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	<img alt="" class="border-left" src="{filedir_5}Josh-Miller-150pxl(1).jpg" style="width: 150px; height: 210px; float: right; " />In late 2011, as a student in the Environmental Policy and Planning program at the University of Michigan <a href="http://snre.umich.edu">School of Natural Resources and Environment</a>, I was generously offered the opportunity to work part-time as an intern with the <a href="http://www.hrwc.org">Huron River Watershed Council</a> (HRWC) in Ann Arbor. At that time, I was unaware that HRWC was one of the leading watershed councils in the nation. Since then, I have come to understand why. This summer I extended my work with them into a full-time internship. Let me tell you a little bit about the HRWC and my work with them over the summer.</p>
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	The HRWC was founded as a government-supported body by the counties and communities within the Huron River watershed. Since that time, they have gathered significant public support and now receive only one third of their annual budget from government members. This is due to the quality of their work over the past 50 years, and especially to the quality of their volunteer water monitoring program. They have compiled one of the oldest and most complete data sets for any river in Michigan, and their statistics are relied upon by Michigan agencies like the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Because they have the data, people listen when they point out a problem or a priority. That has earned them the right to work collaboratively with local governments, businesses, social groups, and landowners to target everything from brownfield cleanups to improved stormwater management.</p>
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	The Michigan DEQ recently handed to them the responsibility of determining how to move forward with Green Infrastructure (GI) planning for stormwater in Washtenaw County. GI is the use of natural features to keep stormwater on-site for infiltration instead of funneling it to the nearest stream and collecting pollution along the way. It includes such common features as green roofs, porous pavement, and rain gardens. Though the hydraulics and economics of GI are solid (e.g., Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Syracuse are all using GI to eliminate Combined Sewer Overflows), it still lacks momentum for wide-scale implementation. It was our job this summer to figure out why, at least in Washtenaw County, the county which holds most of the watershed and its major cities.</p>
