November 2025, Volume 20, Issue 6

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Communications Sponsors

President's Corner

Weather the Storm
It is an interesting time for stormwater in the Southeast and many of us are facing challenges with everything from changing regulations to disappearing funding to intense weather. None of this is new, but it doesn’t always happen at the same time. However, working in stormwater gives each of us a unique advantage in times like this. We are built to weather the storm! It’s what we do – both figuratively and literally. 

We also support each other. Just like our waterways that flow through political and jurisdictional boundaries, we work together to find balance and support, to try new ideas and lean on the tried-and-true solutions. SESWA connects stormwater professionals across the Southeast to tackle stormwater management and surface water quality challenges through education, collaboration, and advocacy. 

Now, more than ever, SESWA’s Community Forum and a searchable archive of newsletters and past presentations can help you find the answers you need and give you the connection to others facing the same problems in a different part of our region. For our new members, I hope you take the time to dive into these resources to learn and share and enhance your programs. I believe that our new members can also help the seasoned SESWA vets by injecting new ideas into the conversations.

SESWA provides these tools and resources to assist stormwater professionals in the Southeast as they seek solutions to surface water quality and stormwater management challenges. Because no matter what happens in Washington, or EPA Region 4, or in our home states, it is going to keep raining. The storms will keep coming and we are going to educate, engineer, and model our communities safely to the other side just like we have always done. 

So, put on your muck boots and go play in the rain! SESWA knows how to weather the storm.

Reader Challenge!
Can you spot where the SESWA mission statement and elevator speech are hidden in this article? If you find them, email us at [email protected] and tell us where, we’ll give you a shoutout in the next newsletter!

John Butler
SESWA President
Gwinnett County, GA

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Stormwater Management Is Evolving - And Nature Is Leading the Way
Reported by Lisa Wells, Ardurra
SESWA Stormwater Policy Committee Member

Over the course of the coming year, the Stormwater Policy Committee hopes to provide insights on the benefits and barriers of green infrastructure. Stormwater management has transformed over the last 50 years from a simple mission to move water away from streets and buildings into an integrated, resilience-focused practice that looks to mimic nature to improve water quality, restore ecosystems, and reduce risk. Our SESWA mission is to support our members in advancing this approach. 

To set the stage, we thought it was insightful to take a look back at this stormwater evolution. 

The Early Days: Draining the Problem Away
Before the 1970s, stormwater systems were designed almost exclusively for flood control and conveyance. Engineers focused on getting runoff off the streets and into nearby waterways as quickly as possible using curbs, gutters, and underground systems. These “gray infrastructure” systems were effective at reducing localized flooding—but they also carried pollutants directly into streams and disrupted the natural water cycle.

The Turning Point: Water Quality and Regulation
The Clean Water Act of 1972 changed everything. As the connection between runoff and water quality became clear, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began regulating stormwater discharges through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. Cities and counties started implementing Best Management Practices (BMPs) such as detention ponds and oil-grit separators to capture and treat runoff before it reached rivers. These early efforts marked the first step toward treating stormwater as a resource rather than a waste product.

Low Impact Development: Managing Water Where It Falls
In the 1990s, the concept of Low Impact Development (LID) emerged from Prince George’s County, Maryland. LID represented a new way of thinking—designing sites to mimic natural hydrology by capturing, infiltrating, and reusing rainfall close to where it lands.
Rain gardens, permeable pavement, green roofs, and rainwater harvesting systems became hallmarks of this approach. LID techniques spread rapidly as states developed manuals and demonstration projects that proved their effectiveness for these site-based solutions. 

Green Infrastructure: Scaling Up for Urban Resilience
By the 2000s, Green Infrastructure (GI) took LID concepts to the community and watershed scale, integrating natural processes into the urban fabric. Cities like Philadelphia, Portland, and Charlotte began implementing green streets, urban tree canopies, and restored stream corridors. These projects delivered multiple benefits: improved water quality, reduced heat-island effects, increased biodiversity, and more inviting public spaces. GI became a cornerstone of sustainable community planning and an essential component of municipal stormwater permits.

