Asset Protection with Appropriate Erosion Control Strategies in Flashy Streams

Protecting sewers and water lines as they age is critically important to protect communities from illicit discharges. This program explored 5 projects that protected aging assets located within stream corridors and how erosion control strategies protected them even as nature continued to challenge that protection. Flashy streams, migrating soils, and surrounding development are no match to good erosion management.

Full Abstract: Exposed pipelines along streams pose a maintenance challenge and potential risk to the environment. Protecting these assets provides opportunities to combine asset protection and naturalized stream design to mitigate the problem of aging infrastructure. Over time, infrastructure became exposed in public waterways through age, erosion, and stream migration. Approaching the design from an environmental angle and particularly including erosion control strategies solved these projects. Considerations included local soils, civil engineering considerations, and erosion and sediment control strategies including vegetation reestablishment.
This program features five projects beginning with site investigations, environmental conditions, historic soil issues, design limitations, public/permit considerations, construction challenges, and final implementation of design. Objectives of this presentation are to emphasize the range of environmental considerations in real world applications of erosion control practices. Factoring environmental consideration in stream restoration reduces limits of disturbance at the project site, which in turn minimizes permit requirements and promotes sustainability. This results in saving time and money while improving public health.
Protecting sewers and water lines as they age is critically important to protect communities from illicit discharges. This program explored five projects that protected aging assets located within stream corridors and how erosion control strategies protected them even as nature continued to challenge that protection. Flashy streams, migrating soils, and surrounding development are no match to good erosion management.
Nancy Schumm, PWS is an award-winning author of 2 books on natural areas and plant history, and 3 books on regional history. She has been lecturing and presenting professional papers on environmental topics nationally and internationally since 1997 including a program on the History of the Clean Water Act. Currently, Schumm is the Environmental Services Division Chief in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her team manages the stormwater program, reviews development plans, work in stream design, sustainability, climate change, floodplain management and environmental permits. Prior to this work, Schumm ran her own Environmental/Historical consulting firm in Illinois where she worked on watershed planning/management, flood reduction strategies, grant writing/management and property history studies for private landowners.