It is quite an honor for me to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board for Stormwater magazine, and I hope to live up to the editors’ and readers’ expectations. I would like to introduce myself to the readers. For the last 10 years I have served as an engineer for the Brevard County, FL, Stormwater Utility. We were one of the first stormwater utilities in Florida and learned a lot of lessons about this new and unique business, which I will try to pass on to you. I recently retired from Brevard County and have returned to the private consulting world where I spent the first 11 years of my career. I am now employed by Creech Engineers Inc. in Melbourne, FL, where we serve a mixture of municipal and private clients.

We are living in exciting times with many new changes and challenges. These changes are driven by the regulatory requirements of EPA through NPDES and TMDLs and are altering the traditional attitudes of municipalities toward stormwater runoff. While some people might view these rules as onerous unfunded mandates, I prefer to view them as opportunities to create a new paradigm in the way we deal with rainfall.

In a world with shrinking water supplies, it only makes sense to start cleaning and recycling as much of this valuable resource as possible. We are at the dawn of a new age just as we were a few decades ago when we decided to elevate wastewater treatment above primitive septic-tank standards. This time, I believe Americans will rise to the challenge and develop new technologies for stormwater treatment much more rapidly than we did for wastewater. And along the way we will repair much of our decaying infrastructure, reduce many flooding problems, clean our water supplies, increase infiltration to our groundwaters, revitalize impaired wetlands and natural habitats, and clean our recreational waters.

All of this will come at a high price to our citizens and municipalities. Therefore, it will take a high level of salesmanship and education of our politicians to give them the fortitude to make difficult funding decisions. Without the public education and participation components of NPDES, these lofty goals will die on the vine. Our citizens must be convinced that additional funding for these improvements will provide multiple benefits for all of society. Fortunately, EPA and a host of other programs are stepping up to the plate to provide seed money for many municipalities to begin participating in cleaning our waters. In our new information age there are many new tools available to assist our local officials in these challenges they are facing. This is one of the prime goals of this publication, and I am looking forward to assisting in this effort.

Toward that end, Stormwater would like to invite its readers to participate in the online discussion group, StormwaterPro, to ask questions and share the progress of your own programs. Started in September, StormwaterPro is the interactive voice of Stormwater magazine. The editors and Editorial Advisory Board members of Stormwater and other stormwater professionals will do their best to answer your questions on stormwater-related issues or point you toward the resources you need. You can subscribe by sending an e-mail message to stormwaterpro-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or by visiting the Yahoo Groups homepage at http://groups.yahoo.com/ (type "StormwaterPro" in the Search box). From time to time, questions and discussion threads of general interest may be published in the magazine.

Until next time….

Gordon England is a project manager with Creech Engineers Inc. in Melbourne, FL.