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VUSP and Pennsylvania Environmental Council Host Municipal Workshop

by Sonali Joshi

 

On Tuesday, October 13, 2015, Andrea Welker, PhD, PE, professor in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering organized and hosted more than 120 people for Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership’s (VUSP) municipal workshop. This one-day workshop was co-hosted by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), with the help of Susan Myerov and Paul Racette, and has been offered every other year for more than a decade. It precedes the biennial stormwater management symposium, but unlike the symposium, the workshop is strictly designed for municipal officials. The theme for 2015 was “Collaborative and Financial Strategies for Meeting Water Quality Requirements.” The workshop offered advice on how to efficiently meet water quality requirements and shared examples of how municipalities have financed their water quality efforts and improvements. It included presentations, discussion panels, and a tour of Villanova University’s stormwater control measures (SCMs). 

The workshop also provided a venue to award winners of the SCM Recognition Program, which identifies innovative stormwater control measures in the southeastern region of Pennsylvania. The Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative (T-VSSI), which facilitates this program looked at submissions in categories that included retrofit to an existing stormwater facilities, new facilities, and collaborative efforts. OptiRTC took the SCM recognition award in the retrofit category for its advanced green roof at SAP headquarters in Newtown Square, Pa. Haverford Reserve Storm Water Education and Rain Garden Installation Project also received an award under the new facility/collaborative category.