Webinar – Retrofitting the Urban Landscape for Water Quality
WHEN: April 16, 2026, at 1 PM ET
SPEAKER: Annie Sales, Illinois River Watershed Partnership Director of Restoration Services, and Chris Herrera, Stormwater Coordinator for the City of Springdale
REGISTRATION: Webinar Registration – Zoom
Most urban stormwater infrastructure was designed to move water away quickly, not to protect downstream water quality. In highly impervious cities, this has resulted in polluted runoff, unstable streams, and missed opportunities to support healthier ecosystems and communities. Improving outcomes does not require rebuilding urban stormwater systems from the ground up, but rather reimagining how existing infrastructure and green spaces function as a connected stormwater network.
Presented by Annie Sales of the Illinois River Watershed Partnership and Chris Herrera, Stormwater Coordinator for the City of Springdale, this webinar focuses on practical retrofit strategies that can be integrated into built urban environments. Topics include diverting downspouts into landscaping, converting parking islands into rain gardens, retrofitting detention and retention ponds, naturalizing stream corridors, and restoring floodplains. Case examples include rain gardens at Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park, the Apple Orchard neighborhood detention pond retrofit, Spring Creek naturalization in downtown Springdale, and the Blossom Way floodplain and creek restoration in Rogers. Together, these projects demonstrate how incremental, distributed retrofits across public and private lands can reduce pollutant loads while also providing habitat, urban cooling, and more functional, attractive public spaces.
In addition to design considerations, the presenters will discuss how projects move from concept to construction, including regulatory drivers, partnerships between municipalities and watershed organizations, funding and phasing, and long-term maintenance. The municipal perspective highlights how green infrastructure retrofits can meet water quality goals while fitting within existing operations and budgets.
While no single practice is sufficient, a coordinated network of green infrastructure retrofits can deliver meaningful water quality improvements alongside lasting social and ecological benefits.
