The report, commissioned by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District and released in August, focuses on the district’s Safe Clean Water Program (SCWP). The SCWP allocates funds from Measure W, a voluntary parcel tax to support stormwater management projects voted into law by Los Angeles voters in 2018, to build new stormwater infrastructure with a predominant focus on low-income communities. After conducting workshops and analyzing 116 SCWP projects funded by Measure W revenue since 2018, report authors recommend specific ways to enhance the program’s ability to support environmental equity. Although the report concentrates on the SCWP, authors contend that its conclusions about the value of public involvement can benefit equitable stormwater infrastructure spending in any setting.

“We found that community engagement is key to the program’s success in delivering benefits to disadvantaged communities,” Jon Christensen, UCLA sustainability researcher and co-author of the report, in a release. “It’s crucial that members of disadvantaged communities have the opportunity to identify those benefits for their own communities. It can’t just be a top-down process.”

Involving Locals in the Vetting Process

According to SCWP guidelines, infrastructure proposals that aim to directly improve water quality, water supply, or stormwater management in low-income communities receive a higher priority for funding. However, the report describes that these current guidelines lack specific provisions to ensure that such projects will directly benefit the communities they target, as well as whether the benefits they intend to provide align with the most pressing issues facing those communities.

Report authors outline an array of ways SCWP — as well as other stormwater funding programs — can better promote environmental equity at the foundational level.

For one, SCWP should strive to amplify the voices of residents living in the communities that potential infrastructure projects intend to target via new, formalized reporting processes. While modeling tools may indicate whether a neighborhood is particularly flood-prone, for example, they may fail to identify whether locals perceive flooding as a more pressing concern than water quality, water supply, or other priorities. To better inform decision-making, SCWP should embrace technology to provide easy ways for residents to report on their infrastructure needs as well as to compile and present this data alongside information from modeling tools, according to the report. Involving stated community needs as an integral part of the proposal-vetting process could lead to new and improved metrics by which to assess projects, such as how well a piece of infrastructure will align with the priorities of its community.

Going further, the report outlines that SCWP could create a process by which locals — either directly or through community-based organizations and non-profit groups — could approve or reject a proposal, making public acceptance of the project a requirement for construction to proceed. This approach would likely minimize public opposition and maximize buy-in, the authors describe.

“Robust community engagement takes work,” said Gregory Pierce, report co-author and co-director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, in a release. “Additional funding for community-based organizations, technical assistance, and program guidelines will help make this possible.”

Reaching the Most Vulnerable

Authors also suggest ways the SCWP can extend its reach by prioritizing projects in areas containing specific populations.

SCWP guidance currently considers any neighborhood in which the median annual household income is less than 80% of California’s statewide average as “disadvantaged,” a definition that covers approximately 42% of all census blocks in Los Angeles County. In effect, report authors describe, several projects have earned funding that may only indirectly benefit the city’s most vulnerable areas.

The report recommends an additional distinction, which would receive the highest priority during the project-vetting process, for proposals targeting the 21% of Los Angeles residents living in communities considered “severely disadvantaged”. This would include census blocks in which the average household earns 60% or less of the average statewide annual income. According to the authors, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District should also implement a formal policy statement that acknowledges and prioritizes SCWP investment in these severely disadvantaged communities.

Additionally, authors suggest that the district should specifically engage the various Native American nations located within its jurisdiction, which comprise approximately 150,000 people. This could include, for example, refining land use and land management policies to promote improved government-to-government relations and expediting infrastructure projects that would benefit these communities.

Read the full report, “Equity in Stormwater Investments: Measuring Community Engagement and Disadvantaged Community Benefits for Equitable Impact in the Safe Clean Water Program,” at the website of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation.

Top image courtesy of Maxx Girr/Pixabay

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Justin Jacques is editor of Stormwater Report and a staff member of the Water Environment Federation (WEF). In addition to writing for WEF’s online publications, he also contributes to Water Environment & Technology magazine. Contact him at jjacques@wef.org.

The post Report Explores How Public Outreach Supports Equity in Stormwater Investments appeared first on Stormwater Report.

Although Green Infrastructure Week presentations will focus mainly on applications in the U.K., the concepts and case studies to be discussed can — and must — be applied worldwide, described Shawn Coles, the event’s founder and managing director.

“Getting to net zero [emissions] here in the U.K., and across the globe, won’t happen without the right foundations,” Coles said. “The green infrastructure ecosystem needs to come together to explore strategies as one cohesive community. Green Infrastructure Week offers a vital forum for exchanging ideas and learning from one another to get us onto a clearer and cleaner pathway to net zero.”

Broadening Green Infrastructure Horizons

In 2020, the U.K. government released its Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, a policy allocating more than £12 billion ($16 billion USD) in public funds to subsidize more than 250,000 jobs in sustainable industry. The 10 priorities specified in the policy, which range from promoting offshore wind energy to protecting watersheds and other natural environments, will act as a roadmap for Green Infrastructure Week presentations.

