Stormy Weather and Stormwater Impacts - MSU Center for Water ...

Summary of the Workshops
All materials from the workshops are available online at
http://www.cws.msu.edu/stormwater.htm. The materials include webcasts of the public
seminar, slides from the presentations, white papers by the speakers, links to resources,
and all products from the series. Below we provide a brief summary of the six
workshops.
1. Climate Change, Stormwater and Michigan
Dr. Alan Steinman, Director of Grand Valley State’s Annis Water Research Institute
began the workshop series with an overview of stormwater issues in Michigan. Like the
rest of the country, many streams and rivers in Michigan are experiencing the “urban
stream syndrome” due to stormwater impacts (Table 1). This syndrome is typical of
waterbodies in urban areas with high amounts of impervious cover.
Dr. Steinman also presented information on the relationship between stormwater and
climate change in Michigan. He spoke about several studies that have examined
potential impacts. Climate model projections for the southern Wisconsin region show
that extreme high precipitation events will become 10 to 40% stronger (Patz et al. 2008).
In the Great Lakes region, precipitation events of greater than 2 to 2.5 in (5‐6 cm) often
result in stormwater discharge of contaminants into water bodies (McLellan et al. 2007).
The analysis by Patz et al. (2008) revealed that the frequency of events exceeding the 2
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