Quarter one of 2025 ended with a bang following the release of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. As I am sure most of you have heard, the country received a “C” overall, which is the highest grade ever. Stormwater, which only became its own category on the 2021 report card, earned a “D.” That is the same score the sector received in 2021.
On page 14, I take a deeper dive into the 2025 Report Card. You can also visit wwdmag.com/podcasts to listen to our Talking Under Water episode detailing the grades for stormwater, wastewater and drinking water, and you can visit stormwater.com/videos to watch my interview with Patrick Lach, chair of the 2022 Illinois’ ASCE Report Card and member of the ASCE Committee for America's Infrastructure, where we dive into the stormwater grade in more depth.
Additionally, the beginning of April saw President Trump announcing his tariff plan. On April 2, Trump announced baseline tariffs of 10% on all imports into the United States beginning April 5. Reciprocal tariffs were placed on countries with which the U.S. has significant trade deficit. As of press time, all reciprocal tariffs, originally slated to take effect on April 9, were paused for 90 days except those imposed on China. While the picture is still getting clearer on what this means for the water industry, the tariffs have the potential to impact infrastructure costs, supply chain disruptions, workforce and increased costs for equipment and materials.
A lot of this brings up questions on how the stormwater sector can keep moving forward, which brings me to our 2025 Emerging Leaders. This year, we rebranded our Young Pros program to be Emerging Leaders, which was open to nominations from anyone who is 40 years old and younger or anyone who has been in the industry for less than 10 years. You can read about this year’s five honorees on our website and videos with each of them will be coming in the following weeks. There, you can also read about this year’s Industry Icon, Wayne Miles, assistant director/Stormwater Program manager for Raleigh Stormwater. These six individuals are examples of how the industry is not only innovating itself but also elevating itself. With strong, rising leadership in place, the sector is poised to gain momentum.
You can read the May/June edition here.
Katie Johns
Katie Johns, editor-in-chief of Stormwater Solutions, graduated from the University of Missouri in 2016 with a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. Johns joined the Stormwater Solutions team in September 2019. Johns also helps plan the annual StormCon conference and co-hosts the Talking Under Water podcast. Prior to entering the B2B industry, she worked as a newspaper reporter and editor in Sarasota, Florida, and a magazine assistant editor in the Chicago suburbs. She can be reached at [email protected].
