Photo By Sarah Lazo | Vaso Karanikolis, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, program manager,...... read more read more
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When considering security concerns on a military installation, one might think of phishing scams or access control vulnerabilities; however, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is battling a different kind of breach — logs and pollution.
The Corps is assisting Joint Base Andrews, in Prince George’s County, Maryland, in addressing potential security issues when drift and debris from local streams lodge swing gates open, providing access for people and pollution.
This is one element in a much larger effort to help protect JBA and the environment.
This multimillion-dollar design project will not only tackle base-perimeter security features, but also include streambank stabilization and restoration, and stormwater outfall repairs to combat erosion and reduce pollution from getting into local waterways at seven targeted locations
on the installation.
“We are supporting base operations and benefiting the environment at the same time,” said Vaso Karanikolis, Army Corps, Baltimore District, program manager.
The project will help the joint base comply with state-enforced Municipal Stormwater Sewer System (MS4) permits, falling in line with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) that caps harmful runoff into the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland installations are required to remove or treat 20 percent of their impervious surface areas.
“For stormwater, we want to clean it up and slow it down,” said Dan Cockerham, Baltimore District ecologist. “Through streambank stabilization and stream restoration, we are also cleaning up the waterways and bolstering the streams’ ability to support life.”
A concurrent $235,000 pilot program is underway to reduce runoff through stormwater best management practices, or BMPs, in select areas of concern on base. The final design is anticipated in summer 2019.
“We will choose a site that will be most impactful to meet TMDL requirements,” said Karanikolis. “The aim is to temporarily store the stormwater and have it eventually flow in an efficient route and manner.”
BMPs can include maintenance or construction activities for stormwater retrofits; bio-retention and filtration ponds; stormwater wetlands; swales;
stream restoration; stormwater outfall stabilization; or alternatives like replacing impervious areas with pervious areas.
In order to comply with the MS4 requirements, BMPs must be inspected every three years and routinely maintained. The Corps also recommends an annual visual inspection.
In addition to in-the-ground projects, the Corps has created and handed over several tools to assist in meeting the environmental standards on base.
Tools include a BMP database that maps and tracks all of the existing stormwater infrastructure on base; a maintenance plan and schedule; and inspection guidance, procedures and pass/fail criteria. The Corps has held several trainings with JBA team members on how to successfully use and leverage these instruments.
“We have worked closely with the Corps of Engineers on several projects to ensure mission readiness, while responding to environmental challenges,” said Steve Richards, JBA environmental quality chief. “Our aim is to improve and protect the environment that the Air Force has entrusted us with as good stewards of the land, air and water that we serve and protect every day.”
JBA is providing the Corps with direct funding for these efforts.
For the past decade, the Corps has provided stormwater management planning support to many installations throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including Forts Belvoir, Detrick and Meade, to help them address MS4 and the EPA’s TMDL compliance requirements.
“We have leveraged our experiences and established relationships to create a team of subject matter experts who are capable of providing full service support from the planning of a stormwater management project, through to the design, construction and down to the monitoring,” said Karanikolis.
| Date Taken: | 09.16.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.31.2019 11:17 |
| Story ID: | 357791 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MD, US |
| Web Views: | 217 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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