Last week, as part of the NOAA Sunapee Watershed Infrastructure Project, a group of local citizens met to discuss the second of three major topics relating to the project: “Water Retention and Impervious Surfaces”. The meeting attendees discussed the problems associated with the increased frequency and intensity of storms, not hard to do with the month’s incredible rain events that just had occurred in New Hampshire and southern New England. An earlier meeting took on the topic of zoning and development.
The issues on the problem statement ranged from impervious surface increases, crisis-driven actions, and poor drainage to loss of vegetation and insufficient funding. Lack of education and awareness was often mentioned as one of the major barriers to reducing the impacts from storms. Potential approaches were discussed and will be turned into strategies and action plans.
The next meeting with be held on April 21st, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, at the LSPA offices in Sunapee Harbor. All interested parties are encouraged to attend. That meeting’s focus will be “Municipalities and Infrastructure”. This will be followed by a Task Force General Update Meeting on May 12th, at which the teams will report the outcomes of the project’s efforts. On May 13th, there will be a presentation by Dr. Joel Smith, a Nobel laureate, who has worked on climate change adaptation. (Time and location to be announced soon).
Given the recent record breaking weather events, it is crucial to have an understanding of any weaknesses in the local stormwater structure system. It is also important to have discussions about how to improve stormwater handling as we look toward the future, so that the severe problems seen recently in Massachusetts and Rhode Island might be averted here in the Sunapee area.
Date published on web site:
04-02-2010
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