In times like these it’s important to remember that we’re all in this together. Here at the Washington Stormwater Center, part of the Washington State University Extension and Research Center in Puyallup, we want you to know that we are open and operating but doing so remotely. We will continue to serve as a resource to the stormwater community, the municipalities we support, and those navigating the permit process during the days ahead.

All staff are working off-site but remain responsive to emails and will continue their normal collaborative work while holding meetings remotely with colleagues and partners. This includes stormwater groups, the Puget Sound Stormwater Science Team, Puget Sound recovery, Puyallup Watershed Initiative and all related research collaborations.

Changes in laboratory procedures on campus are underway and the plant pathology lab is currently closed to outside visitors. 

More information on the University’s overall response.

Contact Information For WSC 

John Stark, Director 

Lisa Rozmyn, Assistant Director

Laurie Larson-Pugh, Municipal Program 

Heidi Siegelbaum, Puget Sound Stormwater Strategic Initiative Lead

Jason Berg, Communications and Web Services

Nigel Pickering, Eastern Washington 

Jen McIntyre, Research

Ani Jayakaran, Low Impact Development

Please stay healthy, safe, and engaged during this time. We send our collective best to our stakeholders and the many people reaching out to actively support their communities.

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New Published Article by WSC's Jordan Jobe

Our own Jordan Jobe has written a fantastic article for the Agriculture Climate Network exploring the impacts of stormwater on farmlands as these areas see greater and greater expansion of residential and industrial sites along with roads and other transit infrastructure.

Read the full article on agclimate.net.

Save the Date! MuniCon 2021 at the Three Rivers Convention Center

Plan to join your fellow Washington State stormwater professionals for MuniCon 2021—April 28 & 29 in Kennewick. This unique conference focuses specifically on addressing high-priority issues and challenges faced by municipal NPDES permittees statewide, in order to promote broad communication, coordination, and sharing of valuable municipal tools and stormwater management approaches from permittees and other professionals across the state.

Now Available! Research Update Presentations

Thank you to all of our presenters and partners for making our Research Update a huge success—and thank you to all of our supporters who attended this event!

For those that were not able to attend who may be interested in our research, all ten presentations are available below.

WSC Research Update Presentations

1. Overview
2. Roofing
3. Pollutant Screening
4. Characterizing Urban Stormwater Impacts
5. Tire Leachate
6. Juvenile Coho
7. Cross Species Evaluation
8. DOC & CU in Bioretention Systems
9. Fungi in Bioretention
10. Upcoming and Ongoing Projects

Washington 2019-2024 Phase II Permit Compliance

Western Washington MS4 Phase II 2019-2024 Permit Compliance table templates are available. The City of Battle Ground, Newcastle, and Thurston County/Gig Harbor have created compliance tables for the Phase II 2019-2024 permit available to Phase II permitees to use as a template for their jurisdictions.

• Western Washington templates
• Eastern Washington templates

Washington State Municipal Stormwater Conference 2019 updates!

Thanks to everyone who came out and made the 2019 Washington Stormwater Center Municipal Conference a huge success! It was a great group of dedicated people sharing and learning and we hope that you all came away from the event excited to continue the important work that you do every day. We wanted to take the opportunity to share some of the numbers behind Municon 2019:

• 455 stormwater professionals registered for the event, maxing the capacity for our venue.
• 368 Municipal Permittees in attendance, 62 representing Eastern Washington and 344 from Western Washington.
• 36 presentations spanning 4 Tracks with 26 municipal lead/co-presenters.
• 4 interactive half day workshops on various stormwater subjects.

For those of you looking to revisit some of the information presented during the conference or if you were unable to attend this year, we are pleased to share the following resources:

The 2019 Washington State Municipal Stormwater Conference presentations and videos, along with the Powerpoint presentations are now available on the Washington Stormwater Center MuniCon website.

Conference presentations are posted under Conference Schedule & Abstracts. Select Day 1 Workshops or Day 2 Breakout Sessions to find the presentation(s) you are looking for. You will also see a link to the WSC YouTube Channel for the video playlist. Videos are available for the Day 2 presentations only (Day 1 workshops were not recorded).

You can also check out the Municon lunchtime slideshow, featuring work from 19 municipal stormwater projects completed by municipal permittees from across the state!

Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you all in 2021!

Washington Stormwater Center Online LID Training Program

We’re excited to announce the launch of the Washington Stormwater Center online LID Training Program! This multi-part curriculum will earn participants a Design Certificate, an Operations & Maintenance Certificate, or both. These courses offer a concise introduction to LID BMPs for Washington State as outlined in The Department of Ecology's Stormwater Management Manual for Western Washington.

Upon completion of the course modules and assessments associated with the LID Design Certificate, participants will have the necessary knowledge to better communicate across disciplines when designing and installing LID practices. Completion of the certificate will also increase technical knowledge of LID BMPs, thereby improving the design, planning, implementation, and review of LID projects during all stages of development.

Completion of the Operations & Maintenance Certificate ensures participants will have the knowledge to adaptively manage LID practices for effective long-term performance. This Certificate provides essential operations and maintenance concepts associated with LID practices, and the technical knowledge to design a maintenance plan.

If you would like to earn both certificates, you will need to register for each one separately.

Register Now!

Washington Stormwater Center 2018 Annual Report

It's been a busy year for the Washington Stormwater Center! This year our research has taken center stage with groundbreaking findings on the pollutant problems caused by stormwater and innovative solutions to protect Washington's increasingly at risk waterways. We envision a future in which communities are knowledgeable about stormwater research and apply planning and tools to minimize flooding, protect clean water and promote thriving ecosystems.

View the full report.

The Washington Stormwater Center in the news!

Check out this King5 News story featuring our very own Jennifer McIntyre discussing the dangers of stormwater runoff to coho salmon, as well as the solutions her research has helped uncover.

Washington Stormwater Center Director Interviewed

Both Dr. John Stark, Professor of Ecotoxicology at WSU and Dr. Nat Scholz, Ecotoxicology Program Manager at NOAA Fisheries were tapped for their expertise in a recent article published by The Center for Investigative Reporting. The final article focusing on the cessation of federal reviews of toxic pesticides can be read on the Reveal website.

Putting Science to Work

Stormwater is a growing threat to surface waters and aquatic organisms nationwide. In recent years, green stormwater infrastructure best management practices (BMPs) are increasingly being used to mitigate stormwater impacts. In this project, conducted by Washington State University and the Washington Stormwater Center, permeable asphalt and bioretention BMPs were evaluated for their potential to improve stormwater quality and quantity.

A summary detailing the basics of the research and findings (docx) is available on this site. For the entire report, or for questions about this project, please contact Lisa Rozmyn.

Don't forget to LIKE US on Facebook!

As part of our outreach efforts, we are now on Facebook and Twitter. Follow us to stay informed about everything happening at the Washington Stormwater Center, including upcoming events and activities!