>>ANNOUNCER: Promoting a healthy environment...
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Responsible management of our natural resources....
We protect and restore...
For a sustainable future...
Environment Matters.
>>CHUCK SOMERVILLE: "I'm like a kid in a candy store.
I love it when I come out here and I see people looking at the roof."
>>KATHY COSCO: Why are there plants roof?
The answer may surprise you.
Plus: >>ALEXANDRA SEARS: "We came out here and it
was covered with trash and now it's not.
It feels great."
>>KATHY COSCO: Cleanup on the Kanawha -- a group of volunteers pitch in to help make
it shine...
Hello everyone and welcome to Environment Matters.
I'm Kathy Cosco with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Contamination from stormwater runoff is one of the leading causes of water pollution.
It's especially a problem in cities where storm and sanitary sewers are combined into
one system.
One way to address the problem is to control the amount of runoff through the use of green
infrastructure.
The DEP's Sarah Alford joins us now with one project that's taking an innovative approach.
>>SARAH ALFORD: Kathy, we're here at the rain garden outside DEP headquarters in Charleston.
Rain gardens help absorb and filter stormwater runoff, reducing the amount that ends up going
down the storm drain.
A new project at Marshall University is taking that idea to a new level -- literally!
Several levels up to be exact....
>>NARRATION: From the outside, the Science
Building at Marshall University doesn't look that different from its neighbors, but step
around back and go up a flight of stairs and you'll see what's so unusual.
It's called a Green Roof -- living plants actually growing on top of the roof structure.
Here's Dr. Chuck Somerville, Dean of the College of Science with, well, the science...
>>CHUCK SOMERVLLE: "a green roof buffers when rain falls on an impermeable surface like
a roof.
Typically, it would run right off.
Places like Huntington have combined sewer systems so storm water runs into the same
system as sanitary sewage runs into and when that system becomes overwhelmed in a big rain
it overtops the weirs and goes out into the river.
So what we're trying to do is buffer stormwater so that it has a residence time on land or
in soil or in plants before it hits the stormwater system and when you have that buffering, you
decrease the height of that hydrograph, water gets to the stormwater system slower -- the
stormwater system has a chance to respond and that combined sewage doesn't have to go
out into the river."
>>NARRATION: This is actually just a small demonstration project -- something to show
off the technology and help the university prepare for a much larger installation on
the floor of the new Applied Engineering Building across Third Avenue, currently under construction.
>>CHUCK SOMERVILLE: it's also going to be set up for experimental purposes.
There will be multiple drains on that roof and each of those drains will feed into a
laboratory inside the building so we'll be able to measure water quality, water quantity
coming off the roof.
We'll be able to get an idea how -- what the buffering capacity of that roof is -- how
much rain falls, how much we capture -- how much of it eventually comes through -- so
we can actually plant different types of plants in different plots, different sizes, different
types of soil -- and then see how that impact the stormwater coming off the roof.
>>NARRATION: But installing a green roof is more involved that just adding dirt and plants...
>>TRAVIS BAILEY: With old buildings -- older buildings -- retrofitting is very hard because
a green roof is very heavy.
This one, they're saying it can be up to thirty to forty pounds per square foot.
So new construction is much easier - you can build it to withstand that.
Older infrastructure -- it's not as easy so you have to make sure that it holds the weight;
that it has no leaks -- so you have to do flood testing on it.
We had to actually put down two more barriers down on top of the original roof.
So it's not easy but it is definitely doable.
>>NARRATION: Plant selection is also important.
The rooftop setting actually creates its own microclimate -- depending on the location,
designers select plants that are shade tolerant or prefer full sun but most importantly, plants
need to be low maintenance and drought tolerant.
And then there's the weeding...
>>TRAVIS: we'll have to continuously weed it.
We'll have to make sure that the weeds that float in there do not over crowd the plants
that we've already planted -- kill them out and kind of make the green roof unpleasant
looking so roughly once a week, once every two weeks, we're going to have somebody go
out there and weed it to make sure that there's nothing growing that shouldn't be there.
>>NARRATION: Green roofs can also benefit the building in other ways.
Plants shield the roofing material from UV light -- slowing its natural deterioration
and extending its service life by as much as three times.
