Blogs

Knowledge of how Stormwater SCMs work is crucial to have to recognize when one of your structures may be failing. Two very important disciplines within stormwater management are drainage and filtration. Filterra units combine drainage and filtration into a single aesthetically pleasing structure.

Stormwater in Los Angeles County has been neglected for a long time.

In our modern day and age, the product quality and availability of a business isn’t all that’s going to cut it for consumers. The digital age has developed the consumer-business relationship into more than a faceless stream of products and services; consumers are consistently caring more and paying attention to the practices of the business they spend their money with. Ethical problems related to the consumer’s perceived environmental responsibility have become a hallmark marketing edge for companies that are thriving in a connected world.

Getting a notice of violation (NOV) is never a fun experience. Having a violation found during a stormwater inspection means having to shift your focus from your business and spend time, energy, and money on becoming compliant with the relevant stormwater ordinance. You’ll also likely be hit with a hefty fine for being found non-compliant. Having the necessary understanding of your stormwater control measures (SCM's) and the common violations that can happen with them is important for you to be able to resolve a situation before it becomes a headache.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the Restoration + Recovery office. Hurricane Florence brought on high wind speeds, torrential rainfall, and hurricane runoff that caused flooding in many parts of the Carolinas. This environmental disaster has left much of the coastline still reeling, with citizens displaced and their properties’ fate still up in the air. Although it is important to respond to the needs of those still displaced, it's also important to think about how effective the stormwater facilities we have in place to minimize damage even during extreme rain events were.

How far back into history does the first stormwater management system go? Our civilization has been implementing systems using low-impact development principles for hundreds of years. With some of these original techniques still in use today,¹ one can wonder how there’s any room for new technologies in the industry.

Brace yourselves. We are on the cusp of another fire season, and its year-to-year intensity is only increasing. Like many environmental issues, the increase in wildland fires has no quick fix. It depends not just on firefighters and foresters, but whole communities to take part in preventative and reactive actions.

The Technology Assessment Protocol – Ecology (TAPE) Program is the Washington State Department of Ecology’s process for evaluating and approving emerging stormwater treatment Stormwater Control Measures (SCMs). New stormwater treatment SCMs that are not in the current Stormwater Manual or have not been approved by TAPE must first be approved by Ecology's TAPE Program, an effective way to keep up with emerging technologies.

Rural stormwater management plans are growing in popularity. The proper development and maintenance of BMPs is important even in areas away from intense development, as runoff can still negatively affect water quality and surrounding environments. There are physical and regulatory differences to managing stormwater in rural vs. urban areas, and knowing how localities can use their ordinances to mandate runoff requirements outside of MS4s can help ensure your business stays compliant.

A healthy stormwater system should be able to handle the most torrential of downpours with aplomb. These heavy downpours can dramatically swell the affected watershed; how do properties without the broad real estate for detention ponds keep from contributing to floods? Underground vaults.

Let’s be real: Summer in the Pacific Northwest is not the time that its denizens are most vigilant about maintaining their stormwater facilities. It’s as dry as a bone and folks are doing everything they can to distract themselves from the looming winter rains.

In the summer, it seems like someone in a residential neighborhood is washing their car every day. Giant buckets of water are mixed with car soap  and the car is scrubbed clean. Cleaning the car is not the problem, the problem is what happens after the wash is complete. After they finish washing their cars, people tend to toss the soapy water down the driveway, and leave it to eventually fall down a stormwater grate. While yes, what they are dumping is water, it is not water that should go through the stormwater system.

There are many factors that put pressure on water resources which effects the options and requirements for water management. Population growth is a main factor, creating demands for more water and producing additional wastewater and pollution. The increase can have significant negative impacts on local and regional water resources.

Legal Basis of the Clean Water Act:

The Restoration and Recovery team recently attended the North Carolina State University Wet Pond and Wetland Design Update in RTP.  As presented by university and state government employees, the course structured these design strategies within the framework of the recent drafts of Minimum Design Criteria (MDC) Rules for SCMs.  As it stands, MDC rules are a voluntary alternative to the BMP Manual for permits from the state.  Currently, local governments may adopt the MDC in their jurisdictions.  In November the MDC revised draft is scheduled to be codified into rules and supplemented by a stormwater technical guidance manual. For post-construction stormwater management these criteria present a distinct opportunity for regulatory agencies to proactively and efficiently enforce and maintain the quality of SCMs within their jurisdictional boundaries.     

