STORM

Team Leaders: Kareem Rabbat  (kar209@pitt.edu) & Katherine Laub (kml146@pitt.edu)

Meeting Time: 8:30 pm on Wednesdays

Combined sewage overflow is a significant problem here in Pittsburgh, and as the Pitt Chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, we have an obligation to help create sustainable solutions. This project will be a continuation of STORM, a student club dedicated to tackling runoff management on Pitt’s campus. A rain garden was built at Bouquet Gardens, and we plan on expanding this green infrastructure to include bioswales and rain barrels. Petersen Events Center Lawn, Sutherland, and Clapp Hall are also possible new rain garden locations. Large emphasis is placed on the usage of native, water-loving plants. Possible locations will be evaluated for rain garden implementation, and using a mix of new and STORM’s existing resources, plans for rain gardens, barrels, and bioswales will be drawn up and taken to University administration for evaluation.

This year, we are excited to announce that we have received funding from ESW Global through their Build Day program. We are excited to build a rain garden on Pitt’s campus using this grant. We have been working on performing infiltration tests on the soil in the area, and developing a list of plants and other materials. We are having fun gearing up for Build Day on March 30th, 2019 and we hope that you will join us or follow our work as we move through the design process.