The Aqua Jacks Team is evaluating the feasibility of stormwater capacity and stabilization within the Smokerise neighborhood of Flagstaff, Arizona.

An evaluation of the surrounding watershed runoff with seasonal rainfall and snow melt will be conducted against existing infrastructure to identify preliminary design alternatives. Designed improvements through hydraulic, hydrological analyses will comply with appropriate local, state, and federal regulations.

Improvements in the Smokerise neighborhood should mitigate preventable flooding risks and long-term stormwater goals for the City of Flagstaff.

Stormwater currently enters the neighborhood through culverts crossing the US-89 from Penstock Wash. Smokerise in our project focus area relies moderately on surface street runoff capacity to funnel into the existing, concrete open channel of the neighborhood.

Agua Jacks is focusing their project work on the area closest to the U.S. Forest Service municipal building where hydraulic and hydrologic improvements can be made. This project focus works best for the team when taking into consideration semester time limitations. 

The Aqua Jacks Team was constrained in this project through regulatory, economic, environmental, health & safety, and resource constraints.​ Through these constraints, the team found a balance in what needed to prioritized, or set aside due to limitations.
Balancing these constraints helped the team identify that the project would be limited in scope to a feasibility-level evaluation.

Regulatory and economic factors weighed heavily into the constraints. Regulations from the City of Flagstaff would require the team to create a design that was satisfactory. Health, safety, and environment are items that are protected through these regulations. Economically, the design would need to be low-cost. Public projects typically need to be low-cost whilst improving the area.

The technical abilities and resources the team had on hand were not adequate enough to create a fully realized design. Technical considerations that the team would not be able to complete in a timely manner included soil testing, land acquisition, community outreach, and permitting.