Stormwater Resilience and Funding: Strategies and Evaluation Framework

Urban flooding and the lack of funding for stormwater programs are some of the top challenges of municipalities and utilities across the country. This course will provide a high-level description of a path to stormwater resilience and will focus on a process for developing a financing strategy that leverages dedicated funding sources, such as Stormwater Utilities (SWUs), to secure additional funding. The course will also describe the implementation steps for SWUs and will present a proven framework to evaluate and improve funding programs using case studies.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, attendees should be able to:

• Identify the key challenges associated with urban flooding and inadequate funding for stormwater management.
• Understand the steps involved in developing a financing strategy that effectively utilizes dedicated funding sources to supplement existing resources.
• Analyze case studies to assess the strengths and weaknesses of existing funding programs and identify areas for improvement.

About the Presenter

Mark Van Auken, P.E., Principal Water Resources Engineer, Stormwater Practice Lead, Arcadis
Mark has 30 years of experience, including storm water expertise in funding/utility development, master planning, flow monitoring, sampling, modeling, permitting, design, analysis and management. Mark has led NPDES Storm Water Phase I and II permitting-related projects for 19 Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) communities in seven states. He served as technical consultant for development of storm water utilities in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio. He is an Envision Sustainability Professional and provides oversight on sustainability options for stormwater and green infrastructure projects. Mark serves as Co-Chair of WEF’s Stormwater Innovation Sub-Committee of the Stormwater Committee. Mark also serves as Storm Water Community of Practice Leader for Arcadis, where he helps develop and lead municipal storm water work. Mark has a BS in Civil Engineering from Michigan State University and is a registered Professional Engineer in several states. 

Mark Fernando Pasquel, CPM, Senior Vice President, National Director, Stormwater & Watershed Management, Arcadis

Fernando is a Water Resources Manager with 35 years of experience developing and implementing resilience, stormwater and green infrastructure programs. He has assisted several municipalities with implementation of stormwater utilities and alternative funding mechanisms, compliance with MS4 permits and TMDL requirements, and development of program effectiveness indicators.

Fernando has coauthored green infrastructure/BMP manuals in several states and has conducted training workshops covering all aspects of funding, planning, designing, and maintaining urban stormwater controls. He was also a contributing author for two Water Environment Federation (WEF) publications: User-Fee Funded Stormwater Programs (2013) and Green Infrastructure Implementation (2014), Financing Strategies Chapter. He also led the Task Force and contributed to several chapters of the recently published WEF/ASCE Manual of Practice titled Urban Stormwater Controls Operations & Maintenance. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Resilience Subcommittee of WEF’s Stormwater Committee and was an invited consultant to EPA’s Stormwater Infrastructure Finance Task Force (2019 – 2020). Fernando received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech.        

Alexandria King, EIT,  Stormwater and Buried Infrastructure Specialist, Arcadis
Alexandria King- Alexandria serves as a stormwater and buried infrastructure specialist. Her fields of specialization include stormwater fee analyses, green infrastructure design, and buried infrastructure condition assessment and rehabilitation. For the Philadelphia Green City, Clean Waters initiative, Ms. King provided stormwater design services for over 10 projects. She has worked on the planning and implementation for several Stormwater Fee Studies. Alexandria received a B.S degree in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.