Inside ADS's New Stormwater Research Powerhouse

Advanced Drainage Systems opens a research hub and launches a stormwater separator, chasing profit in a soggier, stricter world

1 Jul 2026

Stormwater is not a subject that draws crowds. Yet on 18 June Advanced Drainage Systems, an American maker of drainage pipes, opened what it calls the world's most advanced facility devoted to the stuff. The new engineering centre sits in Hilliard, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus better known for golf than water treatment. Alongside it came Arcadia, a device meant to strain pollutants from runoff before it reaches rivers and lakes.

None of this is accidental. American cities are flooding more often, and regulators are tightening rules on what may flow into public waterways. Both trends favour firms that can supply cleaner, smarter drainage kit rather than plain plastic pipe. Advanced Drainage Systems, which has long sold the latter, is trying to shift toward the former.

Scott Barbour, the company's boss, described the strategy in language familiar to students of corporate speak: growth through "material conversion, new product introductions, customer programmes, and acquisitions." Translated, this means persuading buyers to swap concrete and metal pipes for plastic ones, then selling them pricier add-ons like Arcadia. By one measure, the approach is working: adjusted profit margin reached 31.6% in the fiscal year just ended, a healthy figure for an industry not known for glamour.

A tension is worth noting here. Municipalities, the firm's biggest customers, tend to move slowly and spend cautiously, especially when budgets tighten. A dedicated research facility may quicken product development, but it cannot quicken the pace at which town councils approve contracts. Nor does an engineering centre, however advanced, guarantee that Arcadia proves cheaper or more effective than rivals' separators once tested in the field.

Even so, the wider logic holds. Water infrastructure in America is ageing, and the rules governing it are unlikely to loosen. Companies that offer both compliance and cost savings, rather than one or the other, stand to benefit as replacement cycles accelerate. Advanced Drainage Systems has placed its bet on being one of them.

Whether flood-prone cities and their auditors agree remains, like the water itself, a matter of flow yet to be measured.