The Water Environment Federation awarded the 2014 WEF Collection Systems Published Contributions Award to the paper “Green Infrastructure Opportunities in Gray Wet Weather Plans.” The paper presents a local case study on planning green stormwater infrastructure for stormwater and CSO management in the City of Pittsburgh and suburban communities. The case study was a cooperative effort between 3 Rivers Wet Weather, and PWSA.. 

Section member Larry Lennon of Lennon, Smith, Souleret Engineering, Inc., principal author, with co-author section members Sam Shamsi (Baker Engineers, now with Jacobs), John Schombert (3 Rivers), Anthony Igwe (Wade Trim) and John Maslanik (Chester Engineers), on behalf of PWSA, participated as team members on the pilot studies performed for 3 Rivers that were the subject of the paper. PWSA incorporated the 3 Rivers pilot study findings into their SWMM models to provide estimates of CSO flow reduction that might be achievable. The authors are grateful to 3RWW for providing the project opportunity and to the R. K. Mellon Foundation for providing the grant for the study.

The full paper can be found by following the QR code and the abstract is provided below. 

Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Infrastructure (GI) Best Management Practices (BMPs) have been widely utilized as a method of erosion/sedimentation and water pollution control predominantly for land development programs and, to a lesser degree, urban storm water runoff. Recently the focus is shifting from “green field” development practices to application of GI BMPs in mature urban neighborhoods. Whether retrofit projects aimed at reducing flow into Combined Sewer Systems or neighborhood redevelopment programs responsive to LID regulations, interest in application of GI in urban settings is growing. With the emergence of integrated watershed based Long Term Control Plans (LTCPs), and, Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4) permit requirements and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) limits for specific pollutant constituents on local streams, inclusion of GI, particularly for retrofit applications in urban stormwater/wet-weather and CSO facilities planning, has gained the interest of the regulatory agencies, permittees and diverse environmental interest groups. This paper addresses application of a GIS-based BMP siting approach to identifying, at a planning level, potential sites for retrofit GI projects intended to minimize runoff to drainage systems.

For more information contact Larry Lennon at ljlennon@lsse.com or Sam Shamsi at sam.shamsi@jacobs.com