Flood Control - Challenges and opportunities for undersized legacy systems

Extreme weather can and has doused communities and utilities with record rainfall. But what happens when the collection system does not have the capacity to handle that flow? How can systems address those challenges and what are the low-hanging fruit opportunities that can often go overlooked?

Storm resiliency and/or modernizing stormwater design standards

Few things test utilities more than extreme weather events, which can lead to flooding, sewer overflows and destabilization of infrastructure with erosion. This presentation will highlight the criticality of storm resilience and the modern tools available to bounce back quicker and reduce risks associated with extreme weather events.

Coastal Erosion - Ways to integrate coastal storm defenses with inland stormwater systems

As coastlines manage erosion, communities inland struggle with management of stormwater in other ways. In what way can these two systems work in harmony? What tools, technologies, and policies can unlock the integration of coastal storm defenses with local water and wastewater systems?

Green Infrastructure

Construction site runoff regulations can vary widely from locality to locality. In this presentation, learn about the common trends in enforcement and considerations to keep in mind to comply with regulations on runoff at construction sites.

Roundtable - Water Sustainability and Data Centers

Artificial Intelligence and the data center boom are putting pressure on utilities across the country to source or manage water supply for industrial growth. On the one hand, data centers are looking at closed loop systems to improve sustainability, but what of the water side? What opportunities exist for stormwater harvesting and reuse or wastewater reuse water to address the water need without stressing local residential supply?

Doc Hendley, a Global Humanitarian and Clean Water Crusader, started as a bartender with a grand vision. In 2004, he founded Wine To Water, a non-profit committed to providing sustainable clean water to communities worldwide. The organization has transformed over 1.6 million lives in 51 countries, working in areas affected by natural disasters, conflict zones, and impoverished regions.

Named one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes in 2009, Doc has harnessed the power of simple ideas to create significant impact. His initiative, the Wine To Water Filter Build® Experience, engages teams in building water filters, fostering relationships, and providing clean water to those in need. Doc’s story exemplifies the transformational power of determination and compassion to change the world—one drop at a time.

The data center boom and general growth of industrial markets have pressured water systems to meet rising demands. Municipal, industrial and private water systems are redefining the water supply pie chart. Whether the purpose is meeting demand, achieving ESG goals, or simply a good business decision, water reuse is a vital part of that pie, and stormwater reuse will play a part in its equation.

BIOBIO

Doc Hendley

Founder & CEO

Wine To Water

Bruno Pigott 

Executive Director

WateReuse Association

Beyond Capacity: When Yesterday’s Infrastructure Meets Today’s Rainfall

Stormwater systems constructed 20 to 40 years ago were designed using rainfall data, land use assumptions, and regulatory frameworks that no longer reflect current conditions. Increased precipitation intensity expanded impervious surfaces, sedimentation, evolving compliance standards, and aging materials have collectively created a growing disconnect between original hydraulic design capacity and present-day performance expectations.

This session examines how municipalities and private asset owners can systematically evaluate and modernize legacy stormwater infrastructure without defaulting to full system replacement. Drawing from field-based assessments and applied hydraulic analysis, the presentation will explore methodologies for identifying true conveyance constraints, evaluating hydraulic grade line conflicts, restoring detention storage capacity, and prioritizing retrofit interventions that improve system reliability. Attendees will gain a structured framework for distinguishing between maintenance deficiencies and fundamental capacity limitations, along with practical strategies for phased improvements that align with capital planning, regulatory compliance, and long-term watershed resilience. Case applications across municipal systems, residential communities, commercial developments, and recreational properties will demonstrate how legacy infrastructure can be repositioned from reactive liability to managed asset.

• Building Resilient Communities Through Modernized Stormwater Design Criteria

Stormwater systems across the country are being pushed beyond their limits. As storm events grow more intense, more frequent, and more variable, it’s clear that long‑standing stormwater design criteria—built around outdated assumptions and simplified rainfall models—can no longer provide the level of protection communities need. Traditional approaches that size infrastructure for a single, hypothetical storm event fail to account for today’s data, today’s climate, and today’s risk.

Modern datasets, including high‑resolution digital elevation models and spatial rainfall products, now reveal watershed behavior with unprecedented clarity. These insights show that legacy design standards routinely underestimate flood impacts, overlook downstream vulnerabilities, and increase long‑term system costs. If communities want to protect critical assets, reduce flooding, and invest their dollars more effectively, they must move toward updated, scenario‑based stormwater design criteria that reflect the realities of a changing environment.

This presentation highlights why new design standards are urgently needed—and how utilities can adopt them. Attendees will explore how multi‑event modeling, adaptive criteria, and integrated wet‑weather planning can create solutions that work across a broad range of storm conditions, rather than a single design storm from decades‑old tables. By modernizing design criteria, communities can reduce downstream risk, extend infrastructure life, and develop more sustainable capital improvement strategies.

• Coastal Erosion

Ways to integrate coastal storm defenses with inland stormwater systems.

• Green Infrastructure

As a part of Mile High Flood District’s criteria manual update, greater attention had been placed on receiving pervious areas (RPAs), which include vegetated swales and buffers, as well as other pervious surfaces that receive runoff from impervious areas. Since that update, stormwater industry leaders, local governments and development engineers have encouraged integration of these types of features in practice. This included the successful development and implementation of a program for Greenwood Village that is now expanding the use of RPA throughout the Denver metropolitan area.

• Roundtable

The AI boom and rapid scaling of data centers in the U.S. has impressed supply questions for water systems throughout the country. Utilities are asking how they can balance the potential economic upsides of a data center in their service area with the day-to-day needs of their community. What does the water demand look like for these data facilities and what technology are they leveraging for efficient use? How does that dovetail with the energy needs? And what strategies could utilities employ to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to serving their community and enabling industrial user growth?