Minimum Control Measure #2 - Public Involvement

• Penn State Stormwater Public Participation Plan
  • Clean-up Day report:
    The countywide clean-up effort is always a great success. 410 tons of trash were removed from the watershed. Cooperating area agencies included ClearWater Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, Bellefonte Lime, University Area Joint Authority, DEP, Corning-Asahi, Centre Regional Planning Agency, Centre Co. Solid Waste Authority, PennDOT and the area municipalities including State College Borough, and the Townships of State College, Ferguson, Walker, Spring and Patton. Penn State’s John Gaudlip inspected the watershed and designated which areas would be cleaned, and Paul Ruskin coordinated the volunteer groups on University land.
    • SPRING CREEK CLEAN-UP
      Every year, the Office of Physical Plant provides logistical support for the annual Spring Creek Watershed Clean-up. Our 2005 volunteer efforts for the clean-up focused on the Spring Creek watershed at the Duck Pond and Waste Water Treatment Plant. The Spring Creek watershed community and the Pennsylvania State University ask volunteers to spend a Saturday morning cleaning up the litter scattered around our streams. Student, faculty, and staff volunteers are coordinated through OPP and receive their assignments and instructions. OPP arranges to transport the volunteers to and from the collection sites and haul the collected materials to the pick-up points (click here to see photos).
• Stormwater Advisory Committee:
  The University is aware of the key role that proper management of stormwater plays on the health of watersheds, in which are campuses are located. Proper stormwater management can be a challenge that is complex, multi-faceted, and involve best management practices that implement cutting edge technology. It will be important to bring the vast resources of the University to meet this challenge. To that end, we think that an assembly of key faculty and operating staff will help guide the University’s strategy for stormwater management. The group’s goals include developing standards for watershed and stormwater monitoring, data gathering, modeling and analysis. Exploring educational and external funding opportunities will also be pursued. The Committee’s membership includes the following University Park faculty and staff:
  
  • Gert Aron, Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Rob Berghage, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture
  • Dave Dewalle, Professor, Department of Forest Resources
  • Brian Dempsey, Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Larry Fennessey, Engineering Services, OPP
  • James Hamlett, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering
  • Albert Jarrett, Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering
  • Art Miller, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Gary Petersen, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Crop and Soil Science
  • Ian Salada, Engineering Services, OPP
  • Rick Schuhmann, Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering Design
  • Robert Shannon, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering
  • Jim Shortle, Distinguished Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics & Rural Sociology
• Questions regarding the Stormwater Program should be directed to Paul Ruskin, Communications/Public Affairs Coordinator at 814-863-9620 or pdr2@psu.edu.


• 2004 Centre Region MS4 Public Information Meeting


• On August 11, 2004, the Pennsylvania State University’s Office of Physical Plant joined with various Centre Region township water management officers to present information on the MS4 program to citizens. The meeting, held at the State College Borough building, offered an EPA slide presentation on the program, along with area information on the stormwater management efforts and its relationship to the region’s watershed (click here to see photos).


• Environmental Colloquium & Earth Day presentations routinely integrate MS4 materials.