Nature-Based Solutions: The Next Generation
In the 2010s, the global shift toward Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) extended the reach of LID and GI beyond city limits. NBS combines engineering and ecology to restore floodplains, wetlands, and coastal systems that protect communities while supporting habitat and carbon storage. Initiatives that look to nature, such as the Dutch Dialogues “live with water” approach adopted by Charleston, SC, have been adopted across the country. Often, these nature-based solutions provide many other benefits as well - pedestrian connectivity, education, park, and habitat space. The focus has moved from compliance to resilience—helping communities adapt to more frequent storms and changing rainfall patterns with multi-layer benefits.

The Bottom Line
From curbs and pipes to wetlands and rain gardens, stormwater management has evolved from a reactive discipline to a proactive design philosophy. Whether labeled LID, Green Infrastructure, or Nature-Based Solutions, the goal remains the same: work with water, not against it.

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 Building Green: An Introduction to Green Infrastructure
Reported By Cory Rayburn, Jacobs
SESWA Stormwater Policy Committee Member

The use of green infrastructure (GI) to manage stormwater runoff is a relatively new phenomenon in the regulatory world; however, many communities have embraced this strategy to improve water quality, reduce flooding, and to meet federal consent decree requirements. The goal of green infrastructure is to mimic nature in the built-out environment. In other words, it’s like designing a site like a sponge that can soak up the first inch (or first flush) of rainfall. In a larger context, green infrastructure can also include the preservation or restoration of natural areas, such as riparian buffers, stream channels, wetlands, or dense stands of vegetation. For this discussion, however, we will focus more on designed measures that are directly tied to runoff generated from development. 

What is Green Infrastructure? 
Green infrastructure practices retain and prevent the first inch of rainfall (or first flush) from running off a site compared to the more traditional water quality strategy of ‘clean and release’. This volume removal approach, also called runoff reduction, mimics an undeveloped site by removing this rainfall from the equation (and all those hydrographs). How does this water disappear you may ask?? Similar to what occurs in nature, processes such as infiltration, evaporation, and the uptake of water by plants prevent this rainfall from turning into runoff. As a result, the most concentrated source of pollution in stormwater runoff is mitigated. Internal processes within GI systems (such as microbial actions in soils) can break down, filter, or contain common pollutants. Thoughtful design of these practices can also reduce how much traditional or gray stormwater infrastructure is needed on any given site.

What is and isn’t Green Infrastructure?
Not all green infrastructure is equal, or green for that matter. Some GI practices such as permeable pavement do not use vegetation and rely on infiltration alone to manage the designed runoff reduction volume. Because of this, permeable pavement cannot handle large contributing drainage areas flowing onto the pavement surface. Rainwater harvesting practices (cisterns that collect rainwater for reuse purposes) may also be considered green infrastructure but are typically only designed to manage roof runoff. Bioretention areas (my personal favorite) use native vegetation and infiltration to remove runoff, which means they can manage a larger drainage basin relative to its own surface area. Infiltrating GI practices are most effective on sandier soils; however, using engineered soils and underdrains that create saturated zones below the surface can help to meet the desired requirements on sites with tighter native soils. Each GI practice has unique design parameters and limitations; however, every surface on a site can function as stormwater management - landscaped areas can be bioretention, roofs can be green roofs or served by a cistern, parking lots can be permeable, and ditches can be bioswales.

Considerations with Green Infrastructure Projects
The two killers of green infrastructure during construction are compaction and sedimentation. Compaction can happen during mass grading operations, excavation of the GI practice itself, and during the installation of engineered soils (bioretention systems). Sedimentation occurs when GI is installed prior to the contributing drainage areas being stabilized. In vegetated practices, a simple plant palette involving groups or clusters of native vegetation is also preferable (over seed mixes) to help maintenance crews know what’s a weed and what’s intentionally planted. This also prevents your favorite rain garden from getting weed whacked in the dead of summer. Sod can also be used to stabilize these systems and will still result in measurable benefits. Maintenance of GI, like any infrastructure, is key to its long-term performance. For vegetated systems, regular maintenance during the first two growing seasons is critical to ensure a healthy stand of vegetation. Because these systems receive runoff, they also receive weed seeds and litter that are in that runoff, increasing the maintenance requirements to ensure a pleasant aesthetic. Permeable pavement typically requires vacuuming (regenerative sweeper) annually but can increase if there are multiple sediment sources in the drainage basin.  

