The Washington Stormwater Center is pleased to announce that EPA, through its National Estuary Program, has funded the Stormwater Strategic Initiative Lead Team (Stormwater SIL). This collaborative team of the Departments of Ecology and Commerce, with the Washington Stormwater Center, is working to identify and deploy strategic investments in stormwater in the Puget Sound region.
EPA’s funding includes wider investments in our collaborators working in habitat, shellfish, and additional supportive science efforts.
EPA allocated $4.95 million to the Stormwater SIL for fiscal years 2021-2025. Much of the money allocated gets re-allocated through competitive funding processes and this is where all the impactful research, project, program, and collaborative work occurs on the ground.
Explore how past projects were funded by the SIL and its Advisory Team
This work rests on the operationalization of three Implementation Strategies: Toxics in Fish, BIBI (the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity), and Marine Water Quality (the latter of which is still under development). In the coming years, we will be activating funding processes that address gaps in research, programs, and approaches that are needed to effectively address stormwater in the region.
The tire wear research and bioretention refinements from the Stormwater Center play a pivotal role in finding solutions to stormwater runoff while the longer-term changes in product design, pollution prevention, and better-integrated land and water planning unfold in this work.
The Center’s role in this work is supported by research from the ecotoxicology lab (Drs. Jenifer McIntyre and her team, Dr. John Stark), the Low Impact Development Program (Dr. Ani Jayakaran and his team), advice from our Associated Director Lisa Rozmyn, Laurie Larson Pugh from the Municipal Program and Jason Berg as Communications lead. Please contact program lead Heidi Siegelbaum with any questions.
PDF: Report on Broad Federal Priority Actions to Support Puget Sound
