 This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positively Vermont. This is the first time in this program's 13 year history that we are not in studio, but are taking advantage of Zoom technology and all of our staff back at channel 17 to record this program. And today we're gonna be speaking about Rethink Runoff, a project of the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. And my guest today is Kristin Balschenot who was the program coordinator for that Rethink Runoff. Maybe you've seen some of their items around town. I know there was materials in the Brownout Library and of course the Brownout Library is a great source for Positively Vermont, but let's get right to it. First of all, Kristen, would you tell us a little bit about yourself? Absolutely. Yeah, thank you so much for having us on today. It's really great to be here through the power of Zoom. So I grew up in the Lake Champlain Basin actually in upstate New York and loved hiking, swimming, being outside. So I knew that I wanted to study something about nature and natural resources in college. So I went to school and studied geography and environmental studies. And then I traveled for about four years around the country teaching environmental education to K-12 students through a variety of outdoor school after education programs. Then I decided I wanted more community and I landed in Vermont. And now I've been working for the Winnusky Natural Resources Conservation District for about two years. So our mission is to improve water quality, soil health and wildlife habitat in the area that we serve, which is Chittenden and Washington counties and just a couple of towns in Orange County as well. And so as part of that, we manage and run the Rethink Runoff program, which is an outreach program for folks in more urban areas to learn about their stormwater impact and what they can do to help keep the lake clean. So that's a little bit about how I got here and why I care so much about Lake Champlain. Right, well, tell us a little bit if you would because there are people who view this program or might not even be in the state. Tell us a little bit about Lake Champlain itself, its dimensions, its importance, and what is going on there right now in terms of the environment. So Lake Champlain is a really important freshwater body for a variety of reasons. It's a major source of drinking water for the people in the basin. I don't have all the numbers of the size of the lake itself or the watershed, but I would highly recommend folks check out the Lake Champlain basin program state of the lake report, which I think we can link below, which has a great detail information about the lake itself and some of the challenges that it's faced with right now. The primary concern for us at the stream team is that Lake Champlain currently has an excess of phosphorus. So phosphorus is a naturally occurring element. It's important for life to grow and thrive and it's important for it to be in balance. So some people think of phosphorus as a pollutant, but it is actually a very important part of the ecosystem. But here in the Lake Champlain basin, we've seen with an increase of fertilizer use, an increase of development. We've seen a lot more phosphorus entering that lake ecosystem than there should be, which has resulted in things like algae blooms, which has led to beach closures, changes the level overall of dissolved oxygen in our surface water. And so it starts to slowly change the lake ecology itself. So there's books that have and could be written about the state of Lake Champlain. I definitely encourage people to do their own research, but a lot of what we focus on is the impact of excess phosphorus loading right now and what individuals can do to impact that. What is the, I know that there's probably several causes, but have you identified the primary cause or other causes of phosphorus? Absolutely, yeah. That's something that the Lake Champlain basin program report mentions and breaks down. So a certain amount of phosphorus, again, because it's part of a natural cycle, is coming out of leaves that fall down in the forest and wash into waterways. Similarly, phosphorus is a very sticky element. So it sticks to the particles of soil and dirt that are naturally eroding from stream banks. Of course, we're seeing some runoff from agriculture, especially if manure is being spread at a time just before it's raining. And the agricultural community is working really hard to improve their nutrient management and decrease the loading from that sector. And interestingly, we actually see about 16% of the loading coming from developed lands. So something I like to tell people that do live in more urban areas is that per square mile, an urban area contributes double the amount of phosphorus to Lake Champlain than an agricultural land. So the total amount of land and the total load is different. But really, I think what this story tells us is that everyone has a role to play. We can't just point fingers at one place or the other, that people that are living in urban and rural areas have different actions that they can take to help make sure that our surface waters are clean and habitable for fish and wildlife and safe places for people to play and to gather drinking water. I know there's quite a few, at least up until recent times, there's quite a few projects, construction projects, housing projects in Burlington on the virtually very close to the shore of Lake Champlain. Have they impacted or more on a positive level, how are you trying to minimize that impact? Right, so each of the towns that we work with the stream team have