2023 Annual Conference Agenda

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 / Pre-Conference

8:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

SESWA Volunteer Service Project [Registration Required]
Join us as a volunteer for SESWA’s service project in Hilton Head!  Spend time with fellow SESWA members for a stormwater-focused service project on Hilton Head Island. As part of this project, registrants will be participating in an oyster shell recycling project at the Coastal Discovery Museum drop site. Participants will be bagging recycled oyster shells to be used in shoreline protection and artificial reef projects around Hilton Head Island. All project materials will be provided, there is no cost to participate.

12:00 p.m.

Registration Desk Open

12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
2 credits

Stormwater Public Education & Outreach (Hands On) Session [Additional Fee, Registration Required]
This session will demonstrate the value of a good outreach and education program, including evaluation methods and tips on meeting MS4 permitting requirements and benefits to other stormwater goals. Join us for this hands on learning experience as we visit destinations around Hilton Head Island. There are a limited number of seats available, and we anticipate the session filling up quickly. Register today!  Transportation will leave the hotel lobby promptly at 12:30 p.m. (so plan to arrive early) and will return no later than 3:00 p.m.  Please dress to be outdoors and wear closed toe shoes or boots.

Julie Berbiglia, Education Specialist
Metro Water Services, City of Nashville , TN

John Butler, Water Resources Outreach Manager
Gwinnett County, GA

Thursday, October 5, 2023 / Regular Conference

8:00 a.m.

Registration Desk Open

8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.

Continental Breakfast

8:45 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
(General Session)
1.25 credits

Welcome & Opening Session

Keriema Smith Newman, Acting Director
EPA Region 4 Enforcement & Compliance Assurance Division

Dave Canaan, President
Southeast Stormwater Association

Danielle Hopkins, Executive Director
Southeast Stormwater Association

Break in Exhibit Hall

Track A – Maintaining and Restoring Aquatic Life Passage in Urban Systems
The City of Charlotte is the largest city in North Carolina and 15th largest in the country. Over the last several years, Charlotte Storm Water Services has completed a large number of stormwater infrastructure repair and improvement projects. Many of these projects require 401/404 permitting. Join us as we walk you through the City of Charlotte’s 401/404 Permitting Program including some challenges faced along the way to maintain/restore aquatic life passage in a very dense, urban drainage system.

Kristen O'Reilly, 401/404 Permitting Supervisor
City of Charlotte, NC

Track B – Things to Remember for Your Next Green Infrastructure Retrofit Project
Green Infrastructure (GI) retrofit projects present a unique set of challenges for designers, contractors, and municipalities. This session will present some lessons learned from shared experience on several GI retrofit projects.

Ross Ellis, Senior Staff Engineer
Geosyntec Consultants

Jeremy Pratt, Engineer III
Gwinnett County, GA

11:20 a.m. - 12:05 p.m.
0.75 credits

Track A – Maximum Extent Practicable and Nature-Based Solutions - Synergy or Conflict?
Join us as we discuss the White House’s recent directive to implement nature-based solutions and how that may or may not fit with the existing requirement to reduce pollutants to the maximum extent practicable (MEP).  The session will look at existing guidance and policy related to MEP as well as green infrastructure. We will then use this information to review how this new directive for nature-based solutions might change existing policies.

Patrick Bradley, Director, Point Source Program Development
RES

Track B – Local Park Serves as a Model for Sustainable Stormwater Integration
Children's Stormwater Garden at Roswell River Parks in Roswell, Georgia incorporates immersive Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) designs that educate park users about stormwater's value while improving water quality. This session will reveal how interactive play elements were used to promote environmental awareness and appreciation.

Damien Di Vittorio, PE, Regional Manager
Columbia Engineering

12:05 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Lunch Break

Track A – A Local Park’s Tiered Water Quality Tower to Alleviate Flooding
The City of Atlanta, Georgia faced a challenge: how to alleviate historic neighborhood flooding problems in a sustainable way that honors the neighborhood’s rich history. The solution, a vibrant new park integrated with inventive stormwater features and tiered water quality treatment measures, offers a model of innovation, collaboration, and community investment. This session will share how a local park can combine innovative engineering with acres of amenities, helping to fulfill a local government’s goals by applying green infrastructure to reduce flood risk, improve water quality, and educate visitors.

Kimberly Patak, PE, CFM, ENV SP, Project Manager
Freese and Nichols

Tricia Hatley, PE, Executive Vice President
Freese and Nichols

Track B – Rethinking Runoff - GI/LID Planning to Implementation
The City of Brunswick, Georgia’s “Rethinking Runoff Plan” identified green infrastructure projects at 28 sites across the City that were well positioned for implementation to increase resiliency and improve water quality. This presentation will highlight how the Plan was developed, discuss the factors explored and tools used to identify and evaluate the sites, as well as describe the City’s steps to fund these efforts.

Rob Brown, PE, PhD, Senior Water Resources Engineer
Goodwyn Mills Cawood

Track A – What's It All About, Alfie, Is It Only Numbers We Count? Evaluating Education & Outreach
It's report time and your public education and outreach narrative is all numbers: 5,515 brochures; 2,000 post cards; 3,608 students; 100,000 people at events (seriously?). But what does that mean? What did people learn and do? Where is the evidence your efforts made a difference? If only there were another way - there is! Join this session to discuss how.

