As FSSD’s Senior Environmental Engineer, Corwin ensures that the water discharged to the Suisun Marsh and Bay Area is clean, and she uses innovative nature-based infrastructure to benefit the region’s ecology and make it more resilient to climate change.
Additionally, Corwin leads the Solano Stormwater Alliance, where she stewards a network of wastewater stakeholders to ensure that Solano County meets the requirements of pollutant discharge issued by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board. She is also a member of the Solano Bayshore Resiliency Roundtable, which coordinates a county-wide effort around sea level rise.
Emily became interested in water management while experiencing the power of water, rafting the Grand Canyon as a teenager. Eventually, her hydrology studies evolved into environmental engineering, and she began to implement green infrastructure in her watershed projects. It was when Corwin came to FSSD that she fully enabled her nature-based approach to environmental engineering.
Prior to FSSD, Corwin worked for Conservation International where she found that “…if you had local champions, ideally in government, who could be not only advocates but also stewards of projects and work to carry them through…if you didn’t have that, no go, you just weren’t going to get very far. That was part of my motivation to leave that work and take the job at FSSD because we have incredibly enabling leadership, and I felt like I could be a steward of these projects and work with partners to make them happen.”
“My hope for the Suisun area is that we optimize these green-gray infrastructure solutions and have enabled the adaptation of the marsh and our infrastructure to be resilient in the future,” says Corwin.
FSSD is working to increase the sustainability and resilience of its own practices through the Resilient & Green Master Plan, an initiative to improve water drainage surrounding the plant and demonstrate how wastewater centers can provide environmental benefits.
Both FSSD and Corwin have an essential role in ensuring the protection and resilience of Solano County’s water supplies, ecosystems, and communities.
Emily Corwin is also Greenbelt Alliance’s Hidden Hero of the Greenbelt recognized for planning for climate change resilience. Click here to watch her short documentary.