their own kind of development guidelines and regulations in terms of water quality. So a lot of times you'll see things up like erosion fences that are trying to keep back any of the salt that may be developed from that. Towns may be providing advice about how folks are using fertilizer if they're establishing a new lawn and trying to reduce the phosphorus that may be coming from that source. It's hard to pinpoint just one area or the other. A lot of what we talk about is non-point source pollution. So basically that means over an entire watershed which could be hundreds of acres, the action of every single person that lives anywhere on that landscape that drains into the water, eventually will have an impact on that water. So a little tiny things add up. And similarly, since we're on positively Vermont, the little tiny positive things that we'll talk about later also can add up and make a very positive difference. So that's the type of pollution, the type of change that we talk about is that non-point source. So it can be really hard to measure success as just one person or just one community, but we really believe that over time lots of small actions by lots of people. I noticed several weeks ago that you had a little display at the Brown L Library and a lot of nice, very clever, well-designed, by the way, materials and little stickers and brochures. And so I guess from that, part of your effort right now is public education. So could you tell us what efforts you're making towards getting the public conscious of this issue? Absolutely, yeah. So let me share a little bit, I think about Rethink Runoff and who we are, that will enlighten our education strategy. So Rethink Runoff is an initiative to educate the public about stormwater and to engage people to volunteer in projects to help keep Lake Champlain clean. But the Rethink Runoff program came from a subcommittee of the Clean Water Committee at Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission. This work right now by Estum. So the communities in Chittenden County that essentially have a lot of paved area, a lot of impervious surface where when water hits it, it will pick up whatever's on that surface, trash, oils, and bring it probably to a catch basin or to a storm drain. So in an MS4 community, some of the storm drains outlet directly into a stream or a lake. In many of our MS4 communities, some of the storm drains also will lead to the wastewater treatment facility and will be treated and the water that comes out of them will be great. But as an individual in the public, you may not know whether that storm drain is going right to a surface water or to a wastewater treatment facility. And so the reason that we do public outreach and education is so people know that it's really important to keep our storm drains clean and clear. Because if you see anything going down a storm drain, it is probably going straight to a stream or straight to Lake Champlain. So we want people to know that it's important to think about where your trash goes, about fertilizer, about picking up dog poop. We have a bunch of different things that we recommend people do so that the only thing that goes down the storm drain is clean rainwater. That's the goal. So I spent a lot of my year doing different things, going to table at public events like farmer's markets or festivals. I do, I run things like stream cleanups where we'll go out with a volunteer crew for the day and just pull whatever trash we can out of streams and sort of the greater Burlington area. We've done some more creative public outreach. If you go to Milton or Shelburne, you can see some new murals, storm drain murals that artists were commissioned to paint to remind people about the importance of only sending water down the drain. So we do a whole bunch of different outreach pieces and then combined with that is our website, which is meant to be a resource of information about what people can do and to learn more about the sub-watersheds that we serve. Tell us what they'll find on those websites. Sorry, can you say that again? Tell us what they'll find on those websites. I know there's this interactive stuff I think and people now have a little bit more time at home. So if you tell us what the websites will leave them to and how they can interact with them. Absolutely, yeah. So Wreethan Graph is sort of your landing page for everything you might want to know about what you can do to keep lakesheds clean. So there's a whole page of recommendations about what you can do that I'm happy to get into in more detail later. There is a kids resource page. We have some coloring pages and we have a few activities if parents are home and wanting to do something fun with kids. There's sort of an interactive, what do you call it? It's like a visual story called Stormville. That's also very kid-friendly where you can cruise around this lovely animation and click on different things and learn about how they impact stormwater. And you'll also see some of the results from our annual summer water quality monitoring study. So for the past eight years, volunteers have helped us collect samples of phosphorus, chloride, and turbidity in what I would say 12 Elf streams now in the Greater Burlington area and some of what we've learned about trends. But it's well worth checking out for people of all ages. That's great. And we're now in the beginning part of April, maybe you could carry us through as to under normal conditions or maybe later on in the year, what do you have planned? Sure. So every year we try to host a rain barrel workshop. So that is and pick up and use that water to water your lawn