Hundreds of stormwater professionals gather for stormwater conference and to discuss new APWA manual

The conference convened nearly 70 national, regional and local stormwater presenters and over 250 attendees on topics around watershed planning, civil works projects, and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer and Combined Sewer Overflow programs.

The mission of the event was to provide ongoing continuing education for area civil engineers and professionals by highlighting current stormwater management challenges and sharing best practices and successes from infrastructure projects throughout the Midwest.

Conference programming included two keynote speakers, over 40 breakout session presentations, and a closing panel session with four regional experts in civil engineering, planning and landscape architecture. Attendees also enjoyed an evening social hour provided by sponsors.

Highlights from the event included keynotes from Mark Doneux, former Capitol Region Watershed District administrator and owner/operator of Watershed Management Solutions, and Dr. Joshua Roundy (pictured), associate professor at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Kansas.

The event concluded with a panel of design, development, municipal and green infrastructure experts talking about the need, benefits and challenges of the update to the MARC/American Public Works Association (APWA) stormwater design and engineering manual. Panelists Tawn Nugent, APWA Kansas City Chapter executive board president; Sarah Shafer, senior engineer for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas; Xue Wood, community development director for North Kansas City, Missouri; and Craig Rhodes, principal landscape architect at Vireo talked about their roles consulting on the update as well as ways it can be implemented into development and planning at the municipal level.

The 5600 manual will modernize regional stormwater management using calculations that value onsite retention of rainwater volume as a "credit" to minimize the size of downstream detention facilities, and reduce the amount of high-speed floodwaters entering streams and causing erosion. Its redevelopment criteria recognizes space constraints and provides design and permit submittal guidance to streamline the development process.