Stormwater management systems — tools that manage rainfall and snowmelt runoff — are more critical now than ever. 

With climate change and infrastructure failures leading to more significant water damage issues, the market for these systems is surging. The growth for stormwater management systems is projected to increase from $19B to nearly $38B by 2032, as cities tighten regulations and adopt more sustainable stormwater practices. 

Rotondo Environmental Solutions, or RES, has been addressing stormwater issues since 2005. The Virginia-based manufacturing company, founded by Rich and John Rotondo, specializes in precast concrete stormwater management products and provides solutions for urban flooding and water quality across commercial, residential and infrastructure projects.

Bisnow spoke with RES President Tony Zeind, a professional engineer, to learn more about the past, present and future of the company, as well as these complex, necessary systems. 

A Beginning In Precast

Before the company started, Rich Rotondo, who worked in precast plants for decades, listened to engineers and contractors who were frustrated by underground detention systems that were hard to install and maintain and rarely designed for real-world field work. 

Zeind, who previously worked with the brothers at their precasting company Rotondo Precast in 2000 before reuniting decades later, said Rich Rotondo didn’t come to the stormwater industry as a disruptor but as a “well-experienced precaster who thought the industry could do better.”

Zeind said Rich Rotondo saw plastic chambers, a common lightweight option for underground storage, winning on price but falling short on long-term durability. Large concrete boxes and vaults, meanwhile, win on strength but typically lose on cost, flexibility and footprint. 

“Between those two extremes, Rich and John believed there had to be a way to provide design engineers the structural confidence that was lacking while giving contractors an efficient and robust precast concrete system that could easily be installed,” he said.

Building StormPod And StormGarden 

In 2008, RES developed a new kind of underground precast arch system, now patented, called StormPod.

The goal was not only to build a stormwater system but also to have the National Precast Concrete Association or Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute-certified producers around the country manufacture it under a manufacturing agreement. RES also built its system using locally sourced materials, reducing concrete usage with its arch design for better low-impact development and a long-lasting design life. Using less concrete also lowers the system’s embodied carbon.

RES's 8-foot-by-16-foot modules are rated for AASHTO HL-93 highway loading, and their watertight joints are sealed with a flexible polyurethane system that accommodates minor movement and has been pressure-tested to 17.25 pounds per square inch. RES also fine-tuned the design by shaping the space between adjacent arches, creating what it calls “aquifers.” These are stone‑filled voids that add storage volume outside the concrete shell while allowing the water to move in multiple directions throughout the system. 

“For a civil engineer, that means more cubic feet per footprint and more freedom to route flow without complicated manifolds,” Zeind said. “For a contractor, it means fewer pieces to set and a single open chamber that’s easy to inspect and clean.”

In 2017, StormGarden was built on the same principle, but it focused on bioretention water treatment. As states and municipalities layered on total suspended solids, nutrient and green infrastructure requirements, RES saw that detention alone wasn’t enough because projects needed treatment that could live comfortably in the same design conversation as underground storage.

Instead of working as individual components, RES's engineering team designed StormPod and StormGarden as an integrated, twofold system. StormGarden would act as a quality-control buffer, filtering out pollutants. StormPod would focus on volume-based infiltration and detention. 

Zeind said Rich and John Rotondo anticipated where the market was heading. By the time StormPod was out, “the regulatory and development context had caught up,” he said. 

“Civil engineers today are being asked to check more boxes, such as peak rate, volume control, water quality and resiliency on sites that feel like they’re shrinking every year,” he said. “Developers want rentable square footage, parking and amenities. Municipalities want long‑term performance, while contractors want systems that don’t blow up their schedule.”

Zeind said StormPod's customizable system is able to check off each box because it’s designed around the civil plans, soil conditions and loading requirements on each site.

Tackling A Site Problem 

In a recent multifamily project, RES explored a site where a plastic chamber system had been installed under a parking lot that also carried fire lanes and delivery traffic. 

On paper, the chamber field met the storage requirement. In reality, the cover needed for truck loading pushed the system deeper and into conflict with surrounding utilities, Zeind said.

“The GC and site contractor were stuck between redesigning the site or swallowing a cast‑in‑place vault that would exceed the budget and construction timeline,” he said.

RES examined the plans and proposed a StormPod layout that restacked the storage volume into a denser, shallower footprint using the aquifer stone zones to make up the cubic feet that had been spread across the original chamber field. 

“We walked the engineer and municipal reviewer through the structural calculations, HydroCAD model and maintenance requirements,” Zeind said. “We stayed alongside the contractor through submittals and installation, resulting in the project hitting its budget and leaving the owner with a single open chamber they could actually get into and clean.” 

Lower Risk, More Predictability

Zeind said Rich and John Rotondo framed the company less as a “product company” and more as a risk‑management partner for everyone who touches a stormwater system over its life. 

For engineers, that shows up as conservative structural assumptions, tested watertight joints, and designs that come with all the calculations and documentation reviewers expect. For contractors, it shows up as clear installation details with the option of being able to set the precast modules with a crane when time is of the essence, or setting pieces with an excavator, which most site contractors have readily available. RES’s project managers, who come from the precast industry, act as a single point of contact when something unexpected happens in the ground, he added.

Looking To The Future 

Zeind said stormwater is at a critical juncture where policy, climate and real estate intersect. 

“This is the heart of where Rotondo Environmental Solutions plans to live,” he said. 

Rotondo aims to invest in faster, more self-serve design tools for engineers. It wants to expand the StormPod and StormGarden families, where new regulatory and site constraints demand it, while building a deeper bench of precast partners so contractors can get the same experience in more markets. 

Zeind said the firm’s trajectory still reflects Rich and John Rotondo’s original premise.

“A stormwater system gets picked on bid day and then lives underground for 50 years or more,” he said. “Rich and John built this company around those 50 years. That’s still the job.” 

This article was produced in collaboration between Rotondo Environmental Solutions and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.