The 2004 Delaware Tributary Action Team
Conference a Resounding Success!

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The 2004 Statewide Tributary Action Team Conference was held on Saturday March 13, 2004 at St. Andrew’s School in Middletown. The day was beautiful and clear, and we enjoyed a very successful experience.  The conference featured a key note address by David Gershon of the Empowerment Institute, presentations from the teams and from state and federal agencies; and lots of discussion among the teams.  The day began with a presentation and welcome from Mike Schuller, the Chief Financial Officer at St. Andrews who welcomed conference attendees with some facts about the school and St. Andrews' efforts to improve and preserve the Appoquinimink Watershed.  Following Mr. Schuller’s remarks, the teams reported on their accomplishments over the past year.

Ed Lewandowski gave the presentation for the Inland Bays TAT (PowerPoint presentation) for the second year.  Ed is the Watershed Coordinator for the Inland Bays Team and works for the Center for the Inland Bays in Lewes.   He began his presentation with a slide from last year’s presentation, which outlined their goals for the next year.   The team has been busy implementing those goals this past year.

Alan Girard gave the presentation for the Nanticoke Tributary Action Team (PowerPoint presentation) which included the current status of the Nanticoke Watershed Pollution control strategy (PCS), the team’s progress to date, and identifying the next steps for the team.   Alan is the co-watershed coordinator and is a member of the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance and works for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Dan O’Connell presented the 2004 Appoquinimink Tributary Action Team’s Report (full PowerPoint presentation / abbreviated version, without photos for lower bandwidth,).  Dan was recently named the President of the newly formed Appoquinimink River Association, a nonprofit formed out the Appoquinimink Tributary Action Team, and is a biology teacher at St. Andrew’s School.  His presentation, which included a montage of wildlife photographs taken in the Appoquinimink Watershed, focused on some of the special features of the watershed and identified some key challenges to environmental quality.  He also discussed actions the team has recommended and those that have been put into place, including the formation of the Appoquinimink River Association.  The presentation concluded with the team's plans and goals.

Jennifer Campagnini presented the report for the Murderkill Tributary Action Team (PowerPoint presentation).  Jennifer works for DNREC's Watershed Assessment Section and assists the Murderkill Tributary Action Team.  Her presentation focused on the team’s progress, current status and next steps.  The team is the youngest of the four TATs, but has been busy in the last two years making recommendations.  They are planning a canoe trip on the Murderkill later this spring and a water festival in the fall.

Following the team presentations, an agency panel presented on the actions they have taken to support the recommendations being made by the teams.

Connie Holland, Director of the Office for State Planning and Coordination gave an informal presentation regarding the state’s growth strategies and Livable Delaware.

Frank Piorko, Program Manager for the Sediment and Stormwater Program gave a presentation(PowerPoint presentation) on his programs actions that affect the Pollution Control Strategies.

Rodney Wyatt, Program Manager for DNREC's Ground Water Discharges Section focused his presentation on “Simply Septics,” (PowerPoint presentation) introducing different types of septic systems used in Delaware and some of the benefits of each.  He also discussed the inspection and compliance program recommended by the teams as well as some other actions on the horizon, including performance standards for nitrogen and phosphorus treatment, E-Gov, Delaware’s Environmental Navigator, and House Bill 150.

Bill Rohrer, Administrator for the Nutrient Management Program at the Delaware Department of Agriculture gave a Delaware Nutrient Management Update (PowerPoint presentation) which included discussion of the Delaware Nutrient Management Plan, and some of the priorities of the Delaware Nutrient Management Commission.  He also talked about an Urban Nutrient Management Awareness Project, which is a cooperative project between the commission, Center for Inland Bays, and the Nonpoint Source 319 Program.

Les Stillson, State Operations Manager for the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service presented information on conservation provisions (PowerPoint presentation) included in the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (2002 Farm Bill).

A panel session was held following the presentations.  Conference attendees were given the opportunity to ask the agency panelists questions regarding the states actions and future plans.  Attendees asked questions about the PLUS process, cost share programs, ordinances, wildlife impacts, and about septic systems.

Many of the conference participants took the opportunity during the lunch break to stretch their legs and gain another perspective while walking around the grounds of the St. Andrew’s campus.   Dan O’Connell led the group and answered questions about the stewardship projects on the property.

