Types Of Drainage System For Urban Areas

These tasks go hand and hand with the City Public Works Drainage Division which administrates permits, and is responsible for the implementation and the execution of stormwater best management practices through the use of various resources such as personnel, and medium and heavy equipment. Public Works maintains more than 350 miles of storm sewer drainage system within the City and approximately 150 miles of drainage ditches and thousands of storm water inlets. Public Works crews work continually throughout the year removing trash and debris, mowing drainage ditches, vacuuming stormwater inlets