Stormwater Consortium

The Stormwater Consortium (SWC), formed in 1998, is a subgroup of the Urban Water Consortium (UWC) for municipalities with Phase I or Phase II National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Today, stormwater managers from 8 municipalities across North Carolina are members of the SWC. The SWC meets quarterly and sponsors research and technology transfer on urban stormwater and management issues. WRRI serves as the main facilitator, arranging quarterly meetings and providing grant administration and management for research projects supported by the Consortium.

Operations

Members contribute annual dues that are used to support scientific research, information sharing, and technology transfer related to varying needs, including understanding best management practices, protecting water quality, adapting to changing regulations, and predicting or reducing flooding and streambank erosion.

Members benefit from opportunities to share, learn, and discuss common concerns through quarterly meetings to advance stormwater management practices and MS4 permit compliance across the state. The SWC considers research proposals that are submitted as part of WRRI’s recurring Request for Proposals (RFP) and proposals developed in collaboration with the SWC. We welcome researchers to share their ideas for stormwater management utility-related research. Please contact Kaitlin Tucker to discuss your ideas.

Priorities

The SWC’s research priorities fall into the following categories, though the group will consider research proposals on other stormwater issues of importance in North Carolina.

Low impact development

How do the lifecycle costs and benefits of low impact development (LID) compare to conventional development in new, retrofit, and redevelopment applications, particularly regarding LID for stormwater treatment in urban and rural settings? What are the short-term and long-term implementation and maintenance cost and benefits of LID for developers, municipalities, communities, and individuals compared to that of conventional stormwater control measures (SCMs)?

Impervious Cover Impacts and Mitigation

How can we quantifiably mitigate the effects of impervious cover on water quality and aquatic life in different urban and rural stream settings and stormwater systems? What realistic management measures (including stream restoration practices, riparian buffers, and floodplain-stream reconnection) exist or can be further evaluated to address effects of impervious cover?

Pollutant Removal Processes and Credits

How should pollutant removal credits be determined and evaluated for urban and rural stormwater control measures (SCMs), stream restoration practices and other management practices, in particular those aimed at managing nutrients, pathogens, and sediment? How can we better understand the processes by which SCMs and other management practices remove contaminants from stormwater and reduce impacts to receiving streams? Specifically for the state of North Carolina, and its physiographic regions (mountains, piedmont, and coastal plain), what location-based methods and criteria can be developed for evaluating SCM, stream restoration and management practice performance, credit accounting, and removal rates for pollutants (particularly nutrients, pathogens, and sediment)?

Comprehensive List

To view a comprehensive list of projects funded by the SWC, please visit the WRRI technical reports repository where all final project reports are housed. Type “Stormwater” in the “Search for” box.

Members

Contact

To contact the SWC, email Kaitlin Tucker, WRRI coordinator for research and engagement: ktucker@ncsu.edu