Each day will begin with a live, keynote webcast focusing on at least one aspect of the Ten Point Plan, each hosted by a U.K.-based organization leading innovation in their respective fields. Successive webcasts offer a deep dive on sub-topics within each point, outlining technical and financial needs to achieve the goals of the Ten Point Plan while also showcasing the latest practices and technology that are already moving the needle toward net zero in the U.K. The event is sponsored by multinational engineering firm AECOM (Dallas, Texas) and supported by dozens of nonprofit groups, think tanks, and policymakers.

Although pre-registration is required for each webinar, all are freely accessible to viewers around the world. Visit the U.K. Green Infrastructure Week website for specific webinar topics, among which will include:

• Maximizing U.K. bioenergy generation rates, hosted by the Energy & Bioproducts Research Institute at Aston University (Birmingham, England);
• Infrastructure requirements to support commercial electric vehicle fleets, hosted by the Electric Vehicle Energy Taskforce (London);
• Finance and investment strategies to support green technologies, hosted by Innovate UK KTN (London); and
• Building emissions-free roads, hosted by the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (London).

A Global Push Toward Net Zero

The U.K. Climate Change Committee estimates that meeting its net zero goals will require as much as £1.4 trillion ($1.8 trillion USD) in total investments by the government, private sector, and taxpayers over the next 30 years. Although the commitment is ambitious — equivalent to almost half of the 2021 U.K. gross domestic product — it is only one example of similar efforts to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by governments around the world.

More than 190 countries have signed onto the 2015 Paris Climate Accords, a set of legally binding measures to keep Earth’s average temperature from rising beyond 2°C (3.6°F) by the end of the century, in large part by eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. Combined, emissions from signing countries account for at least 55% of the worldwide total.

The 27 European Union member states committed to work toward a net-zero economy in 2018, with specific targets set by each country. Japan, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, and others have made similarly binding commitments. Policy statements now exist in more than 130 countries, according to the United Nations, that set targets for net zero and a pathway toward achieving them. Although the U.S. and China — the world’s two largest emitters who together contribute approximately 40% of all greenhouse gases — have set net-zero targets, these agreements are not currently legally binding.

U.K. Member of Parliament Greg Clark described that achieving these goals will require governments to operationalize the most up-to-date information on sustainable approaches to development, including green infrastructure.

“I am delighted to see initiatives like Green Infrastructure Week championing the need for further investment in green infrastructure,” Clark said in a statement. “The U.K. is in a prime position to capitalize on the move towards net zero and ensuring we have the right infrastructure in place will be key to achieving this.”

Register for Green Infrastructure Week webcasts, taking place April 25 – 29, 2022, at the event’s website.

Top image courtesy of Shawn Coles/U.K. Green Infrastructure Week

---

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Justin Jacques is editor of Stormwater Report and a staff member of the Water Environment Federation (WEF). In addition to writing for WEF’s online publications, he also contributes to Water Environment & Technology magazine. Contact him at jjacques@wef.org.

The post Inaugural U.K. Green Infrastructure Week Scheduled for April appeared first on Stormwater Report.

For these reasons, attention to stormwater management is growing among Hawaiian conservationists, municipal governments, utilities, and researchers. The City and County of Honolulu, for example, is in the process of establishing a new stormwater utility that would join more than 2,000 U.S. municipalities in charging user fees based on the impervious space of their property, with proceeds funding new stormwater-management improvements.

This spring, a UH initiative called the Community Innovation Mentorship Program (CIMP) tapped aspiring engineers in Honolulu to help citizens understand the purpose of the new utility, the benefits of stormwater management, and ways to minimize their charges for impervious area coverage. CIMP pairs high-school students and UH engineering majors with professional-engineer mentors each year to address specific issues in the Honolulu area.

“Programs like this benefit all of the participants, including our students as well as our industry partners who will be hiring our graduates who will now be better prepared for life after college,” said UH College of Engineering Dean Brennon Morioka, in a release.

Out of the Classroom

The 2021 CIMP cohort included 10 UH students majoring in either computer or civil engineering as well as students from Waipahu High School, located in a suburb of Honolulu. Participants were split into two teams based on their discipline of interest and paired with professionals from technology consultancy DataHouse and engineering consultancy Belt Collins Hawaii, both based in Honolulu.

They were tasked with working together — both within and between their teams — to minimize the impervious area charge liability of the Waipahu High School campus by developing tailor-made stormwater modeling and infrastructure solutions by the end of their internship periods. Mark Osman, a DataHouse software developer who mentored the computer engineering team, described in a release that the social aspects of the planning process offered students a learning experience unavailable in a traditional classroom setting.

“There’s no more hiding behind iPads or computer screens because we really push the concept of thought, connection, communication, and accountability, which becomes paramount to the real-world setting,” Osman said.

