Stormwater Management
Olaunu plans, designs, and helps implement stormwater systems that keep pollution out of the ocean and waterways. The work covers green stormwater infrastructure, MS4 permit compliance, Low Impact Development, stormwater capture and use, credit and trading programs, and training. Clients are municipalities, public agencies, and private developers, mostly in California.
What does a stormwater management consultant do?
A stormwater consultant works out where rainfall runoff goes, what it carries with it, and how to stop the pollutants reaching receiving waters. In practice that means permit compliance, planning, design, and training.
Olaunu covers all four. The firm's integrated model spans education, research, planning, design, and implementation, so a project does not change hands between four vendors as it moves from a watershed plan to a built bioswale.
MS4 permit assistance and program development
Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permits set what a municipality has to monitor, report, and build. Olaunu supports permit compliance, program development, and the annual reporting that goes with it, including Water Quality Management Plans and watershed and integrated water planning.
Daniel Apt is a former Chair of the California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA) and co-founder and co-lead of the Stormwater Credit Think Tank, so permit and credit-program work is the firm's core ground, not an adjacent service.
Green stormwater infrastructure and Low Impact Development
Green stormwater infrastructure treats runoff where it lands: bioswales, biofiltration, permeable surfaces, and capture-and-use systems. Low Impact Development (LID) applies the same principle at the site scale, designing a development so it holds and treats its own water.
Olaunu develops sustainable, practical, and functional designs that are tailored to site conditions and constraints while achieving the goals and criteria of a project or plan.
Who does this work
- Daniel Apt, President – San Clemente, Ca (Trestles)
- Tom Bonigut, Principal/Senior Engineer – Sonoma, Ca
- Mary Vondrak, Project Manager – San Clemente, Ca (Trestles)
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Frequently asked questions
What is an MS4 permit?
An MS4 permit is the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit that governs a municipality's storm sewer system. It sets the monitoring, reporting, public education, and construction requirements a city must meet to discharge stormwater legally.
What is Low Impact Development?
Low Impact Development is a site design approach that manages rainfall where it falls, using infiltration, filtration, storage, and reuse instead of piping runoff away. It reduces both the volume and the pollutant load reaching receiving waters.
What is a stormwater credit program?
A stormwater credit or trading program lets one party fund or build stormwater capture beyond its own requirement and transfer the surplus to another party. It concentrates investment where treatment is cheapest and most effective across a watershed.