The Curtis Pond Restoration in the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison Arboretum was the final phase in a 20-year ecological restoration journey to rehabilitate seven wet detention basins constructed between 1969 and 1985. These basins were constructed prior to mandated stormwater quality and quantity regulations and had reached the end of their useful life in the early 2000s. Stormwater management techniques, including flume replacement with 100-year storm sewer pipe and overland flow route, an upstream hydrodynamic separator (sand and trash collector), clay liner for groundwater protection, invasive species management with low ground bearing pressure excavation equipment, trenchless rehabilitation of the 36-inch corrugated metal pipe draining to an adjacent pond, restoration of a stream crossing, and native buffer restoration, were used to re-establish Curtis Pond as a critical piece of stormwater infrastructure.

This project was recognized as an American Public Works Association of Wisconsin Project of the Year in the Environment, less than $5 million, category.