From the Editor - November 2020

Milwaukee and Fairfax County demonstrate different but successful approaches to stormwater management.

I enjoy it when we profile cities I’m familiar with. Milwaukee is one of those cities. The feature on Milwaukee’s green infrastructure program in this month’s issue of Municipal Sewer & Water is a great example of a utility serving as a conduit to community improvement.

Like most Midwestern industrial cities, Milwaukee’s manufacturing peak was behind it by the 1990s, when I’d occasionally hang out there. I always liked the city, but it hadn’t quite caught its community-revitalization stride yet. Today, it’s a different story.

The city, nestled along the shore of Lake Michigan and bisected by the Milwaukee River, has a lot more life now. There’s more happening downtown. Empty industrial spaces have been repurposed and rejuvenated. And on some residential blocks, the vibrant signs of life are right there in the front yards: Wildflowers spring from the ground and bring color to yards that would otherwise be carpeted in green. And as those flowers stretch taller, they pull rainwater from the ground and help the community address stormwater issues.

Using natural plantings to help absorb and control rainwater isn’t an idea unique to Milwaukee. No city can lay claim to being the originators of black-eyed Susans and coneflowers. The process of managing stormwater with natural systems — wetlands, drainages, native plants — is as old as earth itself.

Modern society and large metropolitan areas have taken some of those systems out of the picture. Rather than supplementing natural infrastructure with engineered systems, we’ve largely become dependent on storm sewers and other structures to keep our streets, yards and homes above water. But there’s still an important place, as Milwaukee is proving, for natural systems. The city’s green infrastructure initiatives have proven effective, accounting for 4 million gallons of capture capacity to date.

Fairfax County, Virginia, situated within the environmentally sensitive Chesapeake Bay watershed, has found success with a different approach. The county’s Stormwater Infrastructure Branch began adopting new technologies and methods, at times still unproven, in its effort to find a better way to assess and rehabilitate its aging stormwater collections system.

To get a handle on the closed portion of the system, the county implemented an inspection program, with information entered into the Esri ArcGIS Collector App and Granite Xp (CUES) Pipeline Assessment and Certification Program data collection software. They also created their own quick score method. And from there, a variety of rehabilitation methods were used to address the worst pipes in the system first.

To date, the program has been a success and Fairfax County is correcting problems, making improvements and moving forward.

These stories highlight different approaches to stormwater management, but both demonstrate a commitment to the environment and to making a positive difference in the community. Those are important roles, and I hope you’re striving to reach them in your own operations.

Enjoy this month’s issue.



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.