On June 3rd, 2008, at Alden Labs, a group of industry leaders put aside their competitive nature for a day to help establish the Stormwater Equipment Manufacturers Association (SWEMA). This association is a landmark event for the water quality industry, and environmental issues that affect our most precious resource - water!

This day was envisioned initially by John Moll of CrystalStream Technologies, but he was quickly joined by many others who had felt the need for such an association, but had not yet taken the steps to make such a meeting a reality. The new association is anchored by the following companies: AquaShield Inc., Best Management Products, Inc. (The Snout), Bio-Clean Environmental Services, Inc., BaySaver, Inc., Contech Stormwater Soultions, CrystalStream Technologies, Cul-Tech, Inc., Environment 21, LLC, Hydro International, KriStar Enterprises, Inc., Imbrium Systems Corporation (Stormceptor), Rinker Materials, Royal Environmental Systems, Inc., StormTech, LLC, StormTrap, LLC, and UltraTech International, Inc. The founders will be presenting their association to others to join as charter members at StormCon 2008 in Orlando.

The group viewed Alden Laboratories as the perfect "neutral" territory for an initial meeting, based on the decades of professional and unbiased testing and assessment of flow based technologies. If was only fitting that this historical event be held on the grounds of such a historically important facility such as Alden Labs.

The next meeting will be held at StormCon 2008 in Orlando, Florida on August 6th, 2008. The Executive Committee will be meeting from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Chicago Room at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort, but the doors will be opening at 7 p.m. for anyone interested in becoming an Associate or Charter member. All are welcome.