Asheville, North Carolina What's Up AVL!, 30 Mar 2022

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From YouTube: What's Up AVL! – Episode 04

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March 30, 2022

Ricardo Basurto, Communication Specialist with the City of Asheville, discusses the Stormwater Division and its functions with Russ Davis, Interim Stormwater Division Manager at Public Works.

WRES, 100.7 FM website: https://wresfm.com/

Ricardo's profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricardo-t-basurto/

Russ Davis email: rdavis3@ashevillenc.gov

Stormwater website: https://www.ashevillenc.gov/department/public-works/stormwater-services-utility/

A

All right well good afternoon, everyone so glad to be back here at what's up asheville at wras radio, 100.7 fm. Thank you very much for everyone for listening.

A

Thank you very much randy for all the support here and uh well at this radio show uh we like to discuss projects at initiative at the city of asheville, I'm ricardo, azurto, your host communication and public engagement specialist here at the city of asheville, and today I have, alongside with me an amazing colleague from the city of asheville, he's ross david program manager at interim stormwater division manager at public works, hi.

B

Russ hi, thanks for having me on thank.

A

You for having me here uh well, let's start for the basic, uh can you introduce yourself and briefly tell us like? What's what's your title indicates and what what do you do with the city sure.

B

Sure so my name is russ davis and I am in the public works department at the city of asheville. I am the stormwater capital program manager and I'm currently serving as the interim division manager for stormwater.

B

So uh in my role as the division manager, I kind of manage the day-to-day operations of the division, just daily decisions directing work. That sort of thing- and I am really grateful for this opportunity to come on the show, because one of my goals in that division is to raise the profile of storm water in the city and that's uh that's kind of a difficult task, because most people don't think about storm water until something goes wrong or something doesn't work as it should be.

B

I mean there's a few of us think about storm water all the time and that's probably enough after we fix something or leave an area or a project is complete. You know our best work is buried.

A

I think that's a great model, our best work gets buried. That's certainly putting everything behind and move it along right. That's.

B

Right it's out of out of uh sight out of mind, and you know in a lot of ways. That's great everything goes well, but you know: storm water impacts, our lives daily, and we just most people, don't notice it yeah.

A

I I I can't understand, like you know it's in in my house, when the plum is working, I never think about it until, oh, my goodness, I have to call the plumber or something uh I assume it's kind of the same, but probably not the same. So what is storm water? Why, and why is so important for for the city and to the people city, sure.

B

So you know, storm water is different than water and sewer, and you know those are a little easier concepts. You know when you turn on the faucet in your house: you're you're purchasing water, and you know you use that water. You bathe in it cook with it and then it goes down the drain and then you are, you know, paying msd or metropolitan sewer district to clean that water and and put it back out. So that's a you know, that's a very transactional.

A

Directly in between the citizens.

B

And the exactly so stormwater is a little different. um You know so generally storm water is rain, water and ground water, and so it rains and a portion of that water soaks into the ground.

B

The rest of that water that doesn't soak into the ground is called runoff and so more pervious areas like grass and forests allow a lot more of that water to soak into the ground and more impervious surfaces like parking, lots and roadways and rooftops that you know water can't soak in so it runs away and it's called runoff so like a big parking lot at a at a supermarket that um doesn't allow any water in the ground so that water gets piped and leaves the site and then goes you know to to wherever it's going got it so dealing with that that water eventually drains you know from here to the gulf of mexico or the atlantic ocean we're kind of on the ridgeline.

B

So it goes to one of those two places eventually.

A

Right here up in the mountains, like all the water that we're having certainly has to, has to spread somewhere and like uh just to clarification between the difference in between the run water and the runoff, uh the rain water would be like theoretically, easily uh absorb or naturally deal with it. But the runoff is then, when, when the the your department has to take it right and take care of like that,.

B

Exactly exactly if there was no pavement and there were no pipes, there would be no reason to have a stormwater department right.

A

B

You know you can think of you know, so we manage that runoff. We try to clean that runoff convey that runoff uh trying to make that runoff not damage anything on its way downstream. um That is what the stormwater division is working on every day,.

A

Got it so uh just so, for the people who are listening, if just like myself, not a specialist in the in the dynamics of it, uh the largest the city growth, their roads, their parkings, everything, then more. We have to dedicate to the runoff to make sure like more could be properly dealt and at the same time could be properly absorbed right.

