Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 80.87
Liaison Megan Butler
Submission Date Jan. 26, 2024

STARS v2.2

Macalester College
OP-22: Rainwater Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Nathan Lief
Facilities Director
Facilities
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Which of the following best describes the institution’s approach to rainwater management?:
Comprehensive policies, plans or guidelines that require LID practices for all new projects

A brief description of the institution’s green infrastructure and LID practices:
The college has proactively installed stormwater projects. The college hosts two student designed and built green roofs. Markim Hall, a LEED Platinum building, has extensive infiltration projects and porous pavers. The Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center includes infiltration and a renovated parking lot that includes a bioswale/trench. Pavers cover more than 21,000 square feet in five locations on campus. Porous Pavers are also included as sidewalks are renovated. The college added 2 surface stormwater filtration basins to handle runoff from the Theater building (2018) and the accompanying parking lot (67 spaces). In regards to run off, we are able to reduce the amount of water we put down on certain areas by utilizing the weather stations in our new irrigation system. The new clocks use the local forecast and if there is a chance of rain in the forecast the system will not turn on. In addition to that, if we surpass a pre-selected amount of water prior to the scheduled run day, the system will not come on resulting in less water used and reducing the amount of water run off. Some weeks it hasnt run at all due to our rain totals setting.

A copy of the institution’s rainwater management policy, plan, and/or guidelines:
A brief description of the institution’s rainwater management policy, plan, and/or guidelines that supports the responses above:
The 2009 Sustainability Plan has goals to develop a comprehensive stormwater management plan and a goal of infiltrating the first inch of precipitate campus wide.

Macalester developed a sustainable landscaping master plan in 2011 that addresses stormwater. The plan includes an assembly of proposed initiatives to reduce and reuse stormwater runoff including: increasing filtration basins, establishing more rain gardens, and considering rainwater cisterns.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s green infrastructure and LID practices is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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