2021 marks the second year of CIMP, following the success of an effort last year to streamline the process of managing incoming animals at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

A New Design for Waipahu High School

The civil engineering team opted to retrofit Waipahu High School’s existing system of downspouts, drains, and green spaces with upgrades aimed at improving the campus’ runoff storage capacity and incorporating additional green-infrastructure elements.

First, UH students developed guidelines to help their team identify the specific points on campus where stormwater tends to accumulate and generate runoff during heavy storms. Waipahu High School students then used the protocols developed by their teammates to collect important data about such campus characteristics as land elevation and impervious area coverage. Using these measurements, which included a drone-captured aerial map of the site, the team identified strategic locations for three new, underground stormwater storage tanks, several additional infiltration trenches, and clusters of native vegetation. They also recommended converting the school’s parking lots into hybrid surfaces with both permeable and impermeable pavers.

Estimates suggest that their design would cut Waipahu High School’s impervious area charge in half, according to a presentation by the team at the program’s conclusion in May. Data gathered during the design process were then passed to the computer engineering team to help inform their project.

“This was a unique experience because we had to work with people that we’ve never met before that aren’t civil engineers, so we had to make sure the information that we’re giving them is pertinent to their scope that they’re working on,” said Marcus Silvestre, a recent UH graduate and member of the CIMP civil engineering team.

The Power of Visualization

The computer engineering team focused on stormwater modeling, creating a data-backed resource to help Waipahu High School as well as other property owners in the region better understand the connection between their property’s impervious area and their financial liability under the city’s new ordinance.

Incorporating climatic and topographical data from the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the City and County of Honolulu, and other sources, the team developed a prototype website that enables landowners to calculate their impervious area charges and experiment with ways to reduce them. Users can retrieve an aerial image of their property and draw polygons that indicate its varying permeability. They can then easily place various types of household-scale green infrastructure for an estimate of how simple interventions can reduce their impervious area charges. For their end-of-program presentation, the computer engineering team used their website to model the design recommended by the civil engineering team, verifying their ability to dramatically reduce impervious area charges at Waipahu High School.

The website, designed for public education, also teaches users the basics about stormwater management, how their utility fees are utilized, and how landowners can apply for charge reductions after their projects are completed.  

Top image courtesy of University of Hawai’i

The post University of Hawai’i Program Schools Young Engineers in Stormwater Management appeared first on Stormwater Report.

Universities, government agencies, and environmental organizations are embracing technology to create a new form of public outreach for the stormwater sector. Through interactive simulations, homeowners and financial decision-makers can experience the real-world benefits of flood-mitigation projects – as well as the potential costs of inaction – without risking lives and property.

Storm Surge Hits Home

While storm surge is a major cause of coastal flooding, coastal property owners might not understand their potential exposure to storm surge as clearly as to rainfall or wind speed during heavy storms. Because storm-surge severity relies on complex factors such as ocean-floor topography and the storm’s angle of approach, estimating how potential storm surges might affect specific properties is a difficult proposition for coastal residents.

Offering homeowners multiple ways to assess their property’s vulnerability to storm surge is the goal of a new, smartphone-based app developed by researchers from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR; Boulder, Colorado). The app, called Storm Surge AR, uses a device’s camera and location to enable users to superimpose floodwaters from various levels of storm surge directly onto their surroundings.

“When you see your house underwater, it creates an emotional reaction,” Tsvetomir Ross-Lazarov, UCAR researcher and the app’s lead designer, said in a statement. “It’s not just theoretical possibilities anymore. You can visualize the real impacts.”

Within the simulation, users can learn about sandbags and the level of sandbag deployment necessary to mitigate flood effects at different severities. Additionally, the app uses data from the National Weather Service to render a bird’s-eye view of how different levels of storm surge would affect a user’s region, identifies local evacuation routes, and provides educational materials to help users better understand storm surge.

Storm Surge AR is available for free on Google Play and the iOS App Store.  

In Their Shoes

Pre-emptive investment in flood-control infrastructure makes a crucial difference while managing and recovering from a storm-related crisis.

To convey that message to the public officials who make funding decisions, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) created Immersed, a virtual simulation that puts users in the shoes of a crisis-management professional as they facilitate evacuations and rescue trapped civilians during a major flood event. FEMA brings the Immersed simulation, which requires a specialized virtual-reality headset, headphones, and a handheld controller, to meetings and conventions.

Immersed features three distinct scenarios: one in which the player directs traffic at a major evacuation route impaired by floodwaters, another that takes place in a flooded school where users must locate and rescue a stranded teacher, and a third in which a slowly sinking residential neighborhood weathers a major storm. Depending on the scenario, the player’s handheld controller becomes tools — such as a flashlight, a clipboard, or a traffic cone — which directly affect the simulation.

In real-time, each scenario shows how the crisis becomes easier to manage with proper infrastructure in place. For example, while traffic might grind to a standstill after an evacuation route unserved by stormwater infrastructure becomes inundated, installing larger culverts along the roadway keeps vehicles moving, making the player’s job of directing traffic far easier. At the school, power outages make the job of locating the trapped teacher far more difficult; but by elevating the school’s generator above the flood threshold, the lights stay on.

