Stormwater management professionals and stakeholders across the U.S. Southwest region will be able to learn about the latest, best-practices solutions for stormwater management and financing through the newly established Southwest Stormwater Center (SWSC), a regional knowledge center for new and emerging stormwater control technologies.
SWSC, which is one of four regional Centers of Excellence for Stormwater Control Infrastructure Technologies funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will focus on synthesizing rapidly growing knowledge about regional best stormwater practices, then translating this information into accessible, practical, decision-ready products, including guidance documents, journal manuscripts, trainings and webinars and other resources targeted at practitioners, municipalities, and Tribal organizations, among other stakeholders.
Working with Center partners, all resources will be publicly posted to the SWSC website. SWSC also will offer technical assistance to practitioners across Southern California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, and will engage a broad cross-section of stakeholders to identifying end-user needs and partnership opportunities.
“The arid and semi-arid Southwest faces unique climate and rainfall patterns that cause stormwater control technologies to perform very differently – and often underperform or fail – when compared to other parts of the U.S.,” said Dr. Elizabeth Fassman-Beck, SWSC Co-Lead and Head of the Engineering Department at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP). “To overcome this challenge, Southwestern states need access to regionally relevant best-practices insights. SWSC looks forward to helping fill these key knowledge gaps.”
The drought-prone U.S. Southwest is under intense pressure to significantly boost stormwater capture and use, address water-quality degradation, minimize alterations to runoff flow patterns, and optimize the performance of stormwater infrastructure.
But many stormwater control solutions that were developed for other, wetter regions of the U.S. are not applicable in Southwestern states. The region’s infrequent, flashy rainfall patterns can quickly overwhelm stormwater control systems, as well as necessitate extensive operations and maintenance regimes. Not only have Southwestern states struggled to identify appropriate, regionally relevant solutions, but they also have struggled with how to pay for them.
Over the next two years, SWSC will focus on assembling, harmonizing, synthesizing and communicating knowledge across five priority topic areas:
- Regional design, monitoring and assessment of stormwater control measures, known alternately as BMPs (best management practices)
- Best practices for stormwater capture, treatment and use
- Regional stormwater planning and management strategies for impaired receiving waters
- Funding and financing options for stormwater control solutions
- Outreach and engagement with diverse communities, from urban centers to Tribal councils and rural communities
The Center’s work will be led by regional stormwater management and financing partners from seven organizations that will work collaboratively to generate timely, actionable insights across all five SWSC priority topic areas. Technical work will be led by DRI, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, Stanford University, and University of California, Los Angeles. Financing work will be led by the WaterNow Alliance, while outreach and engagement will be led by the University of Arizona with the Arid LID Coalition and Bernalillo County of New Mexico.
“There is a wealth of best-practices solutions that are emerging for how to manage stormwater in arid to semi-arid environments,” said Dr. Alan Heyvaert, SWSC Co-Lead and Senior Biogeochemist at DRI. “Our Center’s overarching priority is to expeditiously get this information into the hands of the practitioners who need it most.”
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About SCCWRP
The Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) is an aquatic sciences research institute that works to improve management of aquatic systems in Southern California and beyond. Since its founding as an intergovernmental public agency in 1969, SCCWRP has been developing strategies, tools and technologies that the region’s water-quality management community relies on to more effectively protect and enhance the ecological health of Southern California’s coastal ocean and watersheds that drain to it. As an R&D agency, SCCWRP’s reputation is built on conducting research and translating this science into actionable guidance and recommendations that inform management decision-making and policy development. For more information, visit www.sccwrp.org.
Media Contacts
Detra Page, DRI Communications Manager, Detra.Page@dri.edu
Scott Martindale, SCCWRP Communications Director, scottm@sccwrp.org
