Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 65.06
Liaison Andrea Trimble
Submission Date May 29, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Virginia
OP-27: Rainwater Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Jessica Wenger
Environmental Projects Manager
Environmental Health & Safety
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution use Low Impact Development (LID) practices as a matter of policy or standard practice to reduce rainwater/stormwater runoff volume and improve outgoing water quality for new construction, major renovation, and other projects?:
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s Low Impact Development (LID) practices:

Virginia regulations require stormwater management for all projects (new construction or major renovations) that involve one acre or more of land disturbance. The menu of practices allowed and the manner in which compliance is demonstrated promote use of LID practices, especially those that reduce stormwater runoff through infiltration or evapotranspiration. In the previous three years (2012 to date), the University has installed five bioretention facilities, three vegetated roofs, two cisterns and one parking lot with porous asphalt.


Has the institution adopted a rainwater/stormwater management policy, plan, or strategies that mitigate the rainwater runoff impacts of ongoing campus operations through the use of green infrastructure? :
Yes

A brief description of the institution’s rainwater/stormwater management policy, plan, and/or strategies for ongoing campus operations:

The University developed stormwater management master plans for the two watersheds (Meadow Creek and Moores Creek) that drain UVA property. The plans outline strategies for mitigating the effects of stormwater runoff from existing and new development. As outlined in the master plans, several regional facilities have been installed. All new development and redevelopment projects must meet state stormwater management regulations for water quality and quantity control. In addition, we are in the process of developing an Action Plan for demonstrating compliance with the Chesapeake Bay TMDL; this plan must be completed by 6/30/15. Action Plans for demonstrating compliance with local stream TMDLs will also be prepared but are not due in the next year


A brief description of any rainwater harvesting employed by the institution:

Cisterns for capturing rainwater for irrigation purposes are installed at the Astronomy Building (550 gal), New Cabell Hall (4,200 gal), Garrett Hall (5,000 gal), Amphitheater (6,600 gal), O-Hill Dining (10,000 gal) and Lannigan Track (187,025 gallons). The largest two cisterns are directly connected to irrigation systems serving adjacent lawn areas. The others are available for hand watering student gardens or for our landscaping crews to pump from to fill portable water tanks.

Number reported below is storage volume available, not usage data


Rainwater harvested directly and stored/used by the institution, performance year:
213,375 Gallons

A brief description of any rainwater filtering systems employed by the institution to treat water prior to release:

UVA has installed a variety of systems to filter rainwater before it leaves UVA property. UVA has installed 16 oil-water separators, 1 oil-sand interceptor, 1 oil-grit separator, 3 sand interceptors, 1 StormScreen, 9 Filterras, 2 locations proprietary filter cartridges, 2 VortSentry. In addition other BMPs, such as raingardens and biofilters, naturally filter stormwater in addition to reducing the quantity of runoff.


A brief description of any living or vegetated roofs on campus:

Intrinsic and extrinsic vegetated roof installed on Garrett Hall (7800 SF), and Robertson Hall (6500 SF), and South Lawn (about 3800 SF on Nau/Gibson Halls, 7500 SF on terrace crossing). Extrinsic vegetated roofs are also installed on the University Hospital (26,000 SF), Newcomb Hall (2000 SF), Claude Moore Nursing Education Bldg (225 SF), Thrust Theater, MR-5 and MR-6.


A brief description of any porous (i.e. permeable) paving employed by the institution:

Approximately 8,000 SF of porous asphalt installed at the Ruffner parking lot and 4,300 SF of permeable pavers installed behind the Amphitheater.


A brief description of any downspout disconnection employed by the institution:

In the last two years, a student group has surveyed all buildings on campus to evaluate downspout disconnection opportunities and desktop analysis of candidate sites in order to rank them. No projects have yet been implemented.


A brief description of any rain gardens on campus:

UVA has bioretention filters or rain gardens installed at 11 sites across campus, with several more funded for installation as part of redevelopment and retrofit projects. Several of the existing sites have multiple bioretention cells.


A brief description of any stormwater retention and/or detention ponds employed by the institution:

UVA has two retention ponds - one at the Dell and one serving the Health Systems area. The Dell pond treats the headwaters of Meadow Creek with a drainage area of 182 acres (approx 14% impervious) and has a forebay. The Health Systems Pond has a drainage area of 34 acres. We also have 7 extended detention basins and 8 detention basins. Due to space constraints, we also have 17 locations of underground detention for peak runoff control.


A brief description of any bioswales on campus (vegetated, compost or stone):

There are vegetated swales of varying complexity. Some are formally designed to provide water quality benefits and some are considered pretreatment before entry to a larger stormwater management facility. Vegetated swales are installed at the JPJ Arena, Pratt Drive, South Lawn, Carr's Hill Field, and along Culbreth Road.


A brief description of any other rainwater management technologies or strategies employed by the institution:

In addition to the practices described above, UVA also employs constructed wetlands, infiltration, street sweeping, stream daylighting and stream restoration.


The website URL where information about the institution’s rainwater management initiatives, plan or policy is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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