Julie Berbiglia, Education Specialist
Metro Water Services, City of Nashville , TN

Track B – Stormwater Utility Evaluation to Maintain Success
As stormwater utilities grow and mature, leaders have found it productive to self-reflect on how the program has matured, ask if the program strayed from its purpose, question if expectations have driven the program in a different direction than anticipated, etc. Charlotte Storm Water Services in North Carolina is over 30 years old and has recently conducted an exercise that reflected on the current state of the program and how the City envisions it changing in multiple stages in the future. Conducting the exercise was timely, in that, significant stormwater infrastructure problems are close to being resolved as a result of a 5-year acceleration of spending on infrastructure. This presentation will cover the workshop process, financial model performed, and programmatic changes that will be undertaken in the future.

Daryl Hammock, PE, Assistant Manager
City of Charlotte, NC

Katie Cromwell, Senior Manager
Raftelis

Break in Exhibit Hall

3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
0.75 credits

Track A – Implementing Ecological Solutions to Resolve Chronic Neighborhood Flooding
Charleston, South Carolina's Barberry Woods project solution relies upon a holistic ecological approach to reduce flooding in this residential community on Johns Island. Wetland creation, floodplain storage, and stream enhancement will eliminate days of flooding impacts. This session will provide an overview of the project that follows the guiding principles of the Dutch Dialogues and ultimately provides a demonstration site of nature-based resiliency practices that address stormwater issues.

Marc Horstman, PE, PH, DWRE, Senior Project Manager
WK Dickson

Ron Bucci, PE, Stormwater Development Manager
City of Charleston, SC

Track B – MS4 Mapping is Not Magic!  Lessons Learned Updating GIS Mapping with Survey Data
Join us to review lessons learned while obtaining field survey data to update GIS stormwater mapping in the City of Mobile, Alabama. Challenges included how to obtain data on private property and how to address a significant increase of inlet-cleaning requests city-wide.  Learn how the City continues to adapt and add value using this new data.

Rosemary Ginn, PE, CFM, CPMSM, Assistant City Engineer
City of Mobile, AL

Marti Byrnes, GIS Analyst III
City of Mobile, AL

Track A – How Understanding Geomorphic Conditions Can Inform Resiliency Planning
Increased development coupled with an increase in frequency and intensity of storm events over the past few years has led to an uptick in streambank erosion problems that has been noticed by both citizens and local governments. Many stormwater professionals are finding themselves needing answers about the rate and magnitude of streambank erosion. To date the erosion rates of streambanks have not been well defined in the Southeastern US, leading to an inability to provide accurate estimates of erosion risk to infrastructure and downstream systems. This session will discuss erosion rate data that has been collected using analysis of exposed tree roots. A comparative analysis of this data will be presented along with an explanation of how planners can use this data to inform resiliency throughout their communities.

Emily Brown, PE, CFM, ENVSP, Ecological Engineer
Freese and Nichols

Lydia Ward, PE, ENV SP, Engineer V
Freese and Nichols

Track B – Stormwater, Water Quality, Water Quantity and Lessons Learned from Compensatory Mitigation
Stormwater discharges are primarily regulated under the Clean Water Act (CWA), Section 402 while compensatory mitigation is under CWA, Section 404. Section 402 focuses on pollutants while Section 404 focuses on adverse physical impacts to aquatic resources. Join us to discuss the intersection of urban/suburban development, stormwater, mitigation and the need to reduce discharges. There are similar but different approaches used for restoration purposes and the way quantity and quality can interact. The lessons learned in the compensatory mitigation program may be applied to make better watershed-based approaches more successful.

Patrick Bradley, Director, Point Source Program Development
RES

Southeast Stormwater Association Annual Member Meeting and the Election of Board of Directors and Officers

Friday, October 6, 2023 / Regular Conference

8:00 a.m.

Registration Desk Open

8:00 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.

Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.
0.75 credits

Track A – What a Difference a Stormwater Manual Can Make
Have you ever wondered how much difference your Stormwater Manual can make on new projects.  Join me in exploring how the Pinellas County, Florida, Stormwater Manual creates additional resiliency and safety along with water quality improvement on a new residential community near the Gulf of Mexico.

Lara Bartholomew, PE, ENV-SP, Senior Project Engineer
Ardurra

Track B – Perfect Fit Funding: Creative Alternatives for Stormwater Fees to Suit Your Community
Every community is a little different! Are you wrestling with how to make a new or existing stormwater utility work best for your quirky system and maximize efficiency? Learn about interesting and successful rate structures, collaborative models, and other tweaks to stormwater utilities that local governments are using to make their stormwater utility a perfect fit for their circumstances.

Katie Cromwell, Senior Manager
Raftelis

Track A – Developing a Robust Municipal BMP Maintenance Program
BMP maintenance can be an ongoing challenge for municipalities with competing factors at play, such as shared responsibilities between parties, budget constraints, maintenance cycle forecasting, and inspection schedules and requirements. This presentation will share a case study for how a municipality can be forward-looking with their stormwater infrastructure management programs.

Billur Kazaz, PhD, EIT, CPESC, Senior Staff Engineer
Geosyntec Consultants

Kevin Middlebrooks, Section Manager - Technical Services
Gwinnett County, GA

Track B – Intersection Between Green and Gray Stormwater Infrastructure: Solving Localized Flooding
For the past 15 years, localized flooding has plagued NC State’s Central Campus. This session will share the functional and aesthetic benefits of combining traditional gray stormwater infrastructure with nature-based green stormwater infrastructure to solve nuisance flooding while providing water quality benefits and aesthetic improvements.

Hunter Freeman, PE, LEED AP, Green Stormwater Infrastructure Practice Lead
McAdams

Federal Update and National Stormwater Trends
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies will provide an update on water-related issues and US EPA’s stormwater program priorities at the national level, focusing on stormwater policy and permitting programs.

Emily Remmel, Director, Regulatory Affairs
National Association of Clean Water Agencies

10:55 a.m.