Imagine A Day Without Water

2020 has been quite a year – we’re in the midst of a global public health crisis from the coronavirus pandemic, which has highlighted the critical role that water and wastewater systems play in our communities to protect public health, safeguard the environment, and make a healthy economy possible.

Today, we Imagine a Day Without Water.

It’s a day to pause and notice the way that water systems impact our lives and communities, and commit to ensuring a sustainable water future for generations to come.

Lotus recognizes how essential water is for our communities to thrive and is committed to working toward a future that ensures all people have access to clean, safe, reliable, and affordable water.  Our philosophy is rooted in the belief that traditional engineered systems are most effective when integrated with innovative solutions that restore natural processes, optimize water reuse, and incorporate community insight and priorities to balance environmental, social, and economic benefits. Together with project partners, such as the SFPUC and King County, Lotus carefully considers potential equity and environmental justice impacts throughout our capital planning, project, and policy development process. Through this collaborative triple bottom line approach, Lotus is engineering solutions for a better environment while building stronger, more resilient communities.

We can all use our voices to speak up in support of water infrastructure by voting.

For many of us, this is the most important election of our lifetimes. It is increasingly imperative that we hold our elected officials accountable for addressing the climate crisis, fixing our failing infrastructure, prioritizing safe drinking water for all, and protecting water for future generations. Below are some resources about candidate views on water issues and information on how the voting process might be different this year.

• Election 2020 - How to Vote | state-specific voting information (Washington Post)

• Scorecard for the 116th Congress | shows how your elected officials voted on key water + environmental legislation (Clean Water Action)

• Trump’s & Biden’s Plans for the Environment | comparison of presidential candidates (NPR)

• Water on the Ballot | past + present ballot measures by year + state (Ballotpedia)

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FEATURED PROJECTS

A Playground With A View!

The McLaren Park Playground and Group Picnic Area is nearly complete! Lotus Water staff performed the final site inspection in early August on this important community project within San Francisco’s second largest park. The project, led by CMG Landscape Architecture, includes a new nature-inspired playground that is centered around a 20-foot tall climbing tower that will give kids amazing views as they play. It also includes accessibility and landscape improvements, native plants, as well as new stormwater management features such as permeable pavement and infiltration galleries. Estimated to be complete in the next 1-2 months, the project will add a valuable outdoor amenity envisioned to reenergize this area of the park and its surrounding communities.

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Back to School

In alignment with Lotus’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, Lotus is partnering with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) by participating in its community benefits program. The program’s purpose is to be a “good neighbor” to communities that are impacted by SFPUC facilities and operations. Through the program, Lotus endeavors to give back to these communities through volunteer work and donations.

One of the ways Lotus gives back is by applying its technical and environmental expertise to support the development of STEM curriculums and green schoolyards in San Francisco public schools, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School, Bret Harte Elementary School, Leonard Flynn Elementary School, and McKinley Elementary School.

At Leonard Flynn Elementary, Lotus staff coordinated field trips to the Mission Science Workshop, where students of all grades do hands-on science lessons and experiments ranging from dissecting squid to building circuits. Other volunteer acitivites include bringing tadpoles to Flynn’s second grade classrooms and support the students and teachers in caring for them while students learn about their lifecycle and observe their metamorphosis into frogs. Lotus also organized a workday to reactivate Flynn’s rainwater cistern, by installing piping to bring captured rainwater to irrigate the school’s garden.

To read more about our community benefit work, check out this post on volunteering at Literacy for Environmental Justice in Southeast San Francisco.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat...and WATER!

CAUTION!

sous-chefs @ work

You know what they say about company culture:

“A team that okonomiyakis together, stays together. ”

Joking aside, Lotus Water fully embraced the spirit of okonomi (“what you like”) and yaki (cooked”), by taking time to enjoy each other’s company, learning some tasty new culinary skills, and celebrating a successful 2019 with a home(office)-cooked meal with the folks at 18 Reasons.

The cooking class and menu were collectively chosen by Team Lotus as our company’s annual holiday event. Everyone had a blast in the kitchen, from mandolining carrots, searing pork belly, flipping okonomiyaki pancakes, to whipping up matcha soufflés…and of course EATING with each other and looking forward to another big year in 2020!

