Opportunities for Linking EH&S with Sustainability - Implementing the MS4 Storm Water Planning Rule at a University Campus

Monday, September 10, 2012: 10:45 AM-11:45 AM
#9-10 (Egan Convention Center)

Level of Course: Mid

Western Kentucky University has made a commitment to managing campus facilities using sustainable principles.  The Office of Sustainability functions within the Department of facilities Management, while the traditional fields of Environmental, Health & Safety are housed in the EH&S Department.  Opportunities for collaboration between the two groups came up when the Environmental group was tasked with assisting various departments with storm water pollution prevention activities to comply with the university’s Storm Water Management Plan under the USEPA’s MS4 permit.  The EH&S department focused on regulatory compliance, interpretation and recordkeeping, while the Sustainability group focused on activities that were prioritized by the Sustainability Committee, student volunteers/interns and needs of the Facilities Management department. The overlap was obvious from the beginning but, it took additional networking and collaboration to track activities that qualified for credit with the regulatory agency, KY DOW.  Some of the initiatives that were easy were: mapping storm water controls, rain barrel workshops and distribution, student volunteer activities like clean-up, drain stenciling and Earth Day.  More challenging activities were documenting construction site SWPPP maintenance and inspections, changing contract language to incorporate Construction Site Storm Water General Permit requirements, developing and getting approval for a storm water policy, and documenting grounds maintenance activities.  The process lead to collaboration between two different groups of people, areas of additional overlap were found and new opportunities recognized.  These will be discussed in the presentation.
Author:
Sharmila Pradhan, CHMM, M.En.