Green Infrastructure Benefits – Beyond the Green!  
Using green infrastructure well can result in social, economic, and environmental benefits for a community. Integrating native vegetation into our built environment helps support local ecology. Adopting neighborhood-scale retrofits or regional GI systems can drive economic development strategies. Trees and shade make people happy. Changing the mindset of designers and stormwater practitioners to see these opportunities when laying out a site is still evolving. Since the success of many green infrastructure practices depends on plants, special soils, and maintenance (dirty word for many), some in the stormwater and construction industry see implementing green infrastructure as an insurmountable challenge. But, as we learn from successes (and failures) and witness the multiple benefits GI can produce, stormwater practitioners, city planners, and contractors are realizing the positive outcomes of these strategies within their communities.

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SESWA's 20th Anniversary Conference - A Milestone Celebration!

What an incredible milestone! SESWA proudly celebrated its 20th Anniversary Conference with more than 350 participants, including 280 attendees and 70 exhibit representatives, making this one of our largest and most successful events to date. The celebration began with two pre-conference events. The Volunteer Service Project, coordinated by The Outside Foundation, had participants bagging a record number of oyster shells — a meaningful contribution to local environmental restoration. At the same time, our Pre-Conference Workshop on Innovative Approaches to Stormwater Management and Asset Planning brought together professionals from across the region to exchange ideas and explore new strategies.

SESWA was also proud to invest in the next generation of stormwater professionals by awarding seven Conference Scholarships to college students from across the Southeast. We extend our sincere thanks to the Board members who took the time to mentor these students and make them feel welcome. Photos and reflections from the scholarship winners are available on the SESWA website.

A very special thank-you to our exhibitors and sponsors whose generous support helped make this milestone event possible. Your continued partnership and engagement play an essential role in SESWA’s success and in advancing stormwater management across the Southeast.

To commemorate this special anniversary, we’ve launched a 20th Anniversary page on the SESWA website featuring a celebratory member video and a collection of downloadable photos from the conference.

Here’s to 20 years of stormwater excellence — and to the bright future ahead for SESWA and our incredible community!

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Inspiring the Future of Stormwater Management: SESWA’s Student Scholars Shine

As part of SESWA’s ongoing commitment to advancing education and professional development in the field of stormwater management, we are proud to highlight SESWA’s Student Conference Scholarship Program. At the 20th Annual Regional Stormwater Conference in Hilton Head, South Carolina, SESWA awarded seven scholarships to deserving college students.

This program was established to help offset the costs associated with attending the conference and to provide students with a unique opportunity to engage directly with stormwater professionals from across the Southeast. The scholarship recipients were selected for their enthusiasm to learn, connect, and contribute to ongoing efforts that address stormwater challenges and enhance water quality throughout our region.

Congratulations to all of our recipients, we enjoyed seeing you at the conference and celebrating your achievements. Keep up the fantastic work as you continue your studies in this vital area!

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Seminar Call for Presentations Now Open!

SESWA’s 21st Annual Regional Stormwater Seminar will be held April 17, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia.  The seminar will focus on Assessment to Action: Improving Stormwater Systems for Today’s Complex Challenges. Understanding the condition of stormwater systems and addressing these challenges proactively are essential steps toward building resilient, sustainable cities. We invite presentations that explore innovative approaches, case studies, research findings, and best practices related to stormwater infrastructure assessment. We invite you to submit your presentation by December 12, 2025.

Presenters of accepted presentations will receive a discounted registration rate. Questions? Contact us at 866-367-7379 or [email protected].

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SESWA Announces Its 2025–2026 Leadership Team

SESWA is excited to introduce the dedicated professionals who will guide the association through another year of progress, collaboration, and innovation in stormwater management. During October’s Annual Membership Meeting, members elected the 2025–2026 Officers and Board of Directors, whose experience and commitment will continue to strengthen SESWA’s mission across the Southeast.

Your new Executive Committee is:

John Butler Gwinnett County, GA President

Lisa Wells, PE, CFM Ardurra Vice President

Kimberly Washok-Jones Town of Bluffton, SC Secretary-Treasurer

Don Ceccarelli, PE, CFM Mecklenburg County, NC Board Representative

These leaders represent the spirit of collaboration and service that drives SESWA’s success. Their diverse expertise and shared passion for effective stormwater solutions will help shape the initiatives and connections that move our organization—and our region—forward. Learn more about SESWA’s Board of Directors on our website, and view our recent LinkedIn post. 

