Winter Pond Care Basics by Joe Gordon

Joe Gordon who works out of the JCM Environmental Georgetown Delaware Office prepared this general outline for Winter Pond Care as a basic reference for employees and clients:

Winter Pond Care

Aeration Systems

Fountains

It is always a good idea to take the fountains out by November.
1. Leaving the fountains in when the pond freezes over can create a complicated situation in which the fountain can be damaged.
ii. It is good to have them serviced on a yearly basis in order to keep them working properly and to protect the customer’s investment. This is most often done while the fountains are out for the winter.

Bubblers

The bubblers or “under water aeration systems” should stay in during the winter.
1. The bubblers help guard against the build up of nutrients in the pond by preventing the formation of a benthic layer in which anaerobic conditions allow bacteria to break down phosphorus into forms readily available to plants, more specifically algae.
2. The bubblers will keep the pond from freezing over in all except the most extreme temperatures.
a. This allows your pond crews to keep working in the water, removing organic debris (see below).
ii. Once a year typically in the winter the carbon veins should be serviced on the bubbler systems to keep them in working order.

Removal of Organics

a. During winter, when things slow down, decaying leaves, the emergent part of your aquatic plants and other organic matter (including fish and waterfowl waste) begin to break down in the pond. The result is an excess of organic nutrients in the water, which is essentially food for algae growth. Add sunlight and some warmer weather to these conditions, and you have an ideal environment for algae growth, both the filamentous and cellular algae varieties.
b. Removing these organics has a tremendous impact on the amount of nutrients available for algae growth and thus can seriously cut down on the use of algaecides in the spring season.
This will ultimately save you the customer money.

Care and Trimming of Buffer

This includes everything from Bayberry to Broom Sedge. It is important to cut and remove (portions) of the past season’s vegetation to provide opportunity (room and sunlight) for vegetation in the next season.
i. One could compare this process to the trimming of a Forsythia or Rhododendron. A trimmed plant will have more blooms the following season then an untrimmed plant.
This also adds to the aesthetic appeal of the pond. With all the vegetation dormant, the pond takes on the look of a “dead spot.” When the vegetation neatly cut and portions removed, the pond appears cleaner and thus is more appealing to the eye.

You can contact Joe at joe@jcmenv.com for more information.

Center for Inland Bays - Nutrient Conference

A few JCM Environmental employees attended the Center for Inland Bays conference entitled Frontiers in Nutrient Management at the Atlantic Sands hotel in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Wednesday.

We presented a poster detailing the nutrient management innovations employed at two Inland Bay watershed residential development sites that we have worked on.

Here is the abstract:

Innovative Approaches to Nutrient Management in Residential Development, by James C. McCulley IV, P.W.S, President JCM Environmental Consultants, Inc., jim@jcmenv.com.

Residential development in the Inland Bays watershed provides opportunities for innovative nutrient management approaches. Two residential projects in the watershed were chosen to illustrate the opportunities for innovative nutrient management. A one thousand acre intensive agricultural site (Site1) adjacent to the inland bays and a one hundred acre forested site (Site 2) upstream of a tidal reach to the inland bays. Site 1 was intensively studied to determine agricultural nutrient loadings, after which residential nutrient reduction measures were implemented and monitoring was performed to determine success. The reduction measures included: property management approaches and tiered storm water practices. Site 2 built upon the successes of Site 1 and is currently in the design phase and is proposing similar as well as additional approaches, including: integrated pest management, lawn grass reduction, green development practices under the newly implemented Sussex County Green Development Policy and other innovative storm water management approaches. The data shows that the approaches implemented at Site 1 have been successful and we are confident that the additional approaches implemented at Site 2 will have an additive effect on nutrient reduction in the inland bays.

For more information contact Joe Gordon at joe@jcmenv.com or www.jcmenv.com

An Interesting Rapanos Opinion

I came across this Op-Ed today and found it interesting:

http://rapanos.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/01/op-ed-on-the-rapanos-settlement.html

For more information contact JCM Environmental at http://www.jcmenv.com/ or 302- 737-9335

Benchmark Builders Joins Green!

We are pleased to congratulate Benchmark Builders, homebuilders of the Villages of Eastridge in Clayton Delaware. They recently received Bronze Certification of one of their homes, awarded by the National Association of Homebuilders Green Building Program. They are first "Bronze Green Home" in Kent County, and first Bronze Certified Home in Delaware under the NAHB Green Building Guidelines.