Plants also provide a natural cooling effect, reducing utility costs in the summer.
But that's not the biggest benefit...
>>CHUCK: a lot of folks don't know where their water comes from and they don't know where
it goes when they flush the toilet and when it goes down the drain so this is our opportunity
to reach them about what happens to their stormwater and why it's important that we
try to manage it in the best way possible.
>>NARRATION: and that learning experience extends to the university too...
>>TRAVIS: a lot of things with green infrastructure -- it's trial and error so if we can practice
on this one and keep this one up and running and the way it should be, then we'll just
transfer that method -- our knowledge of that -- over to a bigger standard and it should
transfer over fairly easily -- just on a bigger scale.
>>SARAH: Travis says he hopes that Marshall's Green Roof Project will help show that the
technology is a viable option for stormwater control.
Kathy, he hopes that in the not too distant future, you'll start seeing more of them sprouting
up around the state.
>>KATHY COSCO: Thanks, Sarah.
Construction on the new Applied Engineering building and its green roof is scheduled to
be completed in the Spring of 2015.
West Virginia University is also in the Green Roof business.
There are four green roof installations on various rooftops on Brooks Hall.
WVU's Green Roof project was constructed in 2007, these photos are from 2009 showing what
a well-established green roof looks like.
For more information on green roofs, you can check out our website DEP.wv.gov and look
under the Division of Water and Waste Management's Stormwater Programs page.
For many of us, Saturday morning is a chance to sleep a little later, relax over a second
cup of coffee and generally chill out after a hectic week at work -- but for one group
of volunteers, a recent Saturday morning was anything but...
The DEP's Ashley Hicks explains why...
>>NARRATION: Early morning on the Kanawha River at St. Albans and already some young
volunteers are hard at work cleaning up trash from the banks.
They're taking part in the DEP's Annual Great Kanawha River Cleanup.
This was the 24th year for the program.
Last year, volunteers collected more than two tons of trash.
Upstream at South Charleston, three generations of the Turner family pitched in to help...
>>BRUCE TURNER: "It's a good cause and it's just good fellowship too.
It's a lot of fun.
We have some younger people here and it's enjoyable and gratifying."
>>NARRATION: Bruce, his daughter Tara and granddaughter Sydney and several of their
friends and coworkers made short work of the mess they found at the South Charleston boat
ramp.
>>TARA WHITE: "I think it's important.
It shows pride in our state and what we want it to look like which is hopefully clean and
beautiful like it should be."
>>NARRATION: Volunteers say it just shows how much good can be done when even a few
people get together to work toward a common cause...
>>ALEXANDRA SEARS: "we just heard about it from Bruce at work and it's just a great cause
to get out here and clean up the river and so we thought we'd come out and help.
We came out here and it was covered with trash and now it's not.
It feels great."
>>MARY SHAFFER: "I think it's really important.
In just this short amount of time this morning we've already tackled all of this and it looks
a lot better.
If we can get more volunteers out to do this more frequently, maybe it would look nice.
>>NARRATION: Making a positive difference -- and having some fun, too.
In, South Charleston, I'm Ashley Hicks for Environment Matters.
>>KATHY COSCO: Crews also held cleanups at Winfield and Glen Ferris.
Volunteers all received a free t-shirt for participating.
The annual cleanups on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers are part of the DEP's West Virginia
Make It Shine Program.
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin honored participants from the DEP's annual Adopt-A-Highway statewide
cleanup earlier this month at the Capitol during the kickoff of this year's Day to Serve.
Day to Serve is a collective effort to strengthen communities through volunteer service.
The Governor told volunteers he hoped their experience ignited a life-long desire to give
back to neighbors and friends.
Just ahead:
>>ROB RICE: it's an honor for us to win these awards this close together.
I think it says a lot about the program to have won two national awards....."
>>KATHY COSCO: A DEP project gets some national attention...
Plus: >>Rebecca Kimmons "It's going to take action.
It's going to take innovation.
It's going to take imagination.
First of all, it's going to take believing it can be done and that's the most important
point."
>>KATHY COSCO: Overcoming inertia and moving forward with a sustainable growth strategy.
The upcoming Create West Virginia conference is taking that message to a one-time boom
town that's looking to rebound.
Those stories and more when Environment Matters continues...