December 1, 2016

Water Resources – Meeting Notes

Please click on the goal, to read the notes.

Sub-Goal 1: Increased the capacity of citizen groups, the public and private sectors to use and contribute to the assessment of the status and trends of watersheds, streams, rivers, ponds, and estuaries.
- Clarify the definition of citizen groups?
  - Any group interested in monitoring water (watershed groups, towns,
    conservation commissions, lakes associations, harbor groups, Trout Unlimited,
    communities) voluntary.
- Clarify what is meant by “Contribute to assessment”?
  - The University contributes a high-quality laboratory, trains volunteers with methods for collecting samples, generates data that is available to the public, the data could expand to maps and other forms of data representation
  - We would like to have people that can understand how to interpret the results
    that are available to the public
- Watershed Watch is available to work with additional groups
- DEM relies on Watershed Watch volunteers for the data collection because of attention to quality assurance and quality control to ensure quality data for DEM assessments
- Agencies have issues grabbing attention and engaging people in real topics such as water resources – getting involved in schools can generate more interest
  - Watershed Watch has difficulty finding volunteers for specific lakes and ponds, work on new methods of recruiting volunteers and sustaining the program
- Watershed Watch or Cooperative Extension should be attending each town’s council meeting and presenting the objectives and history of the program, graphic display of the Watershed Watch history and water quality changes to recruit more volunteers
- Despite programs in specific towns and having funding from the town council, it is difficult to convey information to others in the town, annual reports from Watershed Watch are useful to the people that read them but sharing the overall messages with others is difficult – need improved outreach and improved communication of water quality information collected to various audiences
- Improve ways for Watershed Watch to help groups that find issues understand what the issues are and how they can best deal with them – be able to provide guidance on next steps
- Data are not utilized properly to determine trends and issues from the specific citizen groups because there is a knowledge barrier Land and Water Summit would be a great place to educate groups on water quality issues and interpretation of results
- Work on utilizing students as volunteers, provides great experiential learning opportunities
- Coastal areas have an app for visual documentation, the MyCoast app – could be useful to create an app for streams, rivers, lakes, etc. for visual assessment, especially useful for streams that run dry
- Small meetings such as neighborhood associations provide good audiences, tie meeting topic to specific issue, draws more attention
- Taking data to the next step (long-term trends), is beyond the Watershed Watch capacity currently, additionally analyses are needed of the existing datasets
- Watershed Watch does not have an easier method of inputting photos and simple data online – like the MyCoast app
- Partnering with science teachers and Save the Bay provides experiential learning for younger students, need to reach more school districts for these opportunities, tie in closer with 4-H for leverage with schools
- Build environmental literacy within the communities, training materials for volunteers to be able to provide information with elected officials, people need to understand the water resources if they are going to allocate more money for water resources
- Priority Audiences – town officials, school systems, students
- Cooperative Extension should identify a point person within each town council
Sub-Goal 2: Increased the capacity of the public and private sector to implement storm water controls and green infrastructure practices to reduce risk of flooding and improve water quality.
- To help towns and organizations identify funding resources for stormwater remediation
  - most towns need assistance but money is needed for retrofitting
- Opportunity for training of the people installing best management practices, do demonstration projects, teach about soils, high water tables, knowledge for siting projects, demonstrate in real field sites
- Advice for towns about ordinances to help prevent issues before they happen
- Increasing capacity is important, efforts are only as good as money, funding is missing
- Need for understanding of why stormwater is an issue and what the town should be doing
- Potential partners – conservation districts are already working on water education with their partners; water supply organizations (Providence Water, Pawtucket Water)
- Stormwater management fees – have been proposed in certain towns but knowledge of issues was missing, Cooperative Extension should assist in understanding the stormwater issues within towns and other officials
Sub-Goal 3: Increased the capacity of local officials, public water suppliers, future leaders and households with private wells to protect drinking water.
- RI regulates testing well water upon sale of homes, about 1/3 of wells tested at RIDOH is
  positive for total coliform, 2% positive for E. coli
- People do not test when wells are drilled or when homes are sold but drillers and
  banks/realtors do not know/care
- Priority audiences – realtors, banks, drillers, municipalities (building officials)
- Testing at transfer of title (sale of home) is not enforced, realtors are important
  audience
- Improve test facilitation for private well owners
- Potential partners – municipal officials (to organize efforts for test facilitation in towns),
  Water Resources Board
- Building officials are not aware of certain rules about certificate of occupancy. Cooperative Extension should work on lessening this knowledge gap
  Sub-
Sub-Goal 4: Worked with state and Federal partners to increase targeted implementation of best management practices for agricultural and plant-based industries to enhance water resources while sustaining economic vitality.
- Best management practices have already been developed – state-wide effort to increase the amount of demonstration areas
- Potential Partners – RIFCO (forest landowners), Conservation Districts, Farm Bureau, USDA-NRCS, Water Resources Board, Master Gardeners
- RIFCO has a demonstration woodlot
- Integrates food systems and land stewardship sub-goals, need to focus on integration among areas, make things comprehensive
- Real need for this work – worth URI looking at this and determining how to fit in, growing sector of the economy
- Need for training of contractors and individual farmers on installation of BMPs and practices for managing water
- Emphasis on landscape architecture
Sub-Goal 5: Enhanced the capacity of the private sector to upgrade onsite wastewater treatment for water quality improvement.
- 31% of the state uses on-site wastewater treatment systems; state is working towards improvements
- Other areas of the country are utilizing wastewater for non-crop uses – useful during water shortages, requires research, testing, infrastructure
- Cooperative Extension is actively engaged in various projects
- DEM sees need for property owners to better understand advanced systems that require maintenance and they operate them properly; also, need for large-scale septic system data analysis
- Potential partners – municipalities (to facilitate implementation)
- Need for this to remain priority to make further strides in the future

URI Cooperative Extension Strategic Planning

Water Resources – Meeting Notes