Peter Herrick of the FEMA Flood Insurance and Mitigation Administration described in a 2018 episode of The FEMA Podcast that Immersed creates an emotional connection to flood-management infrastructure that data alone cannot.

“What we wanted to do is have people get that visceral reaction, really feel what it’s like to go through a flood, and see for themselves what the damages are and how they can mitigate against that risk,” Herrick said.

The Green Infrastructure Game

Environmental advocates with Earthwatch Europe (EE; Oxford, England) demonstrate that virtual experiences can be used to educate about flood mitigation as well as to garner support for other stormwater priorities, such as green infrastructure adoption.

EE brings its simulation, which features a two-dimensional map of a hypothetical city, to conventions focused on urban planning, climate change, and stormwater management. When users aim a tablet camera at the map, the camera renders an interactive, three-dimensional model of the city, and options appear that enable users to add combinations of several types of green infrastructure.

Players can interact with the model in two ways. First, they can learn about how interventions such as manmade lakes, rain gardens, and green roofs can work together to address complex environmental issues. Second, the simulation can ask users which types of green infrastructure they would deploy to help mitigate a particular problem, such as nuisance flooding or the urban heat-island effect.

As users strategically add green infrastructure to the model, the appearance of the city changes in real time, and a host of information about the chosen combination appears that helps acquaint users with green infrastructure co-benefits. Multiple users can interface with the city at the same time, creating opportunities to compare strategies and spur conversations about the value of green infrastructure.

“This experience focuses on actions which those working in the built-environment sector — such as local authorities, planners, architects, landscapers, builders, and policymakers — could take to create more sustainable cities,” said Victor Beumer, EE senior research lead, in a statement. “Augmented reality is an exciting technology and is a fun and memorable way to bring alive the science of nature-based solutions and the benefits they can bring to cities.”

Watch a video about the simulation from EE’s development partner, Atticus Digital (Cardiff, Wales), below:

The post Virtual Experiences Bring Stormwater Outreach to Life appeared first on Stormwater Report.

In April, Popular Science featured a simple, 10-minute experiment aimed at helping children better understand precipitation and the importance of stormwater management. The simple demonstration requires only water, food coloring, shaving cream, and common kitchenware. The purpose is to convey that the size and frequency of rainstorms are not random. This experiment also underscores the need for sufficient stormwater management to keep larger-than-expected storms from becoming dangerous and costly flood events. 

Storm in a Glass 

Begin the experiment by filling a tall, clear drinking glass halfway with water. For demonstration purposes, the bottom of the glass represents the ground while everything above the waterline represents the troposphere, where most reactions that cause weather conditions occur. 

Add clouds to the troposphere by covering the water’s surface with about 2.5 to 4 cm (1 to 1.5 in.) of shaving cream, leaving at least 2.5 cm (1 in.) of space between the cream and the top of the glass. (Avoid using shaving gel, which looks far less cloud-like and will not float on the water line properly.) Once applied, use a finger or spoon to pat the top of the shaving cream into a smooth surface. 

Next, in a small bowl or cup, mix 120 to 250 mL (0.5 to 1 cup) water with about 2.5 mL (0.5 tsp) food coloring. For the demonstration, this colored water represents atmospheric water vapor that becomes precipitation under the right conditions.  

Lastly, use a spoon to slowly pour the colored water onto the top of the shaving-cream layer. As you pour, the water will pool at the top of the system and gradually sink into the “clouds,” until it eventually bursts through the layer of shaving cream and begins to “storm” into the water beneath it. 

The Challenge Beneath the Clouds 

The storm-in-a-glass demonstration omits some of the finer details of how storms form, such as how clouds form depending on atmospheric water vapor contents or that real storms require solid surfaces like dust or salt particles to trigger condensation. However, it provides an approachable means to get children interested in the relationship between water vapor, precipitation, and flooding. 

If you continue to pour colored water into the shaving cream once the “storm” begins, the color of the water in the glass becomes increasingly more saturated. As the model demonstrates, a few extra drops only tint the water; any more than that, and the color of the water in the glass shifts dramatically. 

 The bottom of the glass is an impervious surface that cannot drain or redirect the food coloring enough to dilute it; this is a lot like many communities that lack the infrastructure to keep rain from accumulating in a particular location.  

Continuing the Conversation 

Take the conversation beyond the experiment by asking children how they would modify the glass to keep the food coloring from building up below the shaving cream. You may find similarities between their solutions and the approaches stormwater professionals take every day to protect their communities from flooding. 

Popular Science offers a wide range of at-home science projects aimed at acquainting children with the physical world around them on its website. 

The post Build an At-Home ‘Storm in a Glass’ to Engage Kids in Stormwater appeared first on Stormwater Report.