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SESWA Announces 2025–2026 Committee Appointments 

SESWA is proud to announce the appointment of its 2025–2026 Committee Members, a group of 65 dedicated professionals who are generously volunteering their time and expertise to help advance the association’s mission across the Southeast. We extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone serving on one of SESWA’s four programmatic committees. Your commitment helps SESWA continue to grow, bringing valuable regional, state, industry, and local perspectives to our members.

SESWA committees play a vital role in shaping the association’s work, from planning educational opportunities and monitoring regulatory and permitting updates, to sharing innovative solutions for pollution reduction and operational challenges. The collaboration fostered through our networking events, conferences, seminars, and the SESWA Community Forum is made stronger by the insight and dedication of our committee members, who keep it all connected.

Committee Chairs for 2025–2026: 

Kevin Kubiak Stantec Consulting Services Communications

James Riddle Woolpert Conference and Education

Milton Leggett City of Stuart, FL Membership

Hunter Freeman McAdams Stormwater Policy

Together, these leaders and their committees are driving the discussions, learning opportunities, and collaborations that define SESWA’s impact across the region.

For a full listing of SESWA Committee membership, visit the Committee page of our website.

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Register Today for SESWA’s January Webinar!

Join us on January 15, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. Eastern for an encore session from SESWA’s 20th Annual Regional Stormwater Annual Conference, Prioritization Matrix for Monitoring and Detection of Fecal Pollution in Urban Streams. Join Mecklenburg County, North Carolina’s Storm Water Services for a discussion on their innovative use of data-driven strategies in developing a watershed prioritization matrix for their Illicit Discharge Elimination Program. The presentation will cover the application of the matrix, monitoring methods, and actions taken to locate and eliminate potential sources of pollution. This was one of the highest rated sessions from the Annual Conference so if you weren’t able to join us. SESWA is now offering continuing education for all webinar attendees. Be sure to register today!

This webinar is brought to SESWA members FREE thanks to the generous support of SESWA’s Communications Sponsors!

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SESWA Community Forum - Join the Conversation

SESWA is committed to being a trusted resource and maintaining open channels of communication. As a member of SESWA you have access to an online Forum to post questions, share information, and discuss emerging issues with your peers throughout the Southeast! Visit the Forum today and be sure to subscribe to the topics that interest YOU! 

Here's the latest from the Forum: 

Kids & Catch Basins/Inlets
Maria Price, City of Chattanooga, TN
I've had a recent conversation with a concerned homeowner who lives in a development with our standard catch basins. He is concerned that the opening is wide enough for a small child to fall into.
read more…

SESWA’s Next 20 Years!
John Butler, Gwinnett County, GA
As SESWA heads into the next 20 years of success, I am very interested to hear what our members want to see. What works, what could change, what could be new?
read more…

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As Shutdown Ends, Policy Actions Begin
Kevin Coyne, SESWA

The federal government shutdown officially concluded on November 12th, after a record-long 43-day lapse in funding.  Beyond the severe impacts to the livelihood of employees impacted by a lack of income, many important regulatory and policy decisions impacting the stormwater sector were halted. Now that the federal workforce has returned, policy actions are quickly moving forward.  On November 17th, EPA released the updated Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which was scheduled to be released prior to the end of 2025.  The new rule, which is still in considered draft at this time, does limit the scope of the waters covered by federal oversight, and this change will most likely cause a challenge from environmental groups.  Congress may also move forward with the development of the SPEED Act, which targets reform and efficiency of federal environmental permitting actions. Congressional members have noted that during the shutdown period, they were able to review pending legislation, and may be able to make revisions and updates that could accelerate its passage. We should assume as the federal government returns to work, and Congress returns to deliberate new laws, the end of 2025 could be very busy and some significant environmental policies may be delivered for the December holiday season!

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Why We Do It
John Butler, Gwinnett County, GA

What is it about that stormwater that keeps us in this field? Is it just a place to apply our engineering craft or hone our policy skills, or is it something more? Each Fall, I get to spend even more time outside and work with (sometimes even work in!) the very resources we are working to protect: water. Big streams, little streams, headwaters, rivers, ponds, wetlands, lakes and for others, tidal marshes, estuaries, and shorelines. We can engineer and work on policy anywhere. Water and sewer have plenty of opportunities to design pipe systems and comply with regulations, but stormwater…stormwater puts us in the environment like no other utility. When we overcome stormwater management challenges, we find solutions to surface water quality problems. Ultimately, our work is about more than pipes and budgets, flooding and property values, or audits and compliance. It is about protecting the world we live in. Make sure you get to spend some time in the very waters you are working to protect every day. Look for a post on the Community Forum to share your favorite spot that stormwater puts you in and take a minute to remember why we do it!

