Johnson County Stormwater Management Program ~ Water Quality Monitoring

          Located in the northeast corner of Kansas, Johnson County is probably one of the wealthiest counties in Kansas.  It is home to 7 watersheds and 21 cities.  Kansas counties are very small in size compared to those in Arizona, but only 50% of it is developed. Unlike many of the counties in Kansas, Johnson County took a very proactive approach to environmental issues and developed a program before it was mandated by the EPA.  At one time, Kansas allowed counties to develop a Stormwater Sales tax and with the voters approval, a 1/10th of a cent sales tax was passed in 1988.  
          They have an integrated watershed program which is concerned with quality and quantity.  Through this program, they provide both financial and technical assistance to cities, all the way from mitigation to management of stormwater.  They have just completed a floodplain update for FEMA.  The agency collects both rain and stream gauge data information.  They partner with numerous other agencies, such as  FEMA, USGS, EPA, KU, KState, WERF High performance.  One of the ways the Johnson County program aids their communities is through sharing the costs of developing Best Management Practices in: water & sediment sampling; biological assessments; and continuous  quality monitoring of water, sediment and biological samples.  They have used 25% of their funding in developing BMP manuals for their member cities.
          They have found increases in bacteria and wastewater components vary with the geographical location and the season.  In winter, road salt and fertilizer are factors and in spring, pesticides are common.  It would make sense to find fertilizers and pesticides as upstream areas are heavy agricultural areas.  Due to the heavy snows during winter, road salt is also not a surprise.  We were told that 90% of the suspended sediment load occurs in only 20% of the time.  I would assume that much of this occurs during the melting of snow during the early spring.  Macroinvertebrates found in streams indicate the water quality as it relates to impervious surfaces.
          For issues relating to both stormwater control and quality, they found dry retention to be the best approach.  This means the water is channeled to a retention basin where it can be held and either released slowly or perculate into the soil underneath.  This results in extended release times and reduced volumes of stormwater.  They have found one of the best areas to spend their money is in educating their residents about pet waste, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides.  Other areas discussed dealt with bioretention, green roofs (and walls), porous pavement, and extended wet and dry ponds.  In addition to sharing about their successes, they also told us about an embarassing failure resulting from constructing a parking lot out of  what was supposed to be porous materials adjacent to their office. 
           I have many more notes from this speech, but I think this gives an overall flavor.  They did echo some of the concerns faced by other counties.  There is a steep learning curve, staff turnover, equipment bugs, drought, and funding issues.  If interested in further information relative to this program, you may contact lee.kellenberger@jocogov.org 
          This presentation was given at the Clean 19 consortium which I attended with Newton's Director of Public Works.