Pilot projects: Stormwater quality, community project

We fund pilot projects for initiatives that can potentially allow a community to remove 60% of total suspended solids (TSS) or a significant amount of other contaminants (e.g., E.coli, salt, grease) from its stormwater runoff. This funding helps Canadian cities and communities of all sizes protect local bodies of water through stormwater treatment.

Pilot projects assess solutions in real-life conditions. They evaluate either a small-scale version of a project or a full-scale, replicable version. 

Your pilot project may compare several options or assess one option’s ability to capture and treat stormwater runoff. You should aim to remove 60% of TSS, or a significant amount of other contaminants such as E.coli, salt or grease, from a neighbourhood’s stormwater runoff using a new build or retrofit solution. The amount to be removed from ‘other contaminants’ will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Your pilot should assess whether the project meets the necessary requirements (e.g., financial, technical), has a solid business case and the ability to deliver strong environmental, financial and social benefits directly to your community or through replication in other municipalities. Your project’s outcomes should help you decide whether to scale up the use of the solution you are piloting.

This initiative should involve several properties or sites. We encourage you to pilot low-impact solutions that engage and involve local residents. This funding is intended for community-run initiatives.

Examples of what you might pilot:

• Permeable pavement 
• Bioretention planters
• Prevention or treatment of contaminants associated with road salt
• Swales, retention ponds, infiltration techniques
• Catch basin inserts (e.g., sediment and grit-settling filters)

Target

Your project must aim to remove 60% of TSS from a neighbourhood’s stormwater runoff. The target amount to be removed from ‘other contaminants’ will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

What we’re looking to fund

FCM funds pilot projects that demonstrate most of the following characteristics:

• Transformative potential: The pilot project test solutions (e.g., knowledge, practices, technologies) that are beyond business-as-usual. The pilot project:
  • Is likely to result in a project that demonstrates significant performance improvements (e.g., improved levels of service, cost savings, energy efficiency, increased resiliency, environmental protection, improved human health)
  • Is audacious in that it requires a municipality to take on uncertainty over known best practices to achieve greater environmental benefits
  • Is designed to build the capacity of key stakeholders (e.g., municipal staff, elected officials, local trades)
  • Has the potential to generate new knowledge for the sector
  • Has a high likelihood of being replicated if successful

• Significant impacts: The project has the potential, at full scale, to generate significant measurable environmental results as well as economic and social benefits.
• Strong implementation framework: The project plan is robust and includes appropriate stakeholder engagement, planning, risk management and resourcing.

How to apply