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Assessing Floodplain Risk to Drive Risk Reduction Projects
Don Ceccarelli, Mecklenburg County, NC

Mecklenburg County, NC developed a Risk Assessment Risk Reduction (RARR) process that uses a scoring system to assign relative flood risk to individual buildings and properties.  A “Flood Risk Score” is assigned by identifying the potential flood impacts to the property, quantifying the likelihood that the flood impact will occur, and accounting for additional risks to the structure due to location. Charlottee-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services  uses these scores to aid in identifying and prioritizing the individual flood-prone properties, understanding an overall flood risk profile for the community, and setting targets and program needs to reduce risk to acceptable levels through either our Floodplain Buyout Program that focuses on purchasing buildings in the floodplain or our RetroFit Program that focuses on reducing flood risk to existing buildings through elevation or other in-place mitigation techniques. 

The Flood Risk Score begins with an assessment of flood risk for a given property. Risk Assessment and Reduction  considers eleven “impact” criteria and four “location” criteria (shown on the following Table) to calculate an overall Flood Risk Score for each property.  During the scoring process, each impact is assessed to determine not only if it is triggered (e.g., finished floor is flooded), but also at which storm event it is triggered (e.g. flooded in the 2% and larger events). RARR assesses impacts for eight storm events ranging from the 50% (2-year) event through the 0.2% (500-year) event. An individual component score is calculated by multiplying the base points by the probability of the smallest event where the impact is triggered.  In addition to impact criteria, there are four location-based factors that affect a property’s flood risk. These are accounted for through a location-based multiplier applied to the total impact score. 

Mecklenburg County, NC is currently evaluating existing project locations relative to various equity and environmental justice indices (i.e. EPA disadvantaged communities, HUD scaled Low to Moderate Income (LMI), etc.) to evaluate appropriate criteria and establish program goals.

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NACWA Corner

EPA Proposes New Draft WOTUS Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have unveiled a new draft proposal to redefine “waters of the United States” (WOTUS), marking another major shift in Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision. The proposal establishes a more prescriptive and hydrology-based framework, with significant implications for stormwater programs and MS4s across the Southeast.

At the center of the proposal is EPA’s use of wet-season hydrology to determine which waters meet the “relatively permanent” standard required under Sackett. A waterbody would be considered relatively permanent if it has standing or flowing water year-round or during the wet season. EPA says this approach provides a clearer jurisdictional line while accommodating the Southeast’s diverse climatic and hydrologic conditions.

The proposal also narrows federal jurisdiction over wetlands. To qualify for CWA protection, a wetland must both physically abut a relatively permanent waterbody and exhibit surface water during the wet season. This represents a shift away from previous approaches that allowed subsurface or constructed connections to establish adjacency. For Southeast communities with extensive wetland systems, this may influence delineations, permitting, and restoration planning.

EPA further proposes clarifications or expansions to several exclusions important to SESWA members:

• Ditches: More explicitly defined as constructed or excavated channels used to convey water, potentially reducing the number of stormwater ditches considered jurisdictional.
• Groundwater: Explicitly excluded from “navigable waters,” consistent with long-standing agency practice.
• Prior Converted Cropland and Waste Treatment Systems: Clarifications to longstanding exclusions that may affect local development and utility operations.

EPA leaders emphasized that the proposal seeks to “strike a balance” between federal and state authorities, noting that states and tribes are best positioned to manage non-jurisdictional waters under the Clean Water Act’s cooperative federalism structure. This shift could give Southeast states more discretion in managing intermittent streams, isolated wetlands, and local drainage features.

Stakeholder reactions reflect long-standing divides. Industry groups praised the proposal for improving clarity and aligning with Sackett. At the same time, environmental organizations warned that reduced protections for wetlands and small streams could impact downstream water quality, habitat, and flood resilience.

EPA will accept public comments for 45 days following publication in the Federal Register.

Please contact Matthew McKenna, NACWA’s Director of Government Affairs, with questions.

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