According to the results of a new study, residents of Chicago and Portland, Ore., are willing to donate significant amounts of volunteer hours — in addition to reasonable increases in their monthly stormwater bills — to help support and maintain green infrastructure. Image courtesy of Stevi Hunt-Cottrell/Water Environment Federation

Because green infrastructure is decentralized by nature, infrastructure managers often depend on participation from community members to ensure these systems can successfully mitigate flooding and provide sought-after co-benefits. This could entail volunteering time and labor to help maintain neighborhood green infrastructure projects or contributing funding to support upkeep activities.

According to a new study from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UI; Urbana) and Reed College (Portland, Ore.) researchers, a growing number of city-dwellers value green infrastructure as a worthwhile approach to flood management and water quality improvement — and are willing to donate time and money to support it.

“The results of our paper seem encouraging to cities, indicating that they might well be able to put together a network of people that could help with decentralized management of green infrastructure,” said Amy Ando, UI professor of agricultural economics and lead author of the study, in a release.

Support beyond stormwater fees

The team’s study, which focused on attitudes toward green infrastructure in Chicago and Portland, set out to determine the financial value locals ascribe to green infrastructure benefits, such as water quality enhancement and aquatic habitat improvement.

During the study, which involved several online surveys, respondents were asked to choose between two hypothetical infrastructure solutions and a status quo option. Each choice came with its own cost and volunteering demands as well as varying effects on flood prevention, aquatic habitat health, and water quality. Image courtesy of UI/Reed College

Researchers administered online surveys to nearly 700 residents of the two cities. Surveys first provided background information about the extent of issues related to stormwater management in their communities — i.e., flooding frequency and severity, the vulnerability of local wildlife, and how water quality affects health and recreation. Next, participants answered a series of questions, each asking them to choose between two potential green infrastructure-based solutions and a status-quo option. Each solution came with estimated ratepayer cost information and the amount of monthly maintenance work the solution would require, as well as a simple approximation of its environmental, social, and health-related benefits.

One question, for example, asked respondents to choose between:

• preserving current levels of flooding, “fair” aquatic habitat health, and “boatable” water quality at an extra cost of $0 and 0 volunteer hours per month;
• building infrastructure resulting in 50% less frequent flooding, “good” aquatic habitat health, and “fishable” water quality at an extra cost of $10 and 2 volunteer hours per month; and
• building infrastructure resulting in 25% less frequent flooding, “excellent” aquatic habitat health, and “swimmable” water quality at an extra cost of $15 and 5 volunteer hours per month.

Answers to the surveys revealed that support for green infrastructure is consistently high between residents of the two cities, but that the specific ways they value green infrastructure vary. Respondents in Chicago, for example, were generally more willing to pay increased stormwater management fees, but less willing to volunteer their time. Researchers observed the opposite among Portland respondents, finding a significant preference for volunteerism, according to the study. However, respondents in both cities reported that they would be willing to directly involve themselves in local stormwater management.

“We were surprised at the large stated willingness to volunteer that people indicated,” Ando said. “For example, the average respondent was willing to spend 50 hours a year on an ambitious project to restore aquatic habitat to excellent condition and water quality to be swimmable.”

Study findings detail a new way of understanding popular support for green infrastructure, Ando said, supplementing existing studies of how people regard green infrastructure in financial terms with their willingness to help maintain that infrastructure through hands-on labor.

“People are used to the idea that if there is a city fee, you have to pay it,” Ando said. “But volunteering is volunteering. You can’t force people to work.”

Don’t focus on flooding

Interestingly, participants responded affirmatively to infrastructure options that improve aquatic habitat health and enhance water quality more so than projects aimed primarily at reducing flooding. For example, results from both cities indicated that individuals would be willing to pay less than $0.50 more per month on average to reduce flooding by 10%, but more than $2 more per month to improve aquatic habitats to “excellent” quality.

Results indicated broad support for green infrastructure among respondents in both cities. However, infrastructure options that focused more on aquatic habitats and water quality attracted more support than options narrowly focused on reducing flooding risks. Image courtesy of UI/Reed College

“Often, when cities are talking about green infrastructure, they’re very focused on flood reduction. That was actually not the biggest value that we found. We found evidence that people place very high values on improving habitat for aquatic creatures in urban rivers and streams, and in reducing water pollution so the rivers and streams are more usable by people who live near them,” Ando said.

To attract local support for green infrastructure projects, the research underscores, utilities and infrastructure managers should promote new projects in terms of their benefits for local wildlife and recreational safety.

“One of the implications of our research is that urban water managers should be focused on providing those benefits and not just worry about flood reduction,” Ando said.

Read the team’s full study, “Willingness-to-volunteer and stability of preferences between cities: Estimating the benefits of stormwater management,” in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

The post Study: Urbanites Value Green Infrastructure Benefits appeared first on Stormwater Report.

