The Stormwater Report

On April 27 and 28, 2020, water professionals and clean-water advocates from around the U.S. will convene in Washington, D.C., to make their voices heard during the annual Water Policy Fly-In. The event, organized by the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.), the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (Washington, D.C.), the Water Research Foundation […]

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has released the results of a new study highlighting a looming threat to vulnerable marine life in the coming decades: urbanization. In the Piedmont region, which stretches from southern New York to central Alabama, the urban coverage of cities such as Washington, D.C., and Atlanta is expected to nearly triple […]

Urbanization affects flash-flood risks differently in eastern and western U.S. For many water professionals, it may seem like Stormwater Management 101: As cities grow and develop over pervious spaces, stormwater runoff has increasingly fewer places to soak into and often flows into urban waterways. But how that extra runoff entering streams affects flash flooding may […]

According to automotive industry analysts with Hedges & Co. (Hudson, Ohio), there were more than 275 million registered motor vehicles in the U.S. in 2018. Accommodating that number of vehicles requires an enormous network of parking lots, the vast majority of which are made of impervious pavement that rainwater cannot infiltrate. Until now, researchers have […]

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to combine two popular streamflow analysis tools into a single, integrated resource. The Surface Water Toolbox (SWToolbox), which has not yet been released to the public, will allow users to compute an extensive number of metrics associated with modeling how surface […]

A new U.S. Geological Survey interactive map provides a comprehensive, long-term look at changes in the quality of U.S. rivers and streams over the last four decades. For the first time, monitoring data collected by 74 organizations at almost 1400 sites have been combined to provide a nationwide look at changes in the quality of our rivers […]

The timely removal of leaf litter can reduce harmful phosphorus concentrations in stormwater by more than 80% in Madison, Wis., according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study. Autumn leaf litter contributes a significant amount of phosphorus to urban stormwater, the study found. The USGS-led study, Evaluation of Leaf Removal as a Means To […]

In direct response to a call by the Obama administration for innovations in the conservation of domestic waterways earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its partners on Aug. 16 unveiled a comprehensive forecasting model to predict the movement of rivers and streams across the continental U.S. The National Water Model […]

On Sept. 16, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released a new interactive mapping tool that provides predicted concentrations for 108 pesticides in streams and rivers across the United States. The tool enables users to identify which streams are most likely to exceed water-quality guidelines for human health or aquatic life. The predictions also can be used […]

A recent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study showed that neonicotinoids, insecticides similar to nicotine, can be found commonly in streams throughout the Midwest. The study represents the first broad-scale investigation of neonicotinoid insecticides in the Midwest and one of the first conducted in the U.S. Neonicotinoid insecticides dissolve easily in water, but do not break […]