Want to put on your chef’s toque? Menu + recipes here!

Another GI Plan in the Books!

As part of its obligations to regulate stormwater runoff pollutants under NPDES MS4 Phase I requirements, the City of Menlo Park has adopted a Green Infrastructure Plan for Stormwater (GI Plan) that demonstrates a shift from traditional “gray” infrastructure, which channels untreated runoff directly into San Francisco Bay, to a more resilient and sustainable stormwater system that integrates “green” infrastructure strategies. Along with its teaming partners, Lotus helped establish how source control, redevelopment requirements (C.3), green streets, regional capture projects, LID retrofits, and additional City policies can collectively combine to meet runoff capture targets cost-effectively. Dive into the complete document here.

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Half Dome Village vs Camp Curry...?

Ahead of the restoration of historic National Park Service placenames, Team Lotus hit up Yosemite in July for its 2019 Leadership Retreat, using the 12-hour out-and-back trek up Half Dome as an opportunity to bond, conquer some serious vertigo, appreciate some of California's natural beauty, and reaffirm company culture + business strategy goals.

SJ Green Stormwater Infrastructure Goes Public

The City of San José has published a Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Plan that lays out the approach, strategies, targets, and tasks needed to transition traditional “gray” infrastructure to include GSI over the long term. Lotus Water was integral in developing the plan, which serves as an implementation guide for institutionalizing the concepts of GSI into standard municipal engineering, construction, and maintenance practices. As California’s weather becomes increasingly unpredictable and extreme, GSI strategies can provide the City with enhanced climate resiliency, local water supplies, and energy savings, consistent with the City’s sustainability goals. The GSI Plan is available here for public review and comment until May 15 - take a peek and share your thoughts!

Green Thumbs + Green Nodes for Visitacion Valley

Under sunny skies, community members and local officials gathered Saturday to celebrate the reopening of the newly spruced up McLaren Community Garden, which features a series of rain gardens designed by Lotus as part of the SFPUC’s Visitacion Valley Green Nodes project. The new green infrastructure will manage 800,000 gallons of stormwater each year from approximately 1.5 acres of impervious surface, while providing a pedestrian and habitat connection to McLaren Park from Leland Avenue. “I am thrilled to see the community and environmental improvement projects at McLaren Park,” said Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). “We are lucky this year to have gotten so much rain, but that’s not always the case. The new rain garden will help us to reuse hundreds of thousands of gallons of rainwater each year. We need more projects like these that bring benefits to local communities while helping advance our broader environmental goals.” The ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by community yoga, gardening activities, and a walking tour of the rain gardens where community members were able to see the bioretention areas in action after the rainy week. Attendees also learned about how the City is implementing green infrastructure through capital projects, programs, and grants to sustainably manage stormwater. Read more about the Visitacion Valley Green Nodes here!

Lotus Water Gets a Makeover

It’s been an exciting few months here at Lotus Water - new space, new hires, new projects, new logo, and now a new…

…website!

We wanted to update our look to capture the energy of the growing Lotus team and portfolio, with new features like our staff bios and news updates about what we’re up to, both in and outside the office.

We hope you stay awhile to look around, and be sure to check back for the latest in Lotus news!

Have ideas or feedback to share?

New GI Grant Program is a HIT!

The SFPUC GI Grant Program has launched!  Lotus helped developed the program and will be providing ongoing technical support during implementation.  The first public workshop about the program sold out with over 100 attendees, and the first applicant has already submitted!  The SFPUC aims to award $6M in GI grants during the first two years of the program, with up to $2M max per project. Learn more about the program and how a grant could benefit you!

What the SWRP?

Lotus recently helped complete the Stormwater Resources Plan (SWRP) for Santa Clara County.  The Plan identifies and prioritizes green stormwater infrastructure throughout the County.  As part of the project, Lotus developed concept designs of several promising opportunities. The project website is here and the SWRP report can be downloaded here.

