Where Stormwater Strategy Meets Practical Guidance

For almost five years the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program served as FEMA’s flagship source of hazard-mitigation funding. It directed a steady slice of federal disaster-relief dollars toward projects that would lower future losses, and many small Municipal…

When a culvert begins to corrode, crack, or separate at the joints, engineers and highway departments often face a choice between excavating the old pipe and installing a new one or rehabilitating the existing structure in place. Slip-lining is the most widely used trenchless rehabilitation techniqu…

Culverts are enclosed conduits that carry surface water beneath roads, railways, trails, and embankments, allowing drainage and traffic to coexist safely. They form one of the most common, and often most overlooked, structures in municipal stormwater networks. When sized, installed, and maintained c…

Vacant lots are often viewed as liabilities. They collect litter, generate complaints, require mowing, and contribute little to the surrounding community. From a stormwater perspective, however, these underutilized parcels represent something else entirely: opportunity. Many vacant lots occupy strat…

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits rest on a simple idea: you cannot manage what you have not first documented. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines an MS4 as any publicly owned system of drains, pipes, ditches, or similar conveyances that carries runoff to waters of th…

Natural streams, creeks, and drainage swales evolved to carry rainfall runoff long before culverts and pipes existed, and they remain one of the most efficient, resilient, and cost-effective elements in any municipal stormwater network. When a community plans for development or retrofit, treating th…

Stormwater management succeeds when the landscape itself is considered the first line of defense. Certain parts of that landscape offer outsized benefits or face outsized risks, and thoughtful planning around them is essential. Special Value Features are areas that deliver exceptional stormwater ben…

A brownfield is real property whose reuse or redevelopment is complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Congress added this definition to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), recognizing that l…

Every time rain falls on streets and parking lots, it sweeps grit, trash, and pollutants toward the nearest low point. Catch basins sit at those low points, quietly collecting runoff and helping cities keep roadways safe, pipes clear, and receiving waters cleaner. This article explains how catch bas…

What Exactly Is a Precast Underground Vault? A precast vault is a large, reinforced-concrete box or cylinder installed below grade to detain, treat, or both detain and treat stormwater when surface land is scarce. The modules are factory-made for quality control, then craned into an excavated pit an…

Riparian corridors, the vegetated strips that border rivers, streams, and lakes, serve as protective edges for both land and water. They filter pollutants, stabilize banks, slow floodwaters, recharge groundwater, and create habitat highways for fish and wildlife. When these corridors are degraded by…

Hydric soils, those that form under prolonged saturation and develop anaerobic conditions, are ecological powerhouses. They store carbon, filter pollutants, support wetlands, and buffer floods. Because they are already close to saturation, even modest increases in runoff volume or velocity can trigg…