B

Absolutely so the our our stormwater system is kind of like the veins and the skeletal system of a person. It's just these, this running conduits underneath the ground, sometimes above the ground. When you see ditches or streams or swales, you know, and in general our city grew up over a hundred years ago. Right we were, we were free, uh great depression era, city and that gorgeous downtown and all the old neighborhoods that everyone loves so much about asheville.

B

Some of our stormwater system is the same age.

B

We have, you know, replaced a ton of that, but in some areas it's that old, but you know that even the ple the pieces that have been replaced over the years- um you know those are just perpetual maintenance, and you just uh you know you you think about somebody. That's been alive a long time. Sometimes they have to have a little tune-up at the doctor and.

A

B

Similar to what we do, we just try to keep um the conveyances and the pipes clean and open and working.

A

Right right- and I assume like that- put us like in certain position of like a tension here, because in one hand we want to make sure, like all the the rainfall there it's properly absorbed like follows are true, but at the same time it's like we want the the streets to work like perfectly with not one single hole. So it's kind of like we have to deal with this process of like the nature, is trying to the water is trying to open in its space, and they say that it's like no.

A

No, we we need the roads and the sidewalks to work like spotless. Yes,.

B

Yes, nature is relentless, you know, storm water, never stops streams, just flow and flow, and that's what we want. You know.

A

B

You know we want to keep those systems, you know, so it's this management between the natural environment and our built environment, and so you know that brings me to another. You know thing about stormwater. You know we're really on the front lines of dealing with climate change.

B

You know, and our city has taken a very proactive stance for changing our carbon footprint and climate resiliency, but you know that will not affect the next 20 or 30 years of things that are already set in motion, so we can expect a lot more of those extreme weather events in our region um and that's you know some of the reasons that make having a really healthy storm water system very important.

A

And I think that uh if I understand correctly, then the the storm water must be a crucial uh participant, a crucial actor in the whole planning of the growth of the city and like in the 20 years, plan that we're developing and more right. It's got to be yeah.

B

Every every project that comes through whether it's a private uh development or a public development is reviewed for how they are managing stormwater and whether you know it kicks in our requirements. For you know, detention or water quality, or you know, groundwater recharge or any of these other things that we try to do. But stormwater has to be a part of the thinking process, just just like you're trying to plan for water and sewer and access to you know all your roadways. uh Stormwater is just another part of the matrix right.

A

So we we certainly need this department and the the stormwater division both for help us to plan for the future and to urban development, but at the same time we have well. They have to do a lot of uh hard work on down to the ground work right like how many people are in the division uh and what what do you organize like internally? How do you manage to get like all these uh duties done? You know.

B

Right well, the stormwater division in uh is a part of public works. Okay and um the our division has a little over 40, really hard working people that are working every day to improve drainage and reduce flooding and improve water quality in the city limits and and for everybody, that's downstream of asheville right and you know, the stormwater divisions basically set up similar sized cities in the united states through the clean water act. A federal program are required to have a stormwater program.

B

So that's basically what set ours in motion that and that tries to restore and maintain the integrity of our waters and uh dramatically reduce water pollution that that's kind of the directives of the clean water act right and some other things that we're trying to accomplish you know daily is reduce storm water infrastructure failures.

B

um You know we do that through proactive and reactive measures, we try to reduce flooding on our streets and private property, same thing, proactive and reactive yeah, and then we, you know reducing environmental degradation because of sedimentation erosion and illicit discharge. Illicit discharge can be anything from someone has you know illegally hooked up their? You know sanitary sewer to the storm water system or someone changes their oil in the car and dumps the oil down the stream uh into the drain.

B

So we're we're trying to uh you, know, limit and eliminate those types of pollutants as well.

A

Lovely now now that you mentioned that, I would like to jump to a topic that I think is really important uh how we can engage the community.

A

With uh with this I mean, if, if someone wants to report an issue, I know we have the asheville app for doing so, but uh and then the phone like uh just uh for for mentioning, if you see like any illegal charge or activity that must be reported, uh the phone that you can call is eight to eight two, five hundred two five one, eleven twenty two, that's eight, two, eight two, five one, eleven twenty one. But uh yes, we can report that.

A

But what else can we do to make sure like the community, engage and prevent this process so.

