Three-Quarters of a Trillion Gallons of Stormwater Washes Away Annually in California

A lack of infrastructure to capture stormwater in California leads to nearly 740 billion gallons washing out to sea every year, according to a newly released report. Authored by the Pacific Institute, a nonprofit water think tank headquartered in Oakland, California, in collaboration with 2ndNature, a stormwater management software company based in Santa Cruz, the Feb. 29 report quantified the amount of stormwater runoff in urban areas nationwide. The researchers included rainfall on roofs, roads, and other urban areas in their estimate but did not count rainwater that percolates into the ground or enters streams and waterways without contacting hard surfaces. The report found approximately 59.5 million acre-feet—one acre-foot equals around 326,000 gallons—per year of urban stormwater runoff across the country. Such is equivalent to about 53 billion gallons per day....