Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 75.41
Liaison Marianne Martin
Submission Date March 23, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of Colorado Boulder
OP-23: Rainwater Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Jonathan Akins
Campus Civil Engineer
Facilities Management
"---" 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:

CU continuously is looking for opportunities to improve the stormwater quality on the campus. Every construction project on the campus is reviewed to both minimize stormwater runoff as well as incorporating water quality control features into the project. As a result, the University has incorporated numerous stormwater BMPs into campus projects ranging from porous pavements to infiltration trenches. As a result, almost all of our capital construction projects on the campus have achieved LEED sustainable site credits 6.1 and 6.2.


A copy of the institution’s rainwater management policy, plan, and/or guidelines:
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A brief description of the institution’s rainwater management policy, plan, and/or guidelines that supports the responses above:

CU has a total of 9 different plazas or parking lots that have porous pavement systems. The systems are designed based on specific site conditions to maximize water quality and retention/infiltration of the runoff. The goal of such systems is to infiltrate as much water into the subsurface as we can and to achieve a higher water quality in our storm water runoff. The areas that CU has porous pavement systems are: Norlin Library Sundial Plaza, Parking Lot 274, Center for Community West Plaza, Center for Community East Plaza, Ketchem Bike Storage, IBS Parking Lot, Visual Arts Plaza, Parking Lot 380, Kittredge Commons Plaza, and Fiske Planetarium Plaza.
CU has a total of 11 retention/detention ponds on the campus, where most of these ponds function also as our raw water irrigation ponds. With the Colorado water laws, CU had to give up some our water rights in order to obtain a storage right for the water. Most of these ponds are located on the outfalls of our storm sewer systems which provide both water quality and water attenuation of storm events before the storm water runoff goes into Boulder Creek.
The University has numerous vegetated swales on the campus which are designed by our civil engineers in accordance with UDFCD requirements. These swales are located anywhere from inside parking medians to our quads.


The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

UCB Building and Construction Standards - Drainage Structures and Piping: http://www.colorado.edu/facilitiesmanagement/pdc/construction/standards/documents/u02722.pdf

Floodwater mapping: http://www.colorado.edu/masterplan/plan/Exhibits/ExII-C-2CMP20110602.pdf

University of Colorado Boulder 2011 Master Plan - Section V: Land and Facilities Plan/ 35, 43-44, 50-51, 96-98, 104
http://www.colorado.edu/masterplan/plan/documents/SectionV_000.pdf


UCB Building and Construction Standards - Drainage Structures and Piping: http://www.colorado.edu/facilitiesmanagement/pdc/construction/standards/documents/u02722.pdf

Floodwater mapping: http://www.colorado.edu/masterplan/plan/Exhibits/ExII-C-2CMP20110602.pdf

University of Colorado Boulder 2011 Master Plan - Section V: Land and Facilities Plan/ 35, 43-44, 50-51, 96-98, 104
http://www.colorado.edu/masterplan/plan/documents/SectionV_000.pdf

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