December 1, 2004 — One of the greatest threats to water quality nationwide begins with a storm. Rain washes over agriculture fields and suburban backyards, picking up pesticides, fertilizer and sediment. It streams across urban parking lots and roads spattered with oil and crusted with the residue of salt and heavy metals. Along the way it collects carelessly disposed of trash, toxic chemicals, pathogenic microbes from farm animal and pet waste, and malfunctioning sewer and septic systems.

Eventually, the rain carries this blend of pollutants — known as nonpoint source pollution — into streams, creeks, estuaries and coastal harbors where it degrades water quality and threatens aquatic habitats. So pervasive is the problem that Phase Two of the Clean Water Act mandates stormwater managers to tackle this challenge head-on, yet often they lack the information they need to make decisions about stormwater treatment systems.

A groundbreaking research and development center is addressing this critical need with funding and support from a unique NOAA/University of New Hampshire partnership — the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology. The Center for Stormwater Technology Evaluation and Verification provides rigorous scientific field testing and demonstration of stormwater treatment technologies.

“Many stormwater designs and processes claim to achieve desirable water quality and storm volume reduction, but few have had the benefit of independent scientific testing,” says Robert Roseen, CSTEV co-director and UNH research engineer. “CSTEV tests these treatment systems side-by-side, so it can make accurate comparisons, verify their effectiveness and pass this information on to stormwater managers.”

A Resource for the Northeast—and Beyond
CSTEV is located on the UNH campus, in the watershed of the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, which encompasses more than 10,000 acres of tidal waters. Great Bay is one of 26 reserves in the NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System, established nationwide as a network of field laboratories for scientific research and estuarine education.

“The research that CICEET sponsors uses a NERRS site or its watershed as a platform to develop technologies that restore or protect coastal and estuarine ecosystems,” notes Dwight Trueblood, CICEET’s NOAA co-director. “Because nonpoint source pollution is such a widespread issue — impacting all reserves and marine protected areas — NOAA is very excited about CSTEV’s potential to serve as a valuable resource for the NERRS system and coastal managers.”

Effective stormwater management that protects water quality depends on cooperation, and CSTEV engages researchers, municipalities, regulators and device manufacturers to engage in program oversight and participation.

The field facility is equipped with conventional treatments (such as swales and ponds), low impact development designs (such as sand filters), bioretention system, gravel wetland, and manufactured devices that include swirl separators and manhole retrofits. (Click on the NOAA image to the right for a larger view of the CSTEV site. Please credit "NOAA/CICEET.")

While each treatment process is sized to treat the same water volume and peak stormwater flow, their footprints vary remarkably — reflecting the unique application of each device. Some are more appropriate for urban environments with limited space, while others are tailored to suit suburban or rural settings where more space may be available for stormwater treatment. To help guide municipal managers, engineers and others charged with developing and implementing stormwater management plans, CSTEV also offers best management practice workshops.

“Whenever coastal decisions makers in our region find out about the storm water center, they want to tour it,” says Steve Miller, the Coastal Training Program coordinator for the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. “They know that stormwater management is a big problem, but they may not understand the nuances. A tour of the facility broadens their understanding, and the data that it generates will help them make the right decisions for their communities.” (Click on the NOAA image to the right for a larger view of individuals visiting the CSTEV site. Please credit "NOAA/CICEET.")

"CSTEV is the kind of resource the coastal management community needs to be strategic, rather than reactive, as NOAA and many partners help to identify regional research priorities
and technology and information needs for New England's coastal resources," says Betsy Nicholson, NOAA Northeast Regional Coastal Program Specialist. "The development of effective storm water management programs now will better position us to address emerging issues — such as effects of personal care products on sensitive habitat — in the future."

As a research facility, CSTEV is a unique resource for the northeast and other regions in the United States with colder climates. Yet the parallel testing of treatments will support stormwater managers in warmer climates as well.

“The site allows us to make direct comparisons between stormwater treatments,” says William Reay, director of the Chesapeake Bay Estuarine Research Reserve, who visited CSTEV during the NERRS annual conference last October. “With so many technologies in one place, subject to the same conditions, CSTEV eliminates some of the doubt that stormwater managers might have about research findings derived from various sources.”

Quality Over Quantity
Thirty years ago, stormwater management was more a question of quantity than quality, and many traditional BMPs were developed to handle the volumes of stormwater that threatened property and community safety. Today, the emphasis has shifted, and researchers and managers must also now address the concern that many conventional stormwater treatments are not effectively preserving water quality.

“In many ways, CSTEV’s research will help clarify how to identify and engineer around those issues,” says Richard Langan, the CICEET UNH co-director. “Not only those generated by nonpoint sources but those that arise from the devices and treatment systems themselves. When a large retention pond is placed beside a supermarket parking lot, for example, it may create a situation that encourages the growth of pathogenic microbes.”

Into the Future
Alongside a scrutiny of the effects of traditional stormwater treatments on water quality, CSTEV’s research also focuses on alternative technologies for the future. In an effort to treat and minimize stormwater at the source, one such project places a new twist on an old technology — a porous parking lot. Roads, parking lots, buildings and other impervious surfaces generate significantly more runoff than permeable soil, making stormwater management in highly developed areas particularly challenging.

The experimental asphalt used to create the parking lot used in this study looks like normal pavement. On closer inspection, however, tiny holes become apparent. The tiny holes allow rainwater to flow through to the soil below, where it can be filtered naturally and eventually replenish groundwater. This winter, CSTEV will monitor the test lot to see how well it reduces runoff compared to other technologies and how it holds up to the freezing and thawing of New Hampshire’s frigid winters.

“People think of stormwater as waste rather than a resource — it has become convenient to just let it go, channel it out,” says Roseen, “but water that is drinkable, swimable and fishable is at premium everywhere. CSTEV and its partners have to start engineering ways to rehabilitate stormwater so that it can replenish our aquifers, springs and streams.”

NOAA is proud to participate in the CSTEV effort, which supports one of its primary mission goals — to protect, restore and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Ocean Service

National Estuarine Research Reserve System

CICEET

CSTEV

Media Contact:
Glenda Powell, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 191 or Ben Sherman, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 178