State Water Board, Pacific Institute and Second Nature identify large stormwater capture potential on LA County school grounds

A staff member from the State Water Resources Control Board's Storms unit and researchers from the Pacific Institute and Second Nature on the webinar described a large, site-level opportunity to capture stormwater on Los Angeles County public school grounds that could supply water and deliver multiple co-benefits to students and surrounding communities.

The findings matter because school campuses are concentrated sources of impervious surface in dense neighborhoods and, if retrofitted with green infrastructure, can reduce runoff, lower local temperatures, improve water quality, and provide educational and recreational space for students in under-resourced areas.

Presenters summarized a technical analysis that combined stakeholder input with a spatial tool called Rain Steward to rank nearly 1,900 school properties in LA County by multi-benefit potential. "Storms was developed in 2016. It's a clever acronym for the strategy to optimize resource management of stormwater," the State Water Board staff member said, describing the board's effort to reframe stormwater as a resource. Sonali Abraham, identified in the webinar as a senior research specialist at the…