or to wash your garden tools. So we were planning a rain barrel workshop in Essex this April, which we have at this point delayed until August. But there is still some room to register. So if there are folks that live in the Essex area that are interested, they'll... If I could interrupt for one second, I noticed that... And we're also, yeah, we'll see what happens to people to volunteer. But so yeah, I was saying in a normal year, we would have a bunch of hands-on volunteer events like summer stormwater, water quality sampling, doing the stream cleanup, hosting a build your own rain barrel workshop so that people can install something at their house to help slow the flow of stormwater, as well as doing a bunch of those tabling events. So we are looking to partner with more local libraries and bring those displays and the clean water reading list to other libraries in the area. So if people want to get involved, I would recommend that they join our newsletter, which they can do on the website or follow us on Facebook or Instagram. It will keep folks up to date as things progress and as people are able to congregate again. And we're really excited to. At this particular time, you know, people are home and they may have more time. And so those websites are really very informative. And what are you looking for in terms of interacting with the public? I know this probably can't go to community meetings or anything like that, but how can people help right now either by volunteering or I know there are other ways to communicate. There's Facebook pages, there is telephone. So tell us what you need from the public. You've really given us a great explanation, exposition of what the problem is and tell our viewers now how they can get involved in the solution. What do you need? Absolutely. Any financial or maybe legislative support, just let's go into that and we can take it from there. Okay, so right now a really easy thing that you can do is adopt a storm drain in your neighborhood. So when you're going on your morning walk, bring a pair of gloves, bring a plastic bag and just simply clear anything, leaves, trash that are at that storm drain. That's a great place to start. As people are thinking about their gardens and about their lawns in the spring, something we highly recommend is that you take a soil test before you decide to add any type of fertilizer. It's a really simple thing to do. You can get in contact with the UVM Soils Lab if you want details about how to do it. But for the most part, a lot of our soils in our lawns and gardens don't need to be fertilized every year. And if you're fertilizing the lawn that doesn't need it, essentially you're feeding the algae bloom in the lake. So that's a really great thing to think about. On the same vein, something you could consider is learning about rain gardens. So a rain garden is a garden that's actually scooped down in a depression in a low point on your property and filled with sometimes keystones or other things that will help to infiltrate the water and then planted with water-loving plants like irises or cone flowers. And so it can serve as a really beautiful feature in the landscape and also an area that acts kind of like a sponge to soak up, filter, and sink the ring water into the groundwater system before it has a chance to get polluted by running over hard, impervious surfaces. You might also consider doing something as simple as planting a tree. Trees do a wonderful job of both providing a habitat for wildlife, but also collecting water and bringing it through all different parts of the water cycle, through their roots, through respiration. Planting trees is always a good thing. And another very simple thing that you can consider, which we have more information about on our website, is disconnecting your downstout if you have a house that has gutters. So a lot of times our gutters will leave directly out to a parking lot or to your driveway area. And so something really simple you can do is just turn the spout so that it's going onto your lawn instead, or maybe put on an extender so that it goes into your garden. And that way you're helping again to slow the flow, to sink that clean water into the ground before it has a chance to run over the land and pick up more pollutants. And then finally, I'll say for those that have dogs out there, it's very important to always do dog poop for a variety of reasons. Of course, the issues of E. coli and bacteria, but also because dog poop contains a significant amount of nutrients. And so whether you're right by a stream or in the woods far away, it's very important to pick that up so that that nutrient balance over the whole landscape and impacted by the food that your dog is eating and then getting rid of. So those are some really simple sort of seasonal things that you can do. There are plenty others, but please feel free to reach out. You can email us at info at recentgranoff.org. If you'd like some more advice or thoughts about what you can do at home and we'll be putting out more information on our social media pages and on our website about what folks can do. Excellent. Well, we're gonna be bringing you back as the seasons change and give us an update on what you're doing and impacting how people are working with you and you working with them. And you really have given us a very good overview of the problem, but more important, the solution. So I wanna thank you for appearing with us today. My guest has been Christian Balchanot, the program coordinator for Rethink Runoff here with us today on Positively Vermont. This is Dennis McMahon. Welcome again and thank you for watching.