We are proud they have chosen to build green and to add them to our growing list of green-building clients. Having just returned from the NAHB convention last week, its clear that green building is becoming much more dominant across the country and we’re pleased that Benchmark, along with our other clients, are on the leading edge of green building.

Green Building Leads off NWDA Meeting Atlantic City

Wearing my hat as President of the Green Building Council of the HBA/DE, I had the privilege to speak at the Northeast Window and Door Association Winter Meeting today in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They had a nice size group of window and door suppliers and sellers, and they were quite receptive to learn about green homebuilding. I presented a summary of the NAHB green building and certification program, NAHB's new "Green Approved" product seal program, and I summarized for them the difference between NAHB's program and LEED residential. This was quite helpful, some mentioned afterwards they were familiar with LEED as a buzzword but not sure of the costs.

They are an energetic group, very much tuned into true trends toward green and related government certification programs, ie Energy Star certified products.

IBS Powerpoint - Green Building Benefits

Here is the powerpoint presentation that we helped Bob Thornton prepare for his talk at the International Builder's Show in Las Vegas last week:

http://jcmenv.com/silverwoodsnahb.ppt

This is a large file, give it time to download.

Bob has gotten incredible amounts of exposure in the press for going green. JCM Environmental can help you go green and help you get exposure too.

Contact Howard at howard@jcmenv.com

Builder Magazine Again

The latest issue of Builder Magazine features a story on Green Building and spotlights Bob Thornton and Silver Woods. See it at the link below on page 55.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/hanleywood/builder_200901/index.php

For more information, contact us at www.jcmenv.com

International Builder's Show - Thursday

We visited with HGTV and found out they have launched HGTV Pro for builders as a website and programming on the station. Right now they only have one hour of programming per week for “Building Professionals” but would like to add more. They are very interested in Green Building and will be contacting Bob and JCM about possible tie ins with Silver Woods and the NAHB Green Building Program.

We also met, by accident, with the owner of Lumber Liquidators, Tom Sullivan. Bob uses his products in his houses and Tom as it turns out is very interested in Green. He loves the fact that his product is in the first Gold Certified Home in the Nation and he wants to do some marketing about that. He is also very big into hydrogen fuel and trash to energy, he is an investor in two companies developing those technologies and wants to talk to us about looking at some options for the remainder of Silver Woods and other Green Developments in Delaware.

We then met Ed Sanders from Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Jim talked to him about the house we worked on in Wilmington and how great the experience was and then Bob and Jim talked to him about Green Building and offered our expertise for future projects.

We talked to some folks from the Department of Energy and learned about the new Builders Challenge program which enables houses to be rated and gets them a sticker similar to appliances that rates the whole house for energy consumption. Looks very interesting.

We also met with Alan Taylor who has a radio show on the west coast related to building and he was very interested in getting together with Bob for potential interviews and guidance on Green Building issues. Alan then introduced us to Karl Champley who has a show on DIY Network. Karl is filming a new show where he is building a house all by himself with no help. He is interested in building the house Green and was looking at LEED. Bob and Jim told him all about the NAHB Program and he now may do a dual certification. He took their cards and said he may call us for some help. We told him that we may be able to get NAHB to help with the show as a sponsor if he certifies to their guidelines.

International Builder's Show - Wednesday

We have had a very productive two days at the IBS. On Tuesday Bob and Jim met with a few vendors at the show, the ones they talked to were interested in marketing that their products were used in the first Gold Certified Home in the Nation or they were interested in donating free Green products to Bob to try in his next home in the hopes that he would use their product in the future.

In the afternoon, Bob gave his talk to about 100 people, mostly builders. The host of the discussion from NAHB introduced Howard by saying that there was a very important person in the room that he wanted to identify, Howard stood up and got recognition. Bob did excellent with his talk and after the session we talked to many people. NAHB asked Bob if he would be interested in giving the presentation to other builders in other parts of the country and Bob agreed. They also invited us to the NAHB Research Center.

A builder in Texas asked us if we could help certify their homes, Howard asked how many per year and they said about 250. Also after the talk another verifier from the West Coast talked to Howard and I and asked if we would be interested in teaming on a potential project for Wells Fargo Mortgage and he also said that he didn’t know the science and environmental aspects like we did but that he was more focused on the building end and there may be opportunities to help each other out.

On Tuesday evening Jim and Jacki attended the Build-PAC event as invited guests based on my help with the fundraising this year as a Build PAC champion. At the event, Kevin Kelly from Leon Weiner and Associates introduced Jim to one of the National Officers and after talking for 10 minutes he asked Jim to serve on the National Environmental Committee.

