!
Andrew Gould, P.E.
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Please check your records and renew your membership in NALMS. All Officers and Directors of VLWA are required to be members of our parent body NALMS.
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VLWA Thanks Our 2014 Sponsors. |
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Press Releases from Our Sponsors
SOLitude Lake Management
SOLitude Lake Management Uses Social Media Campaign to Donate to Wounded Wear
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Fortunately, this year we did not experience much wrath from hurricanes in our area and the hurricane season will come to an end in just a few more days. The same could not be said for India where Cyclone Hudhud recently made landfall on the eastern coast with a windspeed of over 120 mph. Nearly 250,000 people in over 300 villages have been affected by this cyclone. This is a tragedy and I pray to those who have lost their lives in this aftermath. The VLWA Board announces the 2014 Leo Bourassa Scholarship recipients. Read more about the recipients in this issue. Last week while reading the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, I learned the benefits of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay are estimated to be worth over $107B annually. Wow! I have covered the entire article in this issue under Our Watersheds. Also in this issue, you will find an interesting article by the Virginia Department of Games and Inland Fisheries titled "Removal of Harwell Dam from the Appomattox River." If you would like to submit an article for possible inclusion in a future issue, have interesting and exciting press releases (valued advertisers only), or have any suggestions regarding our newsletter content or format, please contact Seshadri Iyer at Seshadri.Iyer@URS.Com. As always, we appreciate your support and encourage your involvement.
Seshadri S. Iyer, Ph.D., PE, CFM, CNMP
Editor and Director
Virginia Lakes & Watershed Association
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Our Watersheds
Chesapeake Bay's worth outweighs costs of cleanup
The Virginian-Pilot, October 10, 2014
The Chesapeake Bay is a natural treasure, but that fact doesn't make it easy to measure the bay's value against the billions it will cost to clean up decades of environmental insults.
If the bay is a priceless treasure, restoring it is worth whatever it costs. That's not an easy argument to make in these days of burgeoning federal debt and cratering state revenues. 
Turns out, however, that the most comprehensive and hard-eyed analysis done so far shows that cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay will result in measurable economic benefits across the 64,000-square-mile watershed, and especially in Virginia.
As a playground, as a background, as a workplace and as a buffer from storms and floods, the Chesapeake Bay materially improves the lives of the 17 million folks around it.
In a new study, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation this week put a price tag on all those benefits: $107 billion each year. To Virginia alone, the Chesapeake's economic benefits total $41 billion, the most of any state in the watershed.
Click Here to Read More...
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Message from the Conference Chair
The call for papers is included in the newsletter. Abstracts
are due next month. Exhibits go quickly, so please reserve your space today. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
I look forward to seeing everyone in March! As always, we appreciate your support and encourage your involvement. If you have any suggestions regarding the Conference, please contact me or any of our board members. See you next month.
Thank you,
Stuart Stein
Conference Chair, VLWA
sstein@gky.com
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Virginia Water Conference 2015
March 8-10, 2015
Call for Papers
If you would like to present your work to a diverse mixture of people, here is the opportunity. Working with the Virginia Floodplain Management Association (VFMA), our Association addresses lakes and watersheds, engineering and life sciences, facilities, maintenance, public works, consulting, academic research, and administration. We serve a variety of people all working to improve Virginia's lakes and watersheds.
Presentations are selected based on abstract summaries of up to one page which will be published in the conference proceedings. Appropriate topics include research and practical applications in stormwater management, watershed management, floodplain management, hydrology, hydraulics, limnology, water quality, biology/ecology, total maximum daily loads, dam safety, dam and lake maintenance, and related water subjects.
All presenters must register for the conference.
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE
November 14, 2014
ACCEPTANCE NOTIFICATION
January 9, 2015
PROGRAM PUBLICATION DEADLINE
January 30, 2015
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Welcome AD Mike Claud
The Virginia Lakes and Watersheds Board of Directors welcomes Mike Claud to the Board of Directors. Mike has been appointed to the position of Associate Director for VLWA.
Mike is a licensed PE and CFM with 26 years of experience, and is currently the Stormwater Services Manager for Timmons Group. He received his AAS in Architectural Engineering Technology from John Tyler Community College and a BS in Civil Engineering from ODU. Mike specializes in Stormwater Management and is responsible for all aspects of hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, water quality analysis, drainage system design, stormwater management systems, watershed master planning, VSMP implementation, dam safety services and floodplain studies. His experience involves managing ongoing professional engineering services contracts for several area localities to assist in planning, designing and implementing various stormwater projects.
Mike has additional experience in low-impact development and sustainable infrastructure design, watershed modeling, stream restoration, wetland mitigation designs, stormwater management systems, dam analysis and design, floodplain studies and watershed master planning. Much of his experience focuses on stormwater analysis and implementation projects that sometimes require inovative design solutions.
Mike has been a VLWA member for many years, made numerous persentations and has actively participated in the Dam Safety awards. He is an ardent believer in continuing education and training and believes the VLWA organization is a great resousce for providing information on regulatory requirements, design tools, procedures and practices in the stormwater, flood plain and dam safety arenas.
Mike lives in Chesterfield County with his wife and their two children. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveing and going to car shows.