SF Chronicle Features Civic Center Public Realm Plan

conceptual rendering (image credit: CMG)

Lotus has been working on developing sustainable water systems for the Civic Center District area since 2014. More recently, we were on CMG’s team to assist them with developing a comprehensive plan for the public realm area of the Civic Center Plaza, Fulton Street, UN Plaza, garage/Brooks Hall, and adjacent streets. Our piece of this plan included over 100 iterations of complex water balance analyses!

Read more about the this ongoing plan in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Holidays @660 Mission

Taking advantage of our wonderful new shared space, Lotus celebrated our first holiday season at 660 Mission with our friends and neighbors at SITELAB. After a hard day’s work, everyone was treated to a Winter Wonderland-themed happy hour, complete with a lively white elephant gift exchange that went into extra innings, fueled by the office’s creative spirit...along with a tasty, Spiked Cocoa Bar featuring a homemade hot chocolate recipe!

Award for Holloway Green Street

The EPA recently awarded the Holloway Avenue Green Street Project with an Honorable Mention as part of its 2018 Performance and Innovation in the State Revolving Fund Creating Environmental Success (PISCES) program. The project (also referred to as the Lake Merced Green Infrastructure project) is located within the Ingleside Neighborhood and is one of eight SFPUC Early Implementation Projects that have been constructed or are currently being constructed as part of Sewer System Improvement Program. Completed in 2017, the project converts a nine-block stretch of an urban residential street and important bike route into a high-performing green street that also provides pedestrian and bike safety improvements. Parking lanes were reconstructed with pervious concrete pavement to manage roadway runoff and bioretention was incorporated into new corner bulbouts and sidewalk planters to manage sidewalk runoff while also adding greenery along the corridor. The new green infrastructure measures will remove approximately 1 million gallons of stormwater each year from the City’s combined sewer system.

Lotus Water led the planning, stormwater modeling and preliminary design of this project. Additionally, we are providing post-construction performance monitoring and analysis and performing maintenance inspections.

Read more about the PISCES award here!

New Kids On The Block

What do you get when you mix great people who share a passion for engineering innovation, collaborative design, sustainability, and add a splash of water? Welcome to 660 Mission, Lotus’ new 4,700 square-foot home and office space shared with SITELAB Urban Studio in San Francisco’s dynamic SOMA neighborhood.

The two firms celebrated our new space with an Open House in October with friends, colleagues, and clients. We delighted our guests with a gourmet spread from Oakland’s Roux and Vine, sweet treats from Churn Urban Creamery, and craft brews from Black Hammer, including the limited release Sea Puppy created in homage to the Embarcadero Sea Wall.

We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces and are loving our new digs!

LEJ Volunteer Day!

Lotus had the privilege of volunteering at Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), a non-profit dedicated to promoting ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco.  LEJ works to create urban greening, eco-literacy, community stewardship, and workforce development opportunities that directly engage and support local residents in securing a healthier future. Team Lotus got our hands dirty (literally!) in their native plant nursery by moving soil, cleaning seeds, and transplanting baby plants to replenish native plant stock for restoration projects in Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (CPSRA).  The team had a blast getting outdoors and rolling up our sleeves to contribute back to our community!

Green Infrastructure Scores at WEFTEC

image credit: Mullenix

image credit: WEF

WEFTEC (Water Environment Federation's Technical Exhibition and Conference) is recognized as the largest conference of its kind in North America and offers water quality professionals from around the world with innovative water quality education and training. With the host city’s bustling French Quarter as a backdrop, Lotus’ Robert Dusenbury, along with the former King County Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Program Manager John Phillips, were selected to present on a new Green Infrastructure (GI) Project Scorecard developed collaboratively by Lotus Water, Herrera, and EcoNorthwest. The scorecard evaluates GI projects to determine when investment in GI is an appropriate part of the solution within a particular CSO basin. Over 100 project characteristics can be entered and evaluated to first determine the cost-benefit ratio of a GI project alternative compared against the baseline grey alternative within each basin, then both quantitative and qualitative additional benefits are stacked on top of that baseline comparison to determine when a GI concept should be carried forward for further development and evaluation. The framework of the tool is flexible and can be adapted to the priorities and values of other areas to comprehensively evaluate sustainable infrastructure in areas with complex environmental, cultural, and resiliency priorities like New Orleans.