San Jose Selects Multidisciplinary Team For Green Stormwater Infrastructure Projects

Team to assist the transformation of San Jose’s urban landscape to protect waterways, increase resiliency, and enhance public spaces

The City of San Jose has engaged a team of engineers, modelers, and scientists to provide professional consultancy services on projects to implement its 2019 Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Plan.

Envisioning a watershed with thriving creeks, rivers, and a healthy San Francisco Bay, the City developed the GSI Plan, a roadmap outlining the transformation of its urban landscape and drainage systems to achieve water quality goals and deliver environmental and community benefits. The plan focuses on implementing GSI and sustainable drainage practices, transitioning from traditional “gray” infrastructure where stormwater runoff enters storm drains and receiving waters from impervious rooftops, sidewalks, driveways, and streets, to an integrated approach incorporating resilient “green” infrastructure systems.

Potential projects described in the plan, treating approximately 2,400 acres of land, represent an estimated combined cost of $126 million, including design, construction, and operations and maintenance.

The plan demonstrates San Jose’s long-term commitment to meeting regulatory requirements by implementing GSI to reduce polluted stormwater entering waterways via its storm sewer system.

The multidisciplinary approach of GSI uses soil, plants, and pervious surfaces to capture, treat, infiltrate, and/or reuse stormwater runoff. GSI provides multiple benefits, including improved water quality, reduced localized flooding, potable water conservation, increased groundwater recharge, reduced urban heat island effect, and public space beautification. GSI can integrate with building and roadway design, complete streets, drainage infrastructure, urban forestry, soil conservation, and landscaping.

Under a Master Serves Agreement (MSA), a local team of Brown and Caldwell, Lotus Water, and Paradigm Environmental will provide a diverse range of services to implement the GSI Plan. Tasks include program management, regulatory support, cost and budget analysis, stakeholder outreach, and multidisciplinary engineering and construction administration on numerous projects.

“Our team looks forward to bringing our experience of multi-benefit green infrastructure projects to help the City achieve their vision in the most sustainable, cost-effective way possible.”
Brown and Caldwell Contract Manager Marc Nakamoto

The first service order under the MSA was executed in late August. Next steps of the GSI Plan implementation include evaluating the feasibility of near-term regional stormwater capture and green streets projects and laying the foundation for successful project implementation over the next five years.

About Brown and Caldwell
Headquartered in Walnut Creek, Calif., Brown and Caldwell is a full-service environmental engineering and construction firm with 52 offices and 1,700 professionals across North America and the Pacific. For more than 70 years, our creative solutions have helped municipalities, private industry, and government agencies successfully overcome their most challenging water and environmental obstacles. As an employee-owned company, Brown and Caldwell is passionate about exceeding our clients’ expectations and making a difference for our employees, our communities, and our environment. For more information, visit www.brownandcaldwell.com

About Lotus Water
Lotus Water is a full-service civil engineering consulting firm based in San Francisco, CA. Our team of passionate professionals specializes in sustainable resource management and water-sensitive urban design that is rooted in the belief that traditional engineered systems are most effective when balanced with solutions that restore natural processes, optimize water reuse, and incorporate community insight and priorities. Since 2007, Lotus has been on the leading edge of providing green infrastructure and non-potable reuse guidance for municipalities, agencies, and private entities, developing innovative street-, site-, and district-scale solutions that deliver multiple benefits to the client, the community, and the environment. For more information, visit www.lotuswater.com.

About Paradigm Environmental
Paradigm Environmental is a small business consulting firm that specializes in watershed management and planning, water resources management, water quality assessments, sustainable stormwater planning and engineering, and the development of decision support and tracking applications. Our water resources expertise is sought internationally for innovative solutions to water quality impairments, engineering challenges and regulatory pressures. Paradigm’s innovative approach to watershed and stormwater planning leverages cutting-edge, open-source tools such as continuous simulation modeling, genetic optimization, statistical analysis, geoprocessing, and cloud computing. We have led numerous ground-breaking, first-of-their-kind projects using interdisciplinary expertise including engineers, hydrologists, environmental scientists, biologists, and programmers. We excel at data storage, mapping, and visualization including development of dynamic dashboards to analyze and communicate complex datasets. We pride ourselves on rapid turnaround, high-quality deliverables that are on-message and aligned with our clients’ programs. Our reputation and highly-specialized expertise have led us to projects around the globe. For more information, visit www.paradigmh20.com.