Governor Tom Wolf’s administration recently announced grant funding for projects in Delaware County in order to further efforts to study, manage and reduce storm water runoff. This funding is coming through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The funding will provide money for three different projects: the Pennsylvania Resources Council, Newton Township and the University. Each group will receive a grant of $332,328 in order to fund innovative techniques to address storm water. 

The University has said that it will allocate $162,896 in Growing Greener funds to use existing storm water facilities on campus to research and evaluate storm water collection and reuse possibilities. Growing Greener is a grant given by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection which uses state funds to address Pennsylvania’s environmental concerns of the twenty-first century. The money for the fund comes from the Environmental Stewardship Fund, which receives its funding from landfill tipping fees. 

The project at the University will be led by Professor Bridget Wadzuk, Ph.D., of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and Professor Ali Ebrahimian, Ph.D., a research professor in the same department. The project is a continuation of the Villanova Urban Storm Water Partnership, which was established in 1998. After a two-decade long relationship with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the University has more than a dozen test sites monitoring storm water in the Storm Water Control Measure Research and Demonstration Park. 

The Storm Water Control Measure Research and Demonstration Park has several types of initiatives such as storm water wetland, porous asphalt and green roofs, which have decreased storm water runoff and assisted in research in the College of Engineering. 

Discussing the allocation of funds for research, “Whether it’s a rain barrel, a garden designed by an engineer, or state of the art research, every effort makes a difference when it comes to storm water. There is no effort too small or ambition too high in addressing one of the biggest challenges facing our urban environments,” Secretary Patrick McDonnell said.