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PECONIC ESTUARY STORMWATER ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING TOOL
Citation:
Horsley and Witten, Inc. PECONIC ESTUARY STORMWATER ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING TOOL. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Description:
PECONIC ESTUARY STORMWATER ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING TOOL Horsley & Witten, Inc. was contracted by the Peconic Estuary Program to create a Regional Stormwater Runoff Management Plan designed to mitigate loadings of fecal coliform bacteria and nitrogen to the Peconic Estuary. The purpose of this study is to further ongoing efforts toward achieving two specific goals outlined within the Peconic Estuary Programs Comprehensive and Conservation Management Plan (CCMP): 1) to reopen shellfishing areas historically closed due to unacceptable concentrations of bacteria in overlying waters, and 2) to decrease loads of nitrogen to the estuary. The study uses existing information from local, county, and state agencies to build a quantitative model for predicting loads of each pollutant to small embayments within the region. The interactive model created by Horsley & Witten performs two fundamental calculations: runoff volume and total pollutant load by subwatershed. The overall watershed to each embayment was divided into smaller subwatersheds based on field surveys. Supplemental to the model, Horsley & Witten developed a management decision-making template to assist the Peconic Estuary Program and other stakeholders in developing strategies to remediate and/or prevent contamination through stormwater runoff to embayments within the Peconic region.