Robert Roseen
Director

Thomas Ballestero
Senior Scientist

James Houle
Program Manager and Outreach Coordinator

Since we broke ground on the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center field site in 2003, there has been a growing demand for technical and educational services we provide. The regulatory landscape surrounding stormwater is changing, and as a result, municipalities and others must change their traditional approaches to stormwater management.

The applied nature of our research places us in the midst of an energetic dialogue over stormwater, one that engages municipal officials, community activists, consultants, manufacturers, contractors, regulatory agencies, and scientists. The overarching question that everyone seeks to answer is what can we do about stormwater now to clean up our water resources and protect them for the future? The need to answer that question has never been more crucial.

In a rapidly developing landscape, the spread of impervious surfaces has dramatically increased the volume of runoff, and increased the pollutants it contains. This situation takes on new gravity with global climate change, which has made severe storms and flooding more commonplace, placing added stress on urban infrastructure. These pressures are further compounded by the Clean Water Act’s mandate for communities to treat the nonpoint source pollution in runoff.

The good news is that these challenges can be addressed. Our research data tell us that it’s possible to design and install systems that do an excellent job of treating pollutants in stormwater, dampening the peak flows of runoff, and reducing the volume of stormwater through infiltration, even in cold climates with poor soils. Similarly, our experience working with proactive stormwater managers indicates that, given the right information and resources, people are ready for change.

That’s why alongside refining and expanding the research component of our program, we have been building a bridge between our research and “real world” applications. This report is one of many tools we use to communicate our work in a way that we hope stormwater managers from many backgrounds will find useful. We welcome your comments and questions, about this report and all of the work we do.

Sincerely,
Robert Roseen
Director

Thomas Ballestero
Senior Scientist

James Houle
Program Manager and Outreach Coordinator