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2014 VLWA Leo Bourassa Scholarship Recipients
VLWA selected four Leo Bourassa scholarship recipients for 2014. Two scholarship recipients will receive $3,000 and two scholarship recipients will receive $1,500 to go towards tuition and fees. The 2014 Leo Bourassa scholarship recipients are as follows:
Graduate Scholarship for $3,000 - Alexandra Gerling
Alexandra is a graduate student at Virginia Tech pursuing a Master's degree in Biological Sciences. Her current research is to examine the effects of different management techniques on a drinking water reservoir. She participated in the VLWA 2014 Virginia Water Conference with a presentation on the viability of hypolimnetic oxygenation and its effect on nutrients in a drinking water reservoir.
Undergraduate Scholarship for $3,000 - Paige Crane
Paige is a sophomore undergraduate student at Virginia Tech and is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Wildlife Science. She was one of a few students selected nationwide last summer for an American Fisheries Society scholars program to study fisheries science. Paige is in the Virginia Tech Honors Program and organized volunteers for a New River cleanup event last fall.
Graduate Scholarship for $1,500 Recipient - Timothy Gaylord
Timothy is a graduate student at the University of Virginia pursuing dual Master's degrees in Urban and Environmental Planning and Landscape Architecture. He is a Community Planning Associate with the non-profit Green Infrastructure Center and has been working on a watershed project in the Richmond area.
Undergraduate Scholarship for $1,500 Recipient- Spencer Tassone
Spencer is an undergraduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University and expects to complete his Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies in December 2014. He has studied the effect of algal blooms on clams in the James River and attended the VLWA 2014 Virginia Water Conference.
For 2015, the deadline for the VLWA Leo Bourassa scholarship applications will be March 31st and for more information, please contact Shelly Frie at shelly.frie@ch2m.com
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Removal of Harvell Dam from the Appomattox River
Harvell Dam was recently removed from the Appomattox River in Petersburg, VA. The removal phase began in early July and was completed in early September. As the first obstruction on the river, the dam had long been deemed the most critical fish passage site on the Appomattox and one of the highest priority sites for migratory fish restoration in Virginia. This project secures fish passage access to 127 miles of upstream habitat for migratory fish, such as American and Hickory Shad, American Eel, and river herring. The removal is also expected to enhance recreational boating and fishing, providing an economic boost to the area. The project was a collaborative effort of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), American Rivers, and the Harvell Dam Corporation, with support from the City of Petersburg. The removal was designed by Froehling and Robertson Inc.
Access to spawning and rearing grounds within the Bay watershed is a critical component in the effort to restore valuable migratory fish species. The Harvell Dam, originally constructed to generate hydropower, is the sixteenth dam removed within the Chesapeake Bay drainage in Virginia since 2004. Its removal contributes to the nearly 1000 miles of river and stream habitat already reopened to migratory and resident fish species, and helps to attain the Chesapeake Bay fish passage overall goal of opening an additional 1000 stream miles by 2025.
Funding for dam removal implementation was made possible by grants from the Service's National Fish Passage Program and NOAA's Open Rivers Initiative program. Feasibility and additional engineering funding was provided by VDGIF and the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program.
VDGIF's Fish Passage Project has been conducting anadromous fish monitoring since the 1990's and also conducted full community sampling pre-removal both upstream and downstream of the dam. Post removal monitoring will be conducted to document upstream passage of target species and to investigate the effects of the removal on the resident fish community.
For more information contact Alan Weaver, VDGIF Fish Passage Coordinator, alan.weaver@dgif.virginia.gov,
(804) 367-6795.
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Virginia Lakes & Watersheds Association is now taking advertising orders for the 2014 electronic newsletter.
VLWA members rely on this newsletter - electronically distributed to over 1000 lakes and watersheds professionals and posted on the VLWA Web site - as a source of information to support good lake and reservoir management, promote the development of research and standards for lake and other water resource management, improve the policies of lake and watershed management organizations, and keep abreast of governmental developments in the field.
The electronic format allows for more frequent publication, quicker response to developing issues, and broader distribution. This attractive publication includes live links, color ads and photographs, and condensed articles for quicker perusal.
For a very low rate, you can reach large numbers of lakes and watersheds professionals-users of your services and products - with an attractive ad and live link. In every issue there is an opportunity to showcase your product or services under "Press Releases from our valued advertisers."
Hurry, Commitments are needed NOW!
Questions? Contact either Seshadri Iyer at 757.321.1273 or Amy Cushman at 804.868.8259.
Thank you for your support!
Seshadri Iyer
Newsletter Editor
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Lakes and Watersheds E-Bulletin Board
SWM Basic Class Description & Schedule:
- October 21-22, 2014, Glen Allen
- November 4-5, 2014, Fredericksburg, Please note the SWM Basic Class is a prerequisite to the SWM Inspector and SWM Plan Reviewer courses and must be completed prior to any subsequent class enrollment, For more Information, Click Virginia DEQ
SWM Inspector Class Description & Schedule:
- October 29, 2014, Chesapeake
- November 18, Charlottesville
- December 9, 2014, Henrico, For more information, Click Virginia DEQ
- Nov. 12-13, 2014, Richmond
- Jan 7-8, 2015, Chesapeake
- Jan 14-15, 2015, Hampton
- Jan 28-29, 2015, Fairfax (West Drive)
- Feb 10-11, 2015, Leesburg, For more information, Click Virginia DEQ
ESC Basic Class Description & Schedule,
- Nov. 5-6, 2014, Front Royal
- Dec. 2-3, 2014, Richmond, For more information, Click Virginia DEQ
ESC Plan Reviewer Description & Schedule,
- Nov. 13-14, 2014, Chesapeake, For more information, Click Virginia DEQ
Virginia Water Conference 2015
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