The City of Phoenix, Ariz., Water Services Department (WSD) held its inaugural Stormwater Awareness Week, Jan. 20-26, 2020. The campaign included broad-based messaging about what locals can do to aid stormwater management via social media, radio messages, billboards, and more. Image courtesy of City of Phoenix, Ariz.

During the last week of January, the importance of individual contributions to stormwater management took center stage in Phoenix, Ariz., as messages urging locals to avoid littering, to properly dispose of hazardous chemicals, and to clean up after their pets were posted throughout the city.

The messaging was part of the City of Phoenix Water Services Department’s (WSD) inaugural Stormwater Awareness Week, a campaign aimed at raising the profile of local issues related to flood prevention and runoff pollution mitigation.

“As the fifth largest city in the nation, we have the ability to reach a lot of people with this important campaign,” said Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego in a January WSD news release. “We hope Stormwater Awareness Week will not only educate, but also motivate folks to make smart choices when it comes to preserving the quality of stormwater in our desert city.”

Simple messaging

In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched its first annual Fix a Leak Week campaign in Phoenix. The national awareness program calls on homeowners around the U.S. to make a pledge to fix leaks in their households, promoting water conservation and cooperation between water utilities and their customers.

As an early supporter of Fix a Leak Week, WSD was inspired to develop a similar campaign to support its stormwater management programs, described Linda Palumbo, environmental programs coordinator for the utility. EPA’s influence showed through Phoenix’s clear, narrowly tailored messaging campaign.

“For our first Stormwater Awareness Week, we focused on getting information out through social media, radio ads, and billboards,” Palumbo said. “We also put posters in all City of Phoenix libraries, City Hall, and many WSD facilities.”

Messaging around the city called on residents to:

• dispose of trash, recyclables, and chemicals properly so they are not swept into waterways by runoff;
• perform regular vehicle maintenance to protect against motor oil leaks;
• clean up after their pets;
• use lawn chemicals sparingly; and
• keep neighborhood storm drains clear of debris so they can properly collect roadside runoff.

“Everyone has a role in stormwater pollution prevention, and by taking these simple actions our efforts can go a long way in keeping our rivers clean and beautiful for generations to come,” Phoenix City Councilwoman Thelda Williams said in a news release.

Partners in public education

While Stormwater Awareness Week may have been the brainchild of WSD’s public information and community outreach staff, the campaign was not restricted to Phoenix’s city limits. WSD is a member of STormwater Outreach for Regional Municipalities (STORM), a coalition of central Arizona water agencies focused on communicating the importance of stormwater management. Several STORM members pushed Stormwater Awareness Week messaging through their channels, Palumbo said, including Maricopa County, the City of Goodyear, and the Town of Queen Creek, and the Arizona Department of Transportation.

Image courtesy of City of Phoenix, Ariz.

Public outreach and education are fundamental roles of stormwater professionals. Community participation is key for innovation to thrive in the stormwater sector and amplifying simple messages about what citizens can do at home to prevent flooding and protect water quality is a relatively easy way to build community support.

“Start planning as early as possible,” Palumbo said, when asked about her advice for outreach-minded stormwater agencies eyeing their own Stormwater Awareness Week events. “Involve as many different people as you can. And have fun!”

The post Phoenix, Ariz., Hosts Inaugural Stormwater Awareness Week appeared first on Stormwater Report.

Hamline University’s (St. Paul, Minn.) Adopt-a-Drain program calls on residents to clear trash, leaves, and debris from neighborhood storm drains at least twice a month. In the 5 years since its launch, the program has attracted more than 4,000 volunteers and prevented more than an estimated 45,000 kg (100,000 lb) of debris from entering vulnerable waterways. Clean Water Minnesota (Minneapolis).

In the Minneapolis–St. Paul (Minn.) metro area, an Adopt-a-Drain program calls on residents to take responsibility for storm drains in their neighborhoods. At least twice each month, drain adopters commit to clearing leaves, trash, and other debris from their drain’s surface. This simple action, which usually calls for about 15 minutes of labor, keeps land-based pollutants out of local waterways and discourages risks of street flooding, said Jana Larson, who manages the program from its headquarters at Hamline University (St. Paul, Minn.).

“Adopting a neighborhood storm drain is an easy way for Minnesotans to improve our local waterways, which are key to quality of life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes,” Larson said.

A model for success

Beginning in 2014 as a pilot project in St. Paul’s Como neighborhood, Larson and Adopt-a-Drain project staff created www.adopt-a-drain.org. The website presents users with simple instructions: create an account; use an interactive map to choose one or more unclaimed storm drains nearby; give the drain a distinctive name; learn best drain-cleaning practices; and get to work.

“Some of the names are pretty cute,” Larson said. “We’ve got a Bubblesworth and a few Stormy McStormdrains.”

The website also asks volunteers to estimate the weight of the debris they collect after each cleaning and record this estimate online. Five years and some 4,000 volunteers since its launch, residents have kept an estiamted more than 45,000 kg (100,000 lb) of debris from entering waterways, according to the website’s latest figures.