On Wednesday morning Jim went to an Associate Member Awards breakfast. He met a lot of Associate members from all over the country. After talking to the chairman of the NAHB Associates Advisory Council for a while he asked Jim if he would join the Council and represent Delaware. Several of the Associates that Jim knows from his Build-PAC Peer to Peer training won awards and it was a good morning.

After the breakfast Jim walked the show and met the head of Beam Sales (Central Vac and HEPA filtration), their focus is on indoor air quality as it relates to Green Building. We have worked closely with their Delaware rep, Randy Ciafre, who serves with Howard on the Green Building Council. Jason from Beam is coming to Delaware in two weeks and wants to meet with Howard and Jim about teaming opportunities for Green Building.

Howard and Jim also talked to our contact at Pella (we put on a green building seminar for them in Lewes) and he introduced them to their green building person Pat O’Brien. They talked to Pat about assisting them with getting their products Green Approved through NAHB and they are interested in our help. We will be talking to other manufacturers tomorrow about helping them with this new program.

Howard and Jim also met a green building expert at the Green modular home. He was a wealth of knowledge on green building as far as energy efficiency, construction best practices and water conservation measures. We talked for a while and he is interested in talking more after the show about how we can help each other out. He is also lacking the Science and Environmental knowledge that JCM can provide. He is on the west coast and does not feel threatened by helping us out as we don’t compete in the same markets and we definitely would like to tap into his building knowledge.

Howard met the owner of a modular homebuilding company at a Green Building talk this morning and he asked Howard if we could help them write homeowners manuals for their green built homes.

I think I have walked about 20 miles in the last two days.

We are going to the Membership Event tonight and hope to make some more contacts.

International Builder's Show - Sunday

Bob Thornton and I just got back from the NAHB Green Building Subcommittee Meeting which was held at the Convention Center in advance of the show.

Part of the meeting was a powerpoint presentation by Calli Schmidt from the NAHB Public Relations Department. Her presentation was on the positive press coverage that NAHB has gotten about Green Building in the last year.

She showed the News Journal Article about Thompson Homes, she showed a clip from Bob Thornton’s interview on WHYY TV and she showed Benchmark Builders brochure and mentioned that all of the projects were in Delaware. She mentioned that Delaware had a Certified home in each county and was the first State to reach such a milestone. She then mentioned that JCM Environmental had been the verifier for all of the Delaware homes!!! WOW!

After the meeting we talked to some of the NAHB staff and introduced ourselves and they all asked the same question….Where is Howard? JCM and Howard have made quite a name for ourselves with NAHB with regard to Green Building……it is great to be on the cutting edge of this movement.

IBS Photo Book Posted

The photo book that Bob Thornton will be passing out at the International Builder's Show in Las Vegas is now posted at our website.

If you are interested you can visit:

http://jcmenv.com/IBSPhoto.ppt

You will be given the option to open in your browser or save it and open with powerpoint. If you need a powerpoint viewer, there is a link to a free viewer on our website at www.jcmenv.com on the Green Building page (just click the IBS link at the top).

For more information contact Howard Fortunato at howard@jcmenv.com or (302) 737-9335 X306.

International Builder's Show

The International Builder's Show (IBS) is next week in Las Vegas. This convention and educational seminar is hosted by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB).

The NAHB has asked one of our clients, Bob Thornton of Silverstock Builders to speak to other builders about the benefits of Building Green using the NAHB Green Building Program which was rolled out at IBS last year. Bob had the distinction of building the first Gold Certified home in the nation under this new program.

For anyone attending IBS, he will be speaking on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 from 3:30 to 5:00 PM PST in Room South 232 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. His powerpoint presentation will be posted on our website www.jcmenv.com early next week and more information can be found at his website at www.silverstock.com

Delaware Estuary Program

Amy Alsfeld-Nazdrowicz from the JCM Environmental Sciences Branch is speaking today at the 3rd Annual Delaware Estuary and Environmental Summit. Amy's paper on Wetland Restoration was accepted as part of the program and her presentation is this afternoon.

See page 20 in the program here for more information: http://www.delawareestuary.org/scienceandresearch/Science_Conf/SC09/2009%20Conference%20Summit%20Program%20v2.pdf

Congratulations Amy on this honor.

Here is a link to a news story about the conference:

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901130362

Amy is the lead scientist on all of the JCM Environmental Wetland and Habitat Restoration and Creation projects. She handles everything involved in the process including: Site Selection, Site Study, Design, Construction Oversight and Monitoring.

