Earlier this summer, New London became the first municipality in Connecticut to establish a stormwater utility which goes into effect January 1, 2019. This means they will begin charging all property owners a fee for their contribution to the city’s stormwater runoff. Previously, New London relied on property taxes to fund maintenance of their stormwater […]
Programs
The Slow Storm: Tree Mortality in Connecticut from Invasive Insect Pests
Tom Worthley, UConn Associate Extension Professor, Forestry recently wrote a compelling report (below) on Connecticut’s tree mortality rates, and how and why they are dying. You don’t need to go far to see what Tom is talking about. Just outside our windows here at the UConn Cooperative Extension building in Haddam, we were all saddened […]
Is there any hope to fix our salt problem? Perhaps…
Another winter has finally ended, and messy roads and salty cars are quickly becoming a distant memory. Where did all that salt go? The millions of tons of deicing salts that get applied to our roads either wash off into local streams, or move into the local groundwater. Yet another research study has recently come […]
Dealing With Storm Damaged Trees
On May 15, 2018, late in the afternoon, a striking example of one of those “severe weather events” we see quite often these days passed through my neighborhood in Higganum. Severe winds, downpours, lightning and thunder all were part of a wicked and deadly storm that ripped limbs from and uprooted trees, downed powerlines and […]
What do you do after you scoop?
On my drive home last week I saw two of my neighbors walking their dogs. One of the dogs had just done his business and the owner dutifully scooped it up with a doggy doodie bag dangling from the dog’s leash. Excellent, I thought, he knows that dog poop left on the street can be […]
Another win for rain gardens
It’s well known that rain gardens are great for infiltrating stormwater but people may not realize that they also help destroy common stormwater pollutants. Several studies have found that rather than accumulating pollutants in their soils, rain gardens tend to biodegrade them instead. One study (LeFevre et al., 2011) investigated petroleum hydrocarbon levels in 58 […]
NEW Connecticut Statewide Impervious Surface Map Layers
With funding from CT DEEP, CLEAR has acquired and made available on CT ECO a new statewide, high-resolution, impervious cover data layer. While acquired to support new stormwater regulations, the layer can be used for other purposes as well. What is it? Statewide, 1 foot resolution raster (pixel) data where each pixel is one of […]
Another winter approaches…here comes the salt
This is not my first blog about salt- in 2013 I detailed the problems we are facing in the Northeast with rising salt levels in our fresh waters in this blog. I have continued the monitoring in Eagleville Brook that I described in the past blog, and now four years later, I have the ability […]
Invest in map layers, make them accessible and work together – a cost saving combination
Mapping layers acquired by CLEAR through the MS4 project + making them available on the CT ECO website = big benefits for users including a surprise savings of at least a half million dollars for the state. Whoa. Read the full story written by Tyler Kleykamp, Chief Data Officer at the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management where he explains the series […]
The Emerald Ash Borer Beetle on the UConn Campus
CLEAR’s Tom Worthley recently discussed the Emerald Ash Borer beetle and its impacts on the UConn Campus with UConn Today. Read the full article on the UConn Today website, link below. Big Changes in Store for UConn’s Trees and Yours