B

Yeah, the the asheville app is a great resource to be able to report straight from your smartphone. uh The number you gave that's our holiday and weekend number. You know if it's after business hours, that's the 251 1122 right during normal business hours. You know 7 a.m, to 5 30, uh that's 828-232-4567!.

B

And that's for any um anybody. You know that sees illicit discharge, they have a concern about their neighbor, seems to be pouring paint and down the the drains or you there's a construction project or some grating that might have erosion or sedimentation or any emergency failure. Sinkholes or anything like that.

B

Those those two phone numbers uh during days and weekends are your the easiest way and you know that's another. You know I wanted to make sure I took every opportunity to plug the website here: yeah and the the website.

B

It has all of this information, all the apps and phone numbers and and ways to get in touch and it's a tremendous source of information about you know: flooding flood preparedness, all of the contacts in the stormwater department and uh information um that you know the anything you want to learn about all our federal mandates, right, fema and our npdes permit and a lot of good stuff.

B

You know- and I would also encourage anyone in the community to sign up for the avl alerts program, because that is a way for the city to be able to get information straight out to you when there's something happening: uh road closures or flooding and thing you know things that pertain to my department. That's one of the ways we try to get the word out.

A

Absolutely so, once again, we want to encourage everyone who is listening to subscribes to the abl alerts you know. So, if curious is like any emergency of like something that you must be alert, you can do it uh also I'm sorry to interrupt here, but I would like to take the opportunity to invite you to visit the website of the city of austria, not only about like the the storm waters, of course, but to check out some of the other projects that we have. That might be happening in your neighborhood or in your area.

A

For instance, uh I want to remember everyone to we have till april 8th so next week from today uh to participate with their comments on the south slope vision plan survey. uh This is a planning process lead by the city of asheville, with the community and business stakeholders in the south slope to develop a long-term vision for the area.

A

So please visit public import.com, slash south slope: that's public input, dot, com, slash south slope, that's one example of many projects in which the community can participate and let us know their thoughts, um opinions, feelings, opposition uh to through words, certain parts that we are developing and, as you were mentioning we, we want the people to participate to. Let us know uh what what do they want, what projects right and what's kind of like in the line, what what future projects might people get into in the future? Well,.

B

One thing I wanted to mention: you know that we absolutely want people involved. Also, you know um there. There are so many moving parts in stormwater, so uh you know we want just generally to have everyone to have the information that you know everything drains to the stream, so everything that goes into a storm inlet or a curb inlet everything that goes into a ditch anything that lands on the ground from rain will eventually end up in the streams. So that includes you know, leaky engines and engine oil, excessive fertilizer or weed killers and insecticides.

B

All of those things are draining to our waterways and beautiful image.

A

B

And another part of that is, you know um a way that other people can get involved and our neighbors can get involved is to uh keep our drains uh clean.

B

If you have a drain near your home- and um you know, especially in the fall with leaves, we have a tremendous problem with leaves, and in the summer it's grass clippings people. You know kind of blow those out into the into the roadway, and it is uh it's an issue for our street sweepers because they are, you know. Part of our program is sweeping the streets and keeping those clean. So those pollutants don't make it into the waterways right, and um you know you don't have to adopt a drain formally, although.

A

B

Have that program in a few neighborhoods, that's really.

A

Great to know you know.

B

Get get out there wear some personal protective equipment. If you're going to be, you know putting your hands down in the air, and you know just clean that clean those drains and it gets the water off the roadway and helps us reduce flooding.

A

I mean we're talking about like a crew of like almost 40 people in the department and the division, but for people to take care of like all the sewers in the city is not enough. I mean we. We should rely more on like people getting involved and in the end it's also uh uh kind of like self-preservation thing. If you want to see it, it's like if the drain in front of your house or your garage is getting like cluttered, then yeah, it's gonna, get it's gonna get messy. It's.

B

Not gonna be pretty yeah absolutely, and you know helping with those local type things um are.

B

Are that helps reduce our maintenance load because, like you said, we have about 40 a little over 40 people that work in stormwater all the time and I'll just tell you how that group is divided generally, so we have a stormwater operations group, that's our in-house forces and that's probably three quarters of the people that work there and those guys are basically divided out into construction and maintenance yeah, and these guys are out there every day, working uh to replace pipes in the ground, expand uh stormwater system, they're, replacing our old and undersized systems, and then they're cleaning out and creating these roadside ditches and then the maintenance.

