As a result, Wasley and his team tried to look at how UWM could be equipped in order to slow down that process and keep more of the storm water on campus.

Plans for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukees Sandburg Hall over the summer include adding a green roof to the top of its commons. If James Wasley, an associate professor of architecture, has his way, the rest of the campus will follow.

Wasley spearheaded a report submitted to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District called, UWM as a Zero-Discharge Zone: A Stormwater Masterplan for the UWM Campus. The interdisciplinary report received contributions from civil engineering, biological sciences, geosciences and visual art faculty and students.

Green roofs are roofs that are composed of a system of living plants, which allows for storm water to be absorbed into a small, isolated ecosystem.

The idea for the project stems from how the UWM campus lies on the land. Theres a natural curvature to the land, Wasley says, that allows storm water to flow to the edges of campus. But UWMs drain pipes are separated from those of the MMSD, allowing the campus the opportunity to use storm water that has not been mixed with sewage water.

According to Wasley, the sewage process creates this opportunity. The initial flow of storm water into the drainage system often creates a spike at the beginning that can slow down the process. That, he says, can lead to overflows and flooding in the streets.

It is in the heart of an urban university, Wasley says.

But if UWM could function like a natural forest “ by slowing down the storm water and keeping the water at UWM “ it could lead to benefits trickled throughout the system.

As a result, Wasley and his team tried to look at how UWM could be equipped in order to slow down that process and keep more of the storm water on campus.

We needed to see if we could design our way out of a problem, Wasley says. This is very ambitious stuff.

If the research was implemented, he explains, Sandburg Hall, Golda Meir Library, the Union and most of the other buildings on campus would be transformed into green roof buildings.

We havent made the water go away, weve just slowed it down, he says.

Its tough to plan it, he says, because nearly half of the UWM campus is composed of impervious surface, either parking lots, sidewalks or some other surface.

The project also calls for implementing a planter bench along the outside of the Hartford Avenue School along Maryland Avenue. This would help catch storm water from one of the biggest impervious surfaces on campus, the elementary school.

The project was submitted for funding through the Research Growth Initiative, but was not picked for seed funding. Had it been, that money would have gone to monitor how the green roof on Sandburg Hall fared, Wasley says.

In some ways its a question of how much student interest and activism there is and a question of how much regulation is coming down from the state, Wasley explains.

That combination would help to see the project come to fruition, he says.

Wasley and his team applied for a national watershed grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The team will hear if they received a grant in May. If they do, it would infuse the project with just under $1 million.

Wasley would like to see the plans implemented even if there is no funding for the project. Doing so, he says, it would make the campus more environmentally sustainable.

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