Vegetation establishment is an important component of many stormwater control measures (SCM).  Grasses, trees, shrubs, and other herbaceous plants help provide structural stability, conrol erosion, and naturally remove pollutants from rainwater runoff.  However, if proper maintenance is not performed, undesirable vegetation will invade vegetated areas of the SCMs.  If these undesirables go untreated, they can inhibit the function of the stormwater control to convey, treat, and/or store water from storm events.  Furthermore, some desirable plants can become undesirable if they establish in unwanted areas.  For instance, turf grasses invading a planted/mulched area or trees establishing on the floor of a dry detention basin.

Anyone walking along a degraded urban stream may see signs of the effects of urban development: heavily eroded stream banks, trash in overhanging tree branches, discarded tires, or remnants of stormwater conveyance infrastructure.  It is obvious that intense alterations to the landscape and water network occur when land is developed.   The most immediate consequences include an increase in impervious surface area with resultant increased runoff to receiving streams, higher peak discharges, greater water export and higher sediment loads during construction.  In terms of stream hydrology, an altered flow regime with high peak flows and reduced baseflow is the prevalent effect of urbanization.

Headwater streams provide many ecologic and water quality benefits.  In a natural setting, these small drainage tributaries filter rainwater, recharge groundwater, and dissipate water velocity while transporting sediment from upland elevations downstream to larger water bodies.  It is not surprising that people tend to populate upland areas where flooding may be mitigated by hard surface stormwater conveyance structures.  As a result of this trend, headwater streams fall victim to residential and commercial development, water quality suffers, and hard surface drainage methods give stormwate

There are many preventative measures that can be taken into account for a site-specific stormwater management plan, but even well-maintained and regularly inspected systems can be prone to nuisance issues. Some problems are elusive and could go undetected for a period of time while others are more blatant and are visible to the untrained eye. 

Winter can often be very taxing on stormwater facilities for a variety of reasons.  First, these systems are often neglected during the winter months which can result in damages, as well as sediment, trash and debris accumulation.

Regardless of where your property is located, there are key strategies for proper management of your stormwater system (BMP) year-round. Continuous attention to the system, specifically in the form of inspection and maintenance, is critical in maintaining compliance, preventing failure, and ensuring water quality and quantity standards per design. Monthly, or even more frequent, stormwater maintenance is becoming more of a standard, and is often a regulatory requirement.

To clarify, LID is not something you place on top of your trashcan to keep out unwanted canines.  Since the buzz word, or phrase I should say, has come up in a few of our previous blog posts, I thought it would be worth a brief survey.  Low-Impact Development (LID) is a design and planning scheme that utilizes green infrastructure and stormwater management techniques to mimic the pre-development hydrologic regime of a site.  Five fundamental aspects of LID include:

A new development underway, Chatham Park, is the local buzz amongst residents of the Triangle area. The 7,100 acre project is located just west of Jordan Lake and the closest town is Pittsboro. According to the Planned Development District Master Plan, Chatham Park is envisioned as having five villages. Creeks and stream valleys will serve as natural buffers between neighborhoods and as trail connection points connecting neighborhoods.

I am in my second year on the Triangle J Council of Governments (TJCOG) Water Resources Advisory Committee.  So far it has been a great experience, and it has opened my eyes to a whole new side of water!  For our clients, I primarily focus on managing stormwater within specific property lines.  Once the water leaves the property, it is no longer my “responsibility.”  Although a critical time for stormwater, the time spent on the client property is fairly short, as this water will move downhill, downstream, be used multiple times and serve multiple purposes within the population.  With that

On January 7, 2015, Water Environment Federation released an article, Year in Review: 2014 Under the Stormwater Lens, which summarized the trending topics relative to Stormwater in 2014. The top three Stormwater Report News Trends of 2014, based on Google Analytics, were the following:

A couple weeks ago the R&R Durham team completed an OSHA course entitled “Working Safely in Confined Spaces + Lockout/Tagout Procedures.” The course was held at one of the city of Durham’s municipal buildings, and other participants included folks from the construction and stormwater industry, equipment operators, and general contractors. 

A confined space is defined by three characteristics that all must be true for it to be considered “confined” by OSHA standards. The instructor explained it to us in the following way:

I recently participated in the NC Stormwater BMP Inspection and Maintenance Certification Update with Dr.

As the host for water professionals around the globe, the annual WEFTEC conference is an authoritative source for all things water, as well as a powerful engine of knowledge creation and exchange of ideas.