B

This is the part that surprises people, sometimes is you know, they're fixing, sinkholes and replacing pipes. Also, but part of our maintenance program. Is we have uh three giant vacuum trucks? I don't know if you've ever seen these guys, oh yeah, driving around town, uh those are out cleaning the storm drains every day, keeping them claw unclogged and.

A

B

The pollutants out of the out of our streams and waterways, which.

A

Is great I mean we, I mean if we like to go hiking outside like we can do it properly. Like say: oh we're going to the gardens of australia or something like that. It's like no way we need to have the cleaner, the sewers yeah.

B

Absolutely and then you know, we have uh part of what is required through our our federal permit is you know we have to do street sweeping and our street sweepers are really just giant vacuums and they are they keep. You know they get all of the brake dust and leaves and debris and cigarette butts out of the roadway they take them to a proper landfill facility, rather than all that just would eventually wash right into the uh into the waterways. Otherwise, then we have you know in that same maintenance crew.

B

We have a camera crew and then they're out there with a a little tiny robot. That uh is, is really heavy, but he's small and you know he'll crawl through a thousand feet of pipe at once and just taking uh video and pictures where we can see those failures.

B

And then you know whenever anyone calls eight one one when they're about to dig in the ground, we have a group that does utility locating okay um and they're out there um every day again just trying to make sure no one is digging through our storm water lines when they, when they go to open up the ground.

A

Right, I remember like reading uh and the site that part of like the things that we do well, you do at the depart. Division is like education programs to to the people in general about like how to properly take care, and I think, like sometimes we know like you you're mentioned, like you know, you're, when you're smoking, you should not like throw the remainings, because that's significantly a pollution source. What are actions like on daily basis? People can do to to help take care a little bit of you know our water system.

B

Well again, you know that that kind of goes back to that illicit discharge is what what our technical term for is for it is, and we have a group in the city that um he should like she is out there all the time, doing: outreach and education in the schools to let people know hey. You know again everything drains downstream.

B

What you do, in your yard and in front of your home is affecting the the ecosystem. So um you know we try to. Let people know um that just what you do has a ramification on your neighbors and on the health of the french broad river, and you know that is uh one of our primary functions right. um I.

A

Mean you were saying the same way you can you don't throw certain stuff into your in your toilet because you don't want to clog there or like have a mess in your own house? Exactly did you you? We should try to encourage people to act, the same way with the sewers and the installations for all the city. Right of.

B

Course, of course, we want to. We want to keep everything out of you know. Ideally, we want just water going.

A

B

The drains and into the into the streams um because, like I said all that those pollutants they they will eventually settle somewhere and they uh they'll either settle in in streams or in lakes, or you know styrofoam, and things like that will make its way all the way to the gulf of mexico. So we want to try to to eliminate that fully. That's one of our goals of our of our program is to have everyone working on the same team for that yeah.

A

Please please don't pollute like our waters, like I love to go like watch out the rangers and the birds and stuff like that and yeah.

B

We got to keep their home just as clean as ours right, so you know another. So that's our operations group, they do these day-to-day in-house things and okay, you know another function and a large budget portion of our program is our capital improvements program, and these are you know. These are larger, longer-term plan projects, okay, that have more of a regional and community impact, and these are projects that are just too large to tie up our operations, crews, they they have so many things they're dealing with every day.

B

So these are things that we contract out so over over. You know we we have. Our current system is planned out about eight years into the future of okay projects that we are aware of.

B

Now uh we use a ranking system that includes, you know what causes reduction in flooding, local or regional, the cost of the projects, if we're cooperating with other agencies, water quality impacts, green infrastructure and we incorporate equity into that as a part of that ranking system, also to make sure that we are treating all of the areas of town fairly and giving the same kind of investment. That's needed across the board.

A

That's great yes. Sometimes we can see that like. Oh, it appears that we are like working like certain neighborhoods and ignoring others. We certainly don't want to do that and and at the same time you were saying we work with different agencies, uh federal government, state government, uh sure local organizations and but certainly neighborhood associations like people who wants to to voice their thoughts and opinions. That's also a.

B

Key element here, yeah and and all of our projects when we do a uh especially a large capital project, we try to bring in as many partners as we can, because.

