Managing Stormwater with Drones – A Pilot Project

Date: Presented at StormCon 2024 in Reno, Nevada on August 28, 2024
Speakers: Ben Nield & Mindi Kellar
Credits: 0.75 PDH / Approved for all Envirocert International, Inc. (ECI) Certifications: Approval #PDH-0042

In 2023, the Northwest Seaport Alliance’s Water Quality team implemented an environmental drone program with a focus on stormwater management. This project’s purpose is to implement drones to assist with permit-regulated inspections and environmental mapping, modeling and monitoring needs. Incorporating the use of a drone into this work has proved useful in assisting with nearly all inspections of site conditions and stormwater assets required by the various NPDES permits held by the Port of Tacoma. Examples of these inspections include IDDE and outfall inspections; ditch assessments; source control inspections; spill tracing and investigation; pre- and post-construction BMP inspections and monitoring; and derelict vessel monitoring. The driving cause to implement the drone program was to promote inspector safety in dangerous areas. The ability to preprogram flight paths and use artificial intelligence to activate obstacle avoidance also promotes the safety of the equipment and eliminates human error while flying in critical and/or sensitive areas such as an industrial site or port terminal. This presentation will explore key benefits of drones, including the real-time, up-to-date, high-resolution data and the ability to fully integrate the imagery into a GIS system.

Session duration: 45 minutes

About the Presenters

Ben Nield, MPA, is a Water Quality Analyst II at the Northwest Seaport Alliance, where he assists his team in managing multiple NPDES permits for the Port of Tacoma. He has 3 years of experience in the stormwater industry and his primary focus is industrial stormwater sampling, source control, construction stormwater management, site inspections, BMP monitoring, updating stormwater infrastructure in GIS, and implementation of the environmental drone program.

Mindi Kellar is the current Senior Manager of Water Quality for the Northwest Seaport Alliance and Port of Tacoma in Washington State with 30 years environmental experience, including 17 years in the stormwater field. Prior to her current role, she has worked for consulting firms, city and county municipalities, and state government regulatory agencies.