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Soil & Water director outlines $150,000 grant and new stormwater program manager role
Summary
Elkhart County Soil & Water described a Clean Water Indiana award, a research partnership with the University of Notre Dame, expanded consultant use for GIS and a proposed reclassification to create a stormwater program manager.
Jim Hess, manager of the Elkhart County Soil and Water Conservation District, told councilors the department secured a Clean Water Indiana award of about $150,000 to support county water-quality work and equipment purchases.
Hess said the grant allowed the district to collaborate with the University of Notre Dame, which will dedicate a year of research to watershed-level surface-water, groundwater and aquifer study in the Elkhart River and St. Joseph River basins. Hess described the research as an "arsenal" of data to help the county weigh development and stormwater needs.
He said the district is moving from a single GIS coordinator model to greater consultant use because GIS has evolved into a team skill set. That change explains increases in professional-services and consultant line items; Hess said early results in 2025 show consultant use has improved capacity and could avoid creating a costly single full-time specialist.
Hess described a new 90-minute construction-stormwater training, branded locally and pitched to the state as a model for first-line education before enforcement. He said the program's goals are to prevent job stoppages, build relationships with contractors, and reduce confrontational shut-downs by teaching permit and erosion-control expectations. He said IDEM (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) is looking at adopting the county's approach for broader permitting practice.
To manage the rising number of active construction sites (Hess cited roughly 300 active sites across the county), Soil & Water is proposing a reclassification that elevates a conservation position to a stormwater program manager and shifts more day-to-day inspections and enforcement to contracted inspectors. The new program manager would take ownership of the stormwater program and the training/education work described above.
Ending: Hess said the agency's aim is to encourage compliant, business-friendly development while protecting water quality; he closed by offering to provide more detail at the council's follow-up budget session.