Following the break, David Gershon of the Empowerment Institute gave the keynote presentation.  His livable neighborhood tool empowers the public to voluntarily change behaviors causing pollution and engage people to participate in programs relating to water stewardship.  Many small behaviors of individual residents are cumulative and become major contributors of nonpoint source pollution.  Such behaviors have not been specifically addressed in the pollution control strategy (PCS) process.  It's hard to quantify and even more difficult to implement recommendations to change the actions of residents.  Mr. Gershon’s tool, called the Livable Neighborhood Water Stewardship Program ( 3.2 MB) (PowerPoint presentation) offers a mechanism to measure success.  His empowerment model is based on years of social marketing research and encourages people to move from awareness to behavior change through peer support groups that provide support and motivation to establish relationships and carry out actions.  These groups are neighbors, usually five to eight households, meeting regularly for a specified period of time to carry out actions they choose.  

Each group has a volunteer coach that facilitates the process.   Results are measured by the number of participants and the number of actions that are taken.  These range from changing yard and gardening practices, reducing the number of miles traveled, washing cars on the lawn instead of on the pavement, reducing the amount of water used for toilet flushing, drinking, and refrigerated water.  Participants learn to become active environmental stewards and have a new opportunity to build relationships with neighbors and act as a community to build a more socially cohesive, safer, and healthier neighborhood.

Following Mr. Gershon’s presentation, conference participants broke up into three groups.   They were asked two questions.  The first was to consider whether or not the water stewardship program presented by Mr. Gershon was a viable tool for helping Delaware meet nonpoint source nutrient reduction goals.  The second was to consider the presentations by the various state agencies and the progress made thus far. What more could the state and the teams be doing, and are they on the right track?

The breakout sessions were lively as they considered the questions.  The groups generally considered the Water Stewardship Program to be worth looking into, and thought it would have some level of success.  There were questions as to who would implement the program, who would pay for it, and how would we encourage participation and maintain group morale.  Barriers may be current regulations, public perception, and the cost to implement this program on a wide scale.  Benefits included control and a voice given to the community, vision, innovation, and elimination of personal agendas.  Most agreed that educational programs should begin in schools with our youth.

Regarding the TAT success and the state's actions, many participants felt that more connection needed to be made with local plans.  Regulations and plans need to be communicated in more accessible language.  The groups generally thought the state is on the right track.  Many considered the question about whether the Tributary Action Teams should be an infinite program.  If so, what would or should be the role of the groups? 

The Appoquinimink Team elected to form a nonprofit to support and help implement some of the recommendations and improve water quality in their watershed, while other teams have struggled with maintaining participation.  The breakout session gave the attendees an opportunity to be heard and start a dialog regarding what’s going on in Delaware. 

Following the breakout sessions, Kevin Donnelly, Director of DNREC’s Division of Water Resources closed the conference by summarizing the recent successes throughout the state.

This year's conference was very successful and the attendees seemed to find the day useful and instructive.  Everyone seemed pleased with the progress that has been made thus far.  They provided us with the challenge to provide more outreach along with providing teams with more success stories and measurements of the success thus far.  We'll be sharing their ideas and the challenges they have faced with new teams as they are formed.

We hope that you will consider joining us at the 2005 Statewide Tributary Action Team Conference, and help build on our successes so that we can meet even tougher challenges.  We will keep you updated on the plans.

If you have any thoughts, comments or suggestions for next year’s conference please contact Jen Campagnini.

Conference PowerPoint Presentations

Please feel free to click on any presentation to open or download it to your hard drive for further reference and use. (If you choose to open the presentation instead of saving it to your hard drive, please note that it can take awhile and use a significant amount of your computer's resources to open PowerPoint as a browser plug-in.  The entire presentation also has to download to a temporary folder on your computer before it will open in the browser.)

Appoquinimink Team Update (22 MB)

Abbreviated Appoquinimink Team Update (134 kb, without photos)

Inland Bays Team Update (1.14 MB)

Murderkill Team Update (96 kb)

Nanticoke Team Update (185 kb)

2002 Farm Bill Update (112 kb)

Livable Neighborhood Water Stewardship Plan (86 kb)

Nutrient Management Update (5 MB)

Sediment and Stormwater (7.7 MB)

Simply Septics (25 MB)