SPAHA

STORMWATER

Ellie Montague

There is so much going on with the Stormwater issue, that I haven't even read through all of the material.
The city has done a hundred and fifty degree turn in all directions. However, our attorney, John Thomas says that we will have a ' wait and see' attitude.We have met twice with the city attorneys and had an open discussion, with lots of promises. The last meeting, included the new Stormwater Director, Mike Salmon. He is very happy to have this job.
Mayor Pam Iorio separated stormwater from the city's sewer department. Among other things, this move will allow the city to apply for grants that couldn't be applied for before.
The city agrees with us that we would not be this far along if we had not pressed the Federal issue of non compliance of the NPDES (Federal) permit.
The one big issue recently, was that the FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) issued a new (the old one expired, one and a half years ago, because of our reports) draft permit, that had a lot of the enforcement left out. I'm happy to report that John just advised that the new draft permit came out and is so much better. He also is writing another letter, before the deadline for comments, to clear up other requests, for instance, why they think that they are not responsible for enforcing the clean up of the muck!! The technicality, being , that FDEP has only been in charge of the NPDES for about two years, and for that period of time couldn't have produced that much muck. We 'begged to differ', and so, another letter!!
These letters and expert legal help will cease if we don't get more funding for our attorney, soon!! What a shame, we have worked so hard and come so far, to have the whole case dropped. You decide.

We need your support !!

Lake Kipling - Status as of 9/13/07

Public Meeting by the City of Tampa Stormwater Department on Lake Kipling
August 29th 2007


Hosted by the Stormwater Department, the public meeting was an informal affair, with no speaker, and was essentially a summary of a recent engineer’s report on Lake Kipling as part of the Urban Lake Rescue Project. The report was issued this summer by the engineers who were contracted to do the Lake Kipling portion of this project.

In place of a speaker, they had blown-up photos of the Lake Kipling area on easels. The photos had information drawn on them their which showed their plans to spot dredge the areas in front of the stormwater outfalls and install sediment traps to catch sediment before it enters Lake Kipling. The Stormwater Dept. personnel stood in front of the various photos and answered questions from SPAHA members about the project.

Three engineers from the company that issued the report were also available to answer questions. In a nutshell, they plan on (1) dredging in front of the stormwater outfalls at Lake Kipling, (2) installing three “stormcepters” to trap sediment and filter stormwater before it arrives in Lake Kipling and (3) sinking wells next to Lake Kipling to determine whether or not dredging the lake would reconnect with the aquifer.

Marlin Anderson, SPAHA President