The fundamentals of stormwater management are about finding a way to minimize the potential damage and disruption that can be caused by rainwater or melted snow runoff, plus it also focuses on maintaining and improving water quality.
As you will discover when you visit a site like cochraneng.com there are various aspects of stormwater management that you have to consider and get it right if you are going to deal with this issue in the most effective way possible.
Here is a look at what happens in a stormwater scenario and how the management of this situation can keep everything under a greater level of control.
What happens?
A good starting point would be to look at what happens when heavy rain creates a stormwater situation that needs dealing with.
In normal conditions, stormwater is easily absorbed into the soil and there is a natural filtration process that takes place as it subsequently flows into rivers and streams, or replenishes aquifers along the way.
A problem arises when the volume of rainwater is too large for the soil to cope and the ground becomes saturated, leading to excess water and moisture running across these ground surfaces and finding a path into ditches and storm drains.
While that might sound ok on the face of it, it should be noted that the water carries all sorts of contaminants in the form of bacteria, eroded soil, and other possible pollutants such as chemicals and general debris.
These pollutants are then being carried into various streams, lakes, or rivers, creating a potential problem in the process.
How good stormwater management can help deal with the situation
You obviously need a viable plan to be able to deal with this rainwater threat and that is where good stormwater management comes into play.
Urban and developed areas pose unique challenges because there are impervious surfaces such as pavements that will be doing their job in preventing this rainwater form finding a natural way to soak away into the ground.
What happens in this scenario is that the water searches out storm drain and sewerage systems as a potential escape route and that can quickly lead to localized flooding.
A particular threat when this scenario unfolds is that you could witness a sanitary sewer system overflow plus the very real prospect of damage to the surrounding infrastructure.
What a stormwater management system will do is capture that rainwater in an expedient manner and work on restoring natural hydrologies by removing the threat caused by pollutants.
The bottom line is that stormwater management has a fundamental purpose which is to retain excess stormwater safely and remove the pollutants contained within that water source.
A combination of initiatives
The main point to take on board about stormwater management is that it involves a number of different initiatives all combining to create an effective system.
In order to prevent runoff, stormwater management requires the utilization of berms, catch and retention basins, and an effective storm sewer system. It also commonplaces to use channels and ditches for erosion control.
A standard feature of a stormwater management system will be a slope that leans toward the cap of the landfill to keep the prospect of standing water to an absolute minimum.
Detention basins are used as a way of holding the stormwater that has been collected for a defined period of time.
The reason for this is that there needs to be a certain amount of time that passes after collecting the water so that there is sufficient opportunity for the solids to settle out before the discharge can take place to the relevant receiving water body.
Sampling wells are required
Good stormwater management always involves a series of balances and checks to make sure that the contaminants and other pollutants have been satisfactorily dealt with.
Whatever type of solid waste management facility you are creating there is always the need to incorporate a system that allows sampling of the collected groundwater.
These sampling wells are sometimes referred to as sentinel wells but they perform the same task, which is to flag up the presence of groundwater contamination.
When you are creating an effective groundwater management system there will always be a requirement to incorporate at least one upgradient well alongside a suitable number of downgradient wells in order to cover all the bases when it comes to detecting contamination from whatever location it originates from.
Industrial applications
As you would expect, there are a number of specific requirements attached to creating a stormwater management system that deals with industrial applications and threats.
The fundamental purpose remains the same, which is to create a pollution-prevention system that includes a few very important concepts that have to be upheld in the design process.
The number one aim is to prevent the prospect of pollution by dealing with the threat of rainwater. In addition, you need to be able to create an effective collection and treatment process combined with suitable source segregation methods.
In simple terms, pollution prevention means factoring in the prospect of either accidental or routine exposure to the threats posed by stormwater and pollutants.
Understanding source segregation
The concept of source segregation is finding a way to separate out clean and dirty water when the stormwater clearly doesn’t distinguish between the two.
The end result of achieving good source segregation is the ability to boost the impact of your efforts to concentrating the contaminants in the runoff in such a way that it becomes easier to deal with, making it a fairly critical precursor to the stormwater treatment itself.
Your aim should always be to use source segregation as a way of eliminating, or at least reducing, the level of contamination at the pinch point of the process.
Stormwater treatment is a vital component in the overall stormwater management program and this overview should, hopefully, have served as a clear illustration of how important it is to have a system in place that helps you deal effectively with the threat posed by excess rainwater.