HIEA Hamilton Storm Water Management Workshop Wednesday, March 27, 2013 Outline

 Hamilton Conservation Authority  Evolution of Water Management  Effects of Urbanization  Low Impact Development  Local Water Quality Conditions  Resources

Hamilton CA’s Programs

HCA’s Focus

 flooding and erosion protection;  water quality and quantity management;  reforestation and sustainable woodlot management;  ecosystem regeneration;  environmental education and information programming;  land acquisition;  outdoor recreation;  environmental land use planning;  habitat protection;  stewardship activities that include agricultural and rural landowner assistance; and  protection of sensitive wetlands, flood plains and valley lands.

Evolution of Water Management In Ontario 1960s 1990 1991 1996 2003 2009

Sustainable tools Green Infrastructure Evaluations Updating Studies WATERSHED Climate Change Social Learning MANAGEMENT

Scenario Testing Social Economic Integration SUSTAINABLE Mapping & Data Mgmnt OUTCOMES Link Economy- Environment-Social

Geomorphology Terrestrial Habitat WISE Groundwater Wetlands/ESAs GOVERNANCE Woodlots Monitoring Enhancement Infiltration Water Temp Baseflow Maintenance Fisheries/Aquatic Habitat SHARED Water Quality Erosion/Sediment RESPONSIBILITY Control

Floodplain Mgmt Runoff Quality Ctrl Erosion/Flood Ctrl Major/Minor System Design Culvert Imprvmnts

So What’s Changed?

Changing Attitudes, Behaviours and Expectations of the Public Issues New Approach  Myth of Water  Sustainability Abundance  Transparency  Growing Population/  Water as a resource Aging Population  Need for Integrated  Aging Infrastructure Approaches  Climate Change  Applying Adaptive Management  Moving to risk-based approaches

8 9

Flow Rate Flow

Time

10 Impacts of Urbanization on the Water

Cycle Courtesy of TRCA

• Reduction in soil moisture storage • Reduction in rainfall interception by vegetation • Reduction in transpiration and evaporation • Reduction in surface infiltration • Increase in runoff (2 – 6X) Low Impact Development Practices Courtesy of TRCA

Detain - infiltrate - evapotranspire - capture and use  Reduced impervious cover  Permeable pavements  Bioretention  Infiltration trenches  Swales  Rain barrels and cisterns  Green roofs  Trees and tree boxes  Alternative parking designs  Amended soils  etc..

Bioretention Courtesy of TRCA Planters Courtesy of TRCA Permeable Pavements Courtesy of TRCA Red Hill Creek Land Use and Water Quality Linkages

Background

 The Red Hill Creek Watershed comprises 68 km2 and is located in the City of Hamilton. This catchment area is drained by Red Hill Creek and its tributaries—Hannon, Davis, and Montgomery Creeks—which ultimately empty into Lake Ontario through Hamilton Harbour Location Scenarios Evaluated Land Use

 Impervious catchment area increased substantially upstream of Albion Falls between 1985 and 2010, but only slightly between Queenston Rd. and Albion Falls during the same period.

Water Chemistry

 Water quality in Red Hill Creek has generally improved since the 1960s-1990s, but median concentrations of some parameters exceed guidelines, particularly at Albion Falls. Nutrient concentrations have generally declined during 2002–2011, whereas concentrations of certain metals have increased.

High and Low Flow Conditions

 Bacteria and several nutrients & metals were elevated during periods of high flow, and were significantly correlated with TSS. This suggests that surface runoff and/or erosion negatively affect surface water quality in Red Hill Creek during rain and/or melt events. Bacteria and nutrient concentrations are also found to be enriched during low flow at Albion Falls in recent years. Land use and Water Quality Linkages

 Recent increases in concentrations of metals, and deceases in concentrations of nutrients, may be related to increases in impervious surface area, and improved stormwater management practices, respectively, however, more data are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn.

Other Recent Work on Red Hill Creek Flow and Precipitation – Red Hill Creek at Queenston Red Hill Creek - All data (EC met data)

900 800 Rain as a 700

600 Predictor of TP

500

400 Loads?

300 TP Loading (kg/d) Loading TP 200

100

0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Precip (mm) Red Hill Creek - All data (HCA met data) 1000 Precip data are from HCA's Queenston Road & Lake St N location in Stoney Creek 900 Precip total includes 24 hours prior to sampling plus any precip that fell during sampling 800 Lesson 1 – Rain events All data 700 Winter (Dec - March) can be highly localized, 600 Jan and Feb only and daily totals (midnight 500 to midnight) do not carry a 400 lot of meaning Feb TP Loading (kg/d) Loading TP 300 2011 200 100 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 Precip (mm) Red Hill Creek: July 7, 1:49pm - July 8, 12:49pm, 2010 1.6

1.4 Peak 8 1.2 Rising limb 1 7 0.8 Pre-storm 9 Falling limb (baseflow) 0.6 10 12 14 22 Water level (m) Waterlevel 16 18 20 24 1 2 3 4 11 0.4 13 15 17 19 21 23 5 6 0.2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Monitoring Activities for Lower Spencer Creek Integrated Subwatershed Study Water Quality

 Includes:  Winter sampling  Event based sampling  Stormsewer sampling  Temperature monitoring

Spencer Creek PWQO Exceedances 4000 3500 Total suspended solids as 3000 aluminum vs. TSS 2500 R² = 0.93 a predictor of contaminants 2000

Al (ug/L) Al 1500 in Spencer Creek rain 1000 500 baseflow 0 0 100 200 300 400 TSS (mg/L) 700 total phosphorus vs. TSS 7000 600 6000 iron vs. TSS 500

5000 R² = 0.92 400 4000 R² = 0.92

300 3000 Fe (ug/L)Fe TP (ug/L) TP 200 2000 100 1000 0 0 0 100 200 300 400 0 100 200 300 400 TSS (mg/L) TSS (mg/L) 6000 450 5000 400 zinc vs. TSS E. coli vs. TSS 350 4000 300

3000 250 R² = 0.96 (cfu/100mL) R² = 0.87 200

2000 (ug/L) Zn 150

E. coli E. 100 1000 50 0 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 100 200 300 400 TSS (mg/L) TSS (mg/L) King - O1

O3 – Napier St. Cloverhill - O2 East St. - O5 - Ormerod O8 Market - O4 O6 - McMurray

O7 – Main St. Conclusions

 contaminants of primary concern:  aluminum  E. coli  total phosphorus (TP)  water quality generally worsens with distance downstream of Safari Rd.  except for nitrogen where pattern is set in upper watershed  surface run-off (TSS, metals, TP) and combined sewer overflows (E. coli) problems during rain events  temperature lower in Dundas than upstream, but still excessive (>25°C) on some days  dissolved oxygen usually meets PWQO, except for in nutrient-rich, hypoxic Lake Jojo

Resources

 CVC/TRCA Low Impact Development Stormwater Management Planning and Design Guide  TRCA LID practice life cycle costing tool - available April 2013  Guidance, LID monitoring/case studies, and resources available at:  TRCA: www.sustainabletechnologies.ca  CVC: http://www.creditvalleyca.ca/low-impact-development/  LID maps:  For Ontario www.iswm.ca Thank You