In April, Adopt-a-Drain announced plans to expand the program to make approximately 300,000 storm drains adoptable throughout the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area as well as in the nearby city of Rochester. Nonprofit group Clean Water Minnesota will assist in the expansion, according to a Hamline University press release.

“Five years ago, Adopt-a-Drain was just a brainstorm to promote awareness of the connectivity between what happens on our streets and the health of our rivers and streams,” Larson told Hamline University. “Now it’s a useful online tool that helps communities take action to keep our waterways clean.”

Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area residents can learn more or get involved with Hamline University’s Adopt-a-Drain project at www.adopt-a-drain.org.

Adopt a drain near you

Program staff say expanding the Adopt-a-Drain program will make it the largest program of its kind in the U.S., but it is far from the model’s only successful example. Similar Adopt-a-Drain programs currently function in San Francisco, Seattle, and Oakland, Calif, to name just a few.

Adopt-a-Drain programs exist in many cities. Pictured here, an Adopt-a-Drain map of Oakland, Calif., shows that many storm drains, marked in orange, still need adopters to help prevent street flooding and protect local waterways. City of Oakland, Calif.

The Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB; Rockville, Md.) also offers extensive guidance for municipalities, nonprofit groups, and other stakeholders to institute their own Adopt-a-Drain programs. Tips from ICPRB include methods to develop clear program goals and funding sources, ways to calculate how much the program will cost to implement, how to work with volunteers and other organizations to ensure the program is successful, and how to develop effective outreach materials.

The post Volunteers ‘Adopt-a-Drain’ to improve urban stormwater management appeared first on Stormwater Report.

The 2.8-ha (7-ac) Benny J. Simpson Ecopark and Water Education Building also will become home to A&M’s Water University program, which cultivates a statewide network of partners to advance water-sector innovation in Texas.

Natural buffers and reuse systems

Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center (A&M; College Park) announced plans to open its new Benny J. Simpson Ecopark and Water Education Building to the public for tours later this year. The 929-m2 (10,000-ft2) Water Education Building features innovative stormwater reuse systems and will serve as a hub for locals, industry professionals, and government representatives to learn more about the latest in stormwater management. Gabe Saldana/Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center.

The Ecopark is constructed around a 1.2-ha (3-ac) rainwater detention pond designed for the space by members of A&M’s ecological engineering program. The park features more than 140 plant species native to Texas. About 1.6 ha (4 ac) of restored Blackland prairie habitat within the park – formerly used for agricultural research – now provide stormwater mitigation benefits for one of Texas’ most densely populated areas to reduce pollutants entering nearby White Rock Creek.

A&M’s adjacent, 929-m² (10,000-ft²) Water Education Building will serve as both a teaching and demonstration space. Outside the facility, a 113,500-L (30,000-gal) cistern captures rainwater, which becomes the only water source used for the building’s restrooms, in addition to sustaining the surrounding landscape. Overflow from the cistern feeds a nearby retention pond, outfitted with native plants and erosion-control fabric, which helps minimize sedimentation and keep pollutants out of the watershed. Inside, A&M staff will instruct members of the public, environmental professionals, and government representatives on how to implement similar conservation practices, according to the A&M website.

Throughout both the Ecopark and Water Education Building, A&M staff plans to create permanent

signage that outlines green infrastructure concepts, highlights native plant species at work, and points out important wildlife that the complex supports, such as great horned owls and monarch butterflies.

Paying tribute to a Dallas legend 

The complex was named to honor Dallas horticulturist Benny J. Simpson, who served on A&M’s research staff for more than 40 years and was known as an authority on Texas ecology. A&M staff relocated 50 historic trees throughout the Ecopark that were originally planted by Simpson. Gabe Saldana/Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center.

A&M staff named the project to honor Benny J. Simpson, a horticulturist and Dallas native who died in 1996 after more than 40 years as an AgriLife Center researcher. A strong proponent of using natural solutions to address complex problems such as stormwater management, Simpson wrote A Field Guide to Texas Trees in 1988, today considered a seminal work on Texas’ unique ecology.

Included among the Ecopark’s landscape are 50 historic trees originally planted by Simpson himself.

“He was an early pioneer in recognizing the environmental benefits of native Texas plants in cultivated landscapes,” said Clint Wolfe, program manager for A&M’s Water University. “We wanted to continue Benny’s legacy with these living installations.”

Watch a time-lapse video of the Benny J. Simpson Ecopark and Water Education Building’s construction, filmed by the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center:

The post Texas A&M ‘Ecopark’ Stormwater Center to Open for Tours Later This Year appeared first on Stormwater Report.

In February, student newspaper Minnesota Daily reported that UMN will incorporate a state-of-the-art stormwater reuse system into its latest construction project. The system, expected to be operational by December 2019, will recycle stormwater from rooftops to feed air conditioning units. This capture will save water and capital that would otherwise be spent purchasing water from the city.

