Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 66.18
Liaison Phil Valko
Submission Date March 2, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Washington University in St. Louis
OP-23: Rainwater Management

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 2.00 Kent Theiling
Grounds & Landscape Design Manager
Facilities Planning and Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Which of the following best describes the institution’s approach to rainwater management?:
Less comprehensive policies, plans or guidelines that incorporate green infrastructure

A brief description of the institution’s green infrastructure and LID practices:

The St. Louis region has historically had a combined sanitary and stormwater system that leads to the release of untreated sewage into regional riverways during major rain events. Washington University does a number of things to mitigate this issue:

-In conjunction with new construction, separate sanitary and stormwater lines are built and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans are put in place.
-Pervious pavers are regularly used for hardscapes in bicycle parking nodes and along a few campus pathways.
-Washington University has five green roofs: South 40 House, McMillan Addition, Hope Plaza, Lofts of Washington University, and Danforth University Center north plaza.
-In the last five years, a number of existing turf areas have been replaced with rain gardens including south of Eads Hall, edges of the South 40 recreational field ("the swamp"), adjacent to "McLeod's Way", and others.
-Rain gardens have recently been added adjacent to a number of parking lots and roads including throughout the Simon Hall parking lot, north of Olympian Way, and North of Throop Drive near the Knight Center.
-Large bioswales were built as part of recent projects: 4515 McKinley, Hillman Hall south landscape, Village East apartments, and the Lofts apartments.
-The University has built several stormwater detention and retention cisterns, including four underground water storage tanks at the School of Medicine, a cistern at the Lofts, cisterns at Tyson Research Center, and a large detention system south of Brauer Hall. The Brauer Hall detention system was recently removed to accommodate the university's East End Transformation Project, which will result in a net reduction of impervious surface by replacing nearly 1,000 surface parking spaces with a new 800-space underground parking garage covered with a major green roof.


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:

Washington University's Strategic Plan for Sustainable Operations includes a section on Landscape that includes guidelines and commitments related to rainwater management:
https://sustainability.wustl.edu/vision-progress/strategic-plan/


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:
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