Low Impact Development

Using principals centuries-old, civil engineering is changing quickly. For the past 100-years or so, civil engineers have designed public works to be as efficient as possible. This usually meant designing communities with concrete pipes, gutters, and channels mainly from concrete. Why? Because it was the most hydraulically efficient way to carry stormwater away from development. But when the channel, pipe or roadway ended – the stormwater met the soil and erosion often occurred because the water had to be slowed (the energy nad to be dissipated). Or put another way, the flow had to be made inefficient.

EPA Releases Storm Water Calculator Tool

by DanBiggs | February 13, 2015 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Rancho Bernardo, CA Today it was announced that the Environmental Protection Agency is releasing a new software toolkit for use in evaluating weather changes due to climate change based upon projections of an intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It is not...

Our SLIP Design Process

by DanBiggs | March 10, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

We are often asked by design-teams "what's different about designing for low environmental impact projects"? The answer is that we "SLIP" a couple of things into the normal process. SLIP refers to a "Sensitive Low Impact Project". Low-Impact development is simply...

San Diego County Gets Final Model BMP Design Manual

by DanBiggs | August 6, 2015 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Rancho Bernardo, CA Ever since the Region 9 Water Bard passed the new Storm Water Rule of 2013, it has been a "wait and see" situation for many site design professionals. With the release of the June 2015 "Final Draft" ... we now can see how all of the Cities in San...

26 Acre Truck Transport Facility

by DanBiggs | February 12, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering has been selected to design the grading and improvements for a 26-acre trucking facility in Otay Mesa, CA. The facility known as a Truck Transport Facility is used to transfer freight trailers from Mexican trucking companies to US...

New office in Colorado Springs

by DanBiggs | January 27, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering (EWW) announced the opening of an office in Colorado Springs today. The office will be in a new office building north of the downtown area. The plans are to offer a menu of services to support local civil engineers and architect...

ASFPM Issues Flooding Resilience Paper

by DanBiggs | February 14, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering frequently performs floodplain civil engineering work. Our founder, Dan Biggs is a Certified Floodplain Manager (a national certification) so we closely follow changes to regulations and policies of urban flooding. Recently the...

Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure

by DanBiggs | October 21, 2016 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Rancho Bernardo, CA Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering has accepted an invitation to join the national effort by civil engineers to meet the challenges of designing more environmentally sustaining project. The organization behind this effort is called the Institute...

Our COVID-19 Response

by DanBiggs | March 18, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

We are in the middle of an epidemic that is unprecedented. Our hearts go out to all who are affected by the disease, the work stoppages, and the generally high level of stress it is causing around the country. In response to the government's request for isolation,...

New Project Engagement in Del Mar, CA

by DanBiggs | August 6, 2015 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Rancho Bernardo, CA EARTH WIND WATER Civil Engineering is very pleased to have been chosen to work with well-known Architect Allan Teta and Landscape Architect Brian Grove on a complex project in Del Mar, CA. The project is taking a "ranch style" home on a large lot...

Integration of “Zoom” for Virtual Meetings

by DanBiggs | March 25, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

It is unfortunate that it took an emergency like the Covid-19 pandemic to bring about this change, but because of it Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering is announcing that effective immediately, we have fully integrated the ZOOM remote meeting conferencing system...

36 Acre Truck Parking Facility is Designed

by DanBiggs | March 5, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering has completed the design of a large light industrial park near San Diego's Brown Field, cargo airport. Similar to many of our previous projects in this area (called Otay Mesa) the transportation facility will meet a need created by...

City of San Diego Development Services Department Releases new Forms for Stormwater Infiltration

by DanBiggs | March 11, 2018 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

As a part of the recently released PDP SWQMP template, the City has issued new forms that must now be used in the evaluation of a site for infiltration. These forms are in the "I Group" and deal with various evaluations of the site's infiltration...

City of San Diego Publishes New Template for PDP SWQMPs

by DanBiggs | March 11, 2018 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Late in February 2018, the City of San Diego posted a new template which must be used when preparing Storm Water Quality Management Plans for Priority Developments in the City of San Diego. The template contains much of the same information as before but...

Site Development Visualization

by DanBiggs | February 26, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

We are often asked ... Why do you offer a service to do "visualizations" of engineering projects? It's a fair question. And the answer is not based on high-technology or anything like that. It is because all decision-makers who approve civil engineering projects (no...

Rapid Project Previews

by DanBiggs | March 30, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News, Uncategorized | 0 Comments

For decades as we have worked with Architects, Developers and Engineers, they have asked for a "quick and dirty" idea of what their planned project would look like on this or that piece of property. After privately rolling our eyes, we would begin the process of...

New Project Engagement in La Jolla, CA

by DanBiggs | February 7, 2015 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Rancho Bernardo, CA EARTH WIND WATER Civil Engineering has been selected to provide site engineering and application processing for an amazing custom home in the La Jolla Shores area of La Jolla, CA. La Jolla is a world renowned location for its many...

Earth Wind Water Completes Urban Infill Project

by DanBiggs | February 15, 2020 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Even though we have completed almost 100 water quality projects in San Diego, it is still satisfying to reach approval on the design of another one. Our most recent project, a 14 unit apartment "in-fill-project" located in eastern San Diego. The project was designed...

Earth Wind Water Engineering Staff to Sit on Stormwater Task Force

by DanBiggs | March 11, 2018 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

In January 2018, the Building Industry Association of San Diego (BIA) requested that Dan S. Biggs (principal engineer at Earth Wind Water Civil Engineering) continue to serve on the Industry advisory task force for stormwater regulations. The BIA is very active in...

New Project Engagement in Alpine, CA

by DanBiggs | February 7, 2015 | Construction Pollution Prevention News, Development Design News, Earth Wind Water Design News, Floodplain Engineering News, Low Impact Development News, Regulations, Stormwater Quality News | 0 Comments

Rancho Bernardo, CA EARTH WIND WATER Civil Engineering is pleased to announce that we have been chosen to design a unique 11 lot planned development nestled in the Alpine area of San Diego County. The project will feature single family lots served from an...