Both in classrooms and around campus, Minneapolis offers UMN students a host of other ways to engage with the latest in stormwater.

On-campus recycling systems cool buildings and flush toilets 

UMN is in the process of renovating a residence hall and constructing a new Health Sciences Education Center next door. A joint stormwater reuse system for the two buildings will collect stormwater from rooftops during rainstorms, filter and chill the runoff, and eventually evaporate it to supply air conditioning during warmer months.

The University of Minnesota (UMN; Minneapolis) is renovating Pioneer Hall, a dormitory building first constructed in 1930, while also constructing a Health Sciences Education Center next door. The two buildings will share a new stormwater capture and reuse system, capable of storing up to 13.2 million L (3.5 million gal) of precipitation for reuse in air conditioning units. Jon Platek/Creative Commons.

UMN engineers expect the system to retain up to 13.2 million L (3.5 million gal) of stormwater, according to Minnesota Daily.

Incorporating stormwater management into on-campus construction projects has become standard practice since 2013, when the university built a new residence hall equipped with a system that repurposes stormwater to flush toilets.

In 2018, UMN constructed a 31,400-m² (338,000-ft²) complex to house the university’s athletic programs. Beneath the complex’s football practice field sits a 1.3 million-L (350,000-gal) stormwater storage tank, which recirculates water into nearby air conditioning units. During the system’s first summer of use, UMN’s head mechanical engineer Scott McCord said it was able to supply most of the roughly 5.6 million L (1.5 million gal) of water required to cool the complex’s buildings.

McCord added that developing systems that treat and reuse stormwater from more than one building provides greater gains for the environment without disproportionately affecting the university’s bottom line.

“It makes sense to include [stormwater reuse] as part of larger renewal projects,” McCord told Minnesota Daily. “It is difficult to keep it cost-effective without a larger project. We need to be good stewards of university funding.”

Neighborhood stormwater system showcases innovation 

Directly adjacent to UMN’s Minneapolis campus sits the Towerside Innovation District, a 150-ha (370-ac) development project that serves as a testing ground for experimental approaches to city planning.

One such experiment is the Towerside District Stormwater System (TDSS), which demonstrates how residents can save money by managing stormwater discharges at the neighborhood scale rather than individually.

Before any Towerside tenants constructed new buildings, in 2015, the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO; Minneapolis, Minn.) worked with each development’s architects to create a common stormwater capture system that would treat runoff from a 3-ha (7-ac) area.

Directly adjacent to the UMN campus, the Towerside District Stormwater System represents a new approach to stormwater management. By chipping in for a jointly owned stormwater capture and reuse system, a growing collection of neighboring landowners saves on capital costs, improves building values, and enables building-scale stormwater reuse. Mississippi Watershed Management Organization.

TDSS consists of two massive biofiltration basins sized to handle a 10-year rain event, a 782,000-L (206,500-gal) storage tank underground, and approximately 460 m (1509 ft) of storm sewer pipe that tie the developments together. All told, MWMO expects the system to treat about 90% of all runoff produced within its service area, remove 90% of total suspended solids and 60% of total phosphorus. This level of treatment surpasses local stormwater management requirements.

The system also features stormwater reuse capabilities, enabling property owners to recirculate runoff back into their facilities to experiment with building-scale reuse.

TDSS came online with the completion of the first development in 2017. Two additional properties are expected to connect to the system this year, with a fourth parcel slated for 2020.  Property owners saved about 15% on capital costs by chipping in for a communal system compared to what they would have spent on individual systems that meet the same treatment goals, said Dan Kalmon, MWMO’s principal planner for the project.

“The system was originally built with excess treatment and rate control capacity to allow for two additional parcels to be added in the future,” Kalmon explained. “We now estimate there may be enough remaining treatment and rate control capacity to add an additional parcel, bringing the total number of lots tied into the system to seven. Each time an additional parcel is added beyond the original four, there is an increase in overall savings to the landowners.”

Read more about the TDSS project beginning on page 12 of the Spring 2019 issue of World Water: Stormwater Management magazine.

Supporting stormwater professionals 

While stormwater projects at UMN and throughout Minneapolis inspire interest in new ways to protect water quality and improve environmental resilience, stormwater-focused university courses offer ways to turn interest into action.

Since 2002, UMN has held its Erosion and Stormwater Management Certification Program, offering advanced courses and official credentialing and recertification exams for Minnesota stormwater professionals working in industrial and construction settings. Each course is taught according to Minnesota National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements and offers numerous 0.5- to 2-day programs throughout the state.

2019 course offerings include:

• Industrial Stormwater Sampling, Monitoring, and Training Requirements;
• Creating Your Facility’s Industrial Stormwater Training Program;
• Preparing for the Upcoming Minnesota Industrial Stormwater 2020 Permit;
• Design of Construction Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans;
• Regulatory Enforcement; and
• P8 Modeling.

The post University of Minnesota campus showcases stormwater ingenuity appeared first on Stormwater Report.