City of Salisbury Stormwater Management Support Services

Project Description

After establishing limits on the amount of nutrients and sediment that can enter the Chesapeake Bay, the U.S. EPA required Bay states to develop statewide Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP) to allocate and reduce loads. Counties then engaged in developing Phase II WIPs to provide more details. Biohabitats is providing engineering consulting to help the City of Salisbury design and administer projects associated with its portions of Wicomico County's Phase II WIP and assist with stormwater permit compliance.

To date, Biohabitats has initiated three projects under this contract. The first helped the City improve understanding of and compliance with the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan for its City Service Center, where activities include vehicle maintenance, stockpiling of materials, vehicle washing, and salt storage. After assessing the site, Biohabitats created and facilitated a training session that emphasized what staff can do to prevent water quality impacts from onsite activities and how to respond in the event of a spill or illicit discharge. Biohabitats also identified stormwater management retrofit opportunities on Center property and created signage to post around the Center to communicate proper steps to capture and clean leaks from vehicles.

The second project was a Tree Canopy Study,  which helped the City quantify and understand its tree canopy and identify opportunities to expand it and improve its resilience. Biohabitats used desktop and field analysis to quantify the City's tree canopy and identified and prioritized opportunities for future plantings on City-owned property. Specific native species were recommended for each location. Biohabitats also provided policy recommendations to consider in upcoming zoning code revisions.

Biohabitats is currently helping the city retrofit an underperforming stormwater management facility at a City fire station to reduce flooding, improve water quality management, and increase impervious area credit. A pocket wetland concept design was produced with City input. Biohabitats is in the process of scoping out the remainder of the design work needed to see the retrofit through to construction.