Arizona State University
OP-23: Rainwater Management

Arizona State University seeks to alleviate the impact of runoff and address runoff at the source. For example, ASU is utilizing the national program U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) as a guideline for the College Avenue Streetscape project. This program was created to promote sustainable land development and management practices. ASU would like to use this guideline on more projects across campus so that water can be managed in a way that reduces the impact of built areas. The University has established a LEED-Silver minimum certification policy that requires stormwater management as a pre-requisite. For additional information about LEED certified buildings on ASU campuses: https://cfo.asu.edu/construction-at-asu. Green infrastructure practices are required on all ASU projects. LID practices are currently encouraged and prevalent but not mandatory at this time.

Part of the design phase of construction projects on ASU campuses includes retaining civil engineers to design surface drainage infrastructure and Certified Stormwater Inspectors to routinely inspect. All campus drainage designs are developed based upon progressive stormwater management concepts, which often exceed the prevailing jurisdictional requirements. ASU effectively manages stormwater within the campus boundaries and ensures that the Stormwater Management Program is in alignment with ASU’s culture of pollution prevention and natural resource conservation. The ASU Tempe campus infrastructure consists of many retention basins equipped with drywells and underground retention tanks to retain stormwater on campus and reduce stormwater runoff. In addition, ASU has a drywell and stormwater drainage maintenance program. ASU’s Polytechnic campus has preserved natural landscape features such as such as desert drainage washes, arroyos and bioswales. ASU’s Downtown campus also has bioswales to capture rainwater to slow it down so that it infiltrates into the ground.

Corey Hawkey JoEllen Alberhasky