Storm Water Management and Large Pumping Systems
Sustainable Green technology site development can help solve regional watershed problems at the source. Good site design and water management practices address water management issues by:
Increasing the permeability of constructed pavements
Capturing and treating excess runoff by means of natural soil and biological processes
Minimizing or eliminating potable water usage in the landscape
Maintaining or restoring the infiltrating, cleansing, and storing functions of soils, plants, and groundwater with natural landscape systems. Green Practices Can Help Reduce or Virtually Eliminate Your Municipal Storm Water Public Run-Off Annually Reoccuring Financial Liabilities.
Stormwater is precipitation that does not soak into the ground or evaporate but flows along the surface of the ground as runoff. Conventional practice for storm water management—concentrating runoff and carrying it off a site as quickly as possible through storm sewers—causes various environmental problems, including erosion and downstream flooding, pollution loading of surface waters, and reduced ground water management recharge.
There are two basic principles to storm water management: (1) Drainage and flood control is based on managing the quantity of stormwater runoff potentially generated during a design-basis storm event (a storm event likely to occur only once in a specified time period). The major contributors to stormwater runoff are impervious surfaces such as rooftops and parking lots.
(2) Water management quality control is based on managing the on-site sources of pollutants in stormwater and, if needed, treating these pollutants. Pollutants entering stormwater are primarily caused by erosion of soil (creating sediment pollution) or contacting surfaces that have accumulated pollutants since the last storm event. Rooftop surfaces typically accumulate pollutants that are deposited from the atmosphere or blown on during adverse weather, while parking lot surfaces collect a variety of pollutants leaked from vehicles.
The primary goal of sustainable storm water management is to generate no additional runoff from the existing site as compared to undeveloped conditions. The intent of this design goal is to utilize an integrated approach that minimizes the generation of stormwater runoff and promotes infiltration of the generated stormwater into the subsurface. This approach limits runoff (and potential pollutants) from leaving the site. An integrated design approach involves configuring the location and placement of impervious surfaces, specifying land-based structural practices (stormwater storage and treatment) for stormwater pollution control, and integrating native landscaping into the overall site development.
Investigate the feasibility of applying storm water management strategies to treat and retain stormwater on the site. Each of these strategies requires specific maintenance practices for proper operation. In todays environment many are being forced to manage all of there storm water run off. Forcing many with limited non-impervious ground to expensive, metered discharge, underground storage systems.
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