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Montgomery County Conservation District and the Schuylkill Action Network are partnering with the municipality of Norristown to install student artwork around a storm drain in downtown Norristown to raise awareness that these drains flow to the Schuylkill River and should be kept clean.

The installation will take place on July 29 at the corner of Main and Swede streets, with information to be presented during a food truck event from 11:30am to 1:30pm.

The artwork for the drain was designed by Kristin Olinger, an eighth-grade student at Phil-Mont Christian Academy in Springfield Township.  Kristin won first place in the Schuylkill Street Art Contest’s Montgomery County category, which had over a hundred entries.

All are invited to come see the new sidewalk art, and join us on July 29 to learn more about doing your part to protect the Schuylkill River.

Winning design by Kristin Olinger to be transformed into street art around a storm drain.

The Delaware River Basin (DRB) provides ecosystem services that support a wide array of commercial, recreational, and residential uses for more than 15 million people. With support from the William Penn Foundation, the Delaware River Basin (DRB) Project- Land Use Dynamics is developing a land cover mapping, modeling, and monitoring system for the DRB. The goal is to provide tools that promote regional planning in the watershed, so that our civic and business leaders can make decisions which produce lasting benefits for the regional economy and quality of life.

Over the past several months, workshops have been held throughout the watershed to collect input on drivers of land use change. The project partners are now extending that conversation so that citizens, business leaders, conservation professionals, and others can have the opportunity to weigh in. All of this information will be used to create land use scenarios that explore the range of possible futures for the Delaware River Basin in 2070.

Please take the survey to share your vision of the watershed, and encourage anyone who lives or works in the Delaware River Basin to do the same. DRB2070 is a collaborative effort, and generating land use scenarios for the entire DRB will require input from make stakeholders to create a shared vision. We need your help! Survey responses will be collected until August 1st. Contact Antonia Price with any questions.

Representative Ryan Costello recognized Perkiomen Valley High School Key Club students last week for their work on the Perkiomen Township rain garden project.  MCCD worked with the students to create the landscaping plan for the garden, and then to plant almost 800 native species during three volunteer workdays.

The students were presented with a Schuylkill Scholastic Drinking Water award by the EPA and Schuylkill Action Network.  Work is ongoing to make the rain garden an outdoor classroom space, which will include educational signage.

Montgomery County will be hosting its next tire recycling event on Saturday, June 25 from 9am-12pm at the Western Montgomery Career & Technology Center,
77 Graterford Road, Limerick, PA 19468.

>more info

PA Department of Environmental Protection
May 11, 2016
HARRISBURG– The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) today announced that training workshops will be held at six locations across the state this summer to assist new and existing Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) with changes to the MS4 NPDES General Permit, also referred to as a PAG-13.

A reissued PAG-13 General Permit is expected to become effective in March 2018, and NOIs are due from most MS4s in September 2017. Preparing applications will need to begin soon in order to meet this deadline.

The training also will be applicable to MS4s that will need to submit applications for individual MS4 NPDES permits. The official Registration Form and payment must be received by DEP via mail 30 days before each workshop begins. Seating is limited to 50 participants for each workshop, and there is a $50 registration fee, which includes lunch.

The workshops are scheduled as follows:

• June 14-15 Uniontown
• June 21-22 Scranton
• June 28-29 Wyomissing
• July 19-20 Lewisburg
• TBA-July York Area
• TBA-July Cranberry Township Area

A separate announcement will be forthcoming for additional training workshops. These workshops will be held to help new and existing MS4 permittees understand how to prepare stormwater pollution plans that are required to be completed and submitted with the NOI or permit application.

To complete a registration form for one of the workshops, visit theDEP website or pastehttp://www.dep.pa.gov/Business/Water/PointNonPointMgmt/StormwaterMgmt/Stormwater/Pages/default.aspx#training into your browser.