You can contact Amy at amy@jcmenv.com or by calling (302) 737-9335 X106 or visit www.jcmenv.com .


It's sweeping the country like wildflowers. --Samuel Goldwyn

Builders as Heroes? Don't Laugh before Reading!

Last year Jim McCulley published an article in the Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal that is worth reading again:


http://jcmenv.com/MARE.pdf


Contact Jim for more information at jim@jcmenv.com or http://www.jcmenv.com/


I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. --Harry S Truman

Have you wondered about those stumps along Route 1?

Jodi Kerstetter and Amy Nazdrowicz recently had an article published in the Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Journal that explained the reason for the stumps and other facts about wetland mitigation.


You can view the article here:


http://jcmenv.com/StumpArticle.pdf


or contact JCM Environmental for more information http://www.jcmenv.com/


I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. -- Willa Cather

Educational Committment

A few months ago, Howard Fortunato and Jodi Kerstetter participated in the Middletown High School career fair, and had the opportunity to speak with colleagues from other professional fields. One such person was Lori Aldrich who is part of the Business, Industry, Education (BIE) Alliance. Through this meeting, Lori discerned that JCM Environmental would be a perfect candidate to participate in the Teacher Externship Program.

The Teacher Externship Program (TEP) provides an opportunity to educators in the area to participate in an 18 hour “mentorship” with local business and industrial sites this summer. The time spent with these companies assists the educators in researching the connection between school skills and workplace skills. The objective is to research how well Delaware academic standards and classroom lessons reflect the needs of employers.

We are excited to be part of such a worthy project, and look forward to developing ongoing relationships with local educators. This type of projects fits with JCM Environmental's commitment to education which includes:

• Mentoring Glasgow High School Honors Program
• Assisting With Curriculum Development for Glasgow High and Hodgson
• Mentoring Science Students at Talley Middle School
• Grading Senior Projects at Hodgson
• Presentations to Hodgson, Smyrna High, Talley Middle, Sussex Tech, Caravel Academy and Glasgow High
• Assistance to Brader Elementary, Talley and Glasgow with Projects
• Donation of plants and labor to Kent County Vo-Tech for pond planting
• Delaware State Fair Wildlife Education Exhibit
• Many other presentations and displays at local events
  

For more information on this program, or if your business would also like to participate, please contact Jodi Kerstetter (jodi@jcmenv.com) and she will pass along the appropriate contact information or visit http://www.jcmenv.com/ for more information.

Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years. - George Burns

Corps and EPA Fighting?

There have been recent reports and released documents that indicate that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. EPA are fighting over the definition of jurisdictional waters.

You can find the article here:
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2292

The House oversight committee has released documents here:
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20081216113901.pdf

This all points to the possible introduction of new legislation under the new administration to reauthorize or clarify the Clean Water Act.

The Supreme Court has spoken in the SWANCC decision and the Rapanos decision and so it will be interesting to see that spin that Congress puts on this issue if they get involved. It is definitely time for the Congress to act and hopefully they will follow the lead of the Supreme Court decisions.

We will keep you up to date here.

Environmental Words "Banned"

Lake Superior State University releases a list of "Banned" words every January. These are words that were overused in the previous year (http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current.php). Two environmental words or phrases were among the list of "banned" words:

"Green" or "Going Green", and

"Carbon Footprint" or "Carbon Offsetting"

I agree that these words/phrases have been overused in 2008, but just as with all things whose time has come and where there is money to be made, everyone tries to pile onto the bandwagon. Rising energy costs have made us all realize that we need to do more conservation in order to avoid emptying our wallets. This has translated into "Green" building which saves the owners money but also has a great side effect of preserving resources and protecting the environment.

With the release of the National Association of Homebuilders Green Building Guidelines Program, homebuilders now have a mechanism to build green and get certified so that the homebuying public is protected. It is extremely important the consumers recognize how important the certification process is. Since everyone is saying they are green or going green (as evidenced by the banned words), consumers must insist on the certification from a third party source to ensure that they are "green" or "going green".

Green should not become a bad word or a banned word, but it will take consumer pressure to make sure that the word is used correctly and honestly.

We will talk about Carbon later!

Happy New Year

Wishing all of our clients, subcontractors, vendors and friends a very happy new year. JCM Environmental looks forward to working with all of you this new year and making 2009 a prosperous year for all of us.

JCM will have some exciting announcements throughout 2009 as we continue to grow the business and add new services and markets.

Thank you for all of your continued support and wishing you all a happy 2009.