A

B

We're we're going to be in a neighborhood for a while, uh it's going to be disruptive while we try to install these giant pipes in the ground, certainly.

A

So sometimes we you will notice. Oh yeah, everybody.

B

Notices but we are trying to cooperate with msd or the city of asheville water department if they have a project in that area, if they have pipes that are beyond their lifespan or they need to upgrade, we all try to get into these areas at the same time. So we can share our uh expenses, for you know, asphalt and some of the you know really just getting in there one time getting everything done, that we can and then leaving an area as good as we can.

A

Excellent, well, that's uh that's great to hear because then, if we're talking about like there's, gonna, be one project to redo some of the the pavement in a certain area or we're planning to adjust some system or so then we try to combine like efforts of different departments to make sure like what are commonly the upcoming projects. What we can see in the foreseen future well.

B

I appreciate you asking about that, because one of the goals of today's time is to let people know about a big project. That's right out in front of the studio here in um on patton avenue, just about a couple blocks down from klingman avenue uh to french broad in that corridor.

B

We're going to be doing some work along there. We call it the carter and patton stormwater project, and that means we're incorporating carter street from the north and then along patton avenue and then ann street to the south, and this is kind of a typical water storm water program in that we're going in there to replace some some storm system that is undersized or collapsed and get it located properly inside the right of way and this this project in particular we're going to be um doing a lot of ada compliance american with disabilities act.

B

Where we're going to be replacing curb ramps and sidewalks on both sides of the street, you know getting making sure we're getting rid of our toe trips and uh improper slopes, and so we, while we're doing a project that is just absolutely storm water, focused we're trying to make that area as good as possible when we leave so trying to get rid of other issues. You know that particular corridor is a highly used for our homeless population, so they are some of the primary beneficiaries of this.

B

We're we're reducing people getting splashed when they're walking on the sidewalk doesn't seem like a big deal, but if you're homeless and you get splashed in the middle of winter, you know it can be life or death. So right, um you know we we take our job very seriously and we try to think of um you know the impact that we're having on the people that we are working for and we're working for the citizens.

A

So certainly I mean- and I even if, if you're just like walking on the street after it rain, if you're trying to go biking in the area, it's complicated to to do so right.

B

Absolutely absolutely you know the longer storm water stays on the roadways and doesn't get into the proper conveyances that you know it can be a safety hazard from ponding and people. You know flooding out their cars. Emergency vehicles can't get through. So when we do these large capital projects, like the the patton street carter and patton avenue, I'm sorry carter and project we're focused on a whole host of uh of things that we're going to be able to improve while we're out there. Okay.

A

And, as you just mentioned, it's going to be the ada compelling with like the regulations so trying to not only make it like more eco-friendly, to call in a way, but also like more inclusive to all mobility.

B

Absolutely there are, um you know for most people that drive through that corridor, the the sidewalks look. Fine, and you know you can walk out there, just fine, but if you have a an impairment or a physical limitation, then you know if your street ramps aren't installed as best they can or if you have uh slopes that, make it difficult to balance. Then you know these. These small things really add up to uh to being impediments for people and we're wanting to have all access for all all of our citizens.

B

So that's a lot of what we're focused on when we do our storm water projects, not just moving storm water, but you know really, you know, how can we make these areas um update them and make them as compliant as we can absolutely.

A

You mentioned at the beginning, those are like over 100 years old, so we want to keep it updated and make it like sure that we are like improving and keep it on time so well, that's that that's fascinating uh certainly has been like a really a really informative talk like I. I feel it that way. uh So I don't know before before we leave I'd like to ask you ross, uh there's something else that we might want to know sign up for ab alerts. Don't don't forget to do that? Please yeah.

B

I you know as much as I can push people to go. Look at the website to look at. You know ashevillenc.gov and go to the stormwater under departments, and you can learn so much about um you know what how we operate, what mandates you know federal and state guidelines we operate under and then how they can get involved and sign up and get alerts and just be part of the solution for stormwater.

A

Awesome well, uh thank you very much. That's our time for, for today's program, uh stay tuned! Thank you once again ross for for being here and please everyone stay tuned, we'll be back soon to talk about another cd projects uh right here on w-r-o-s 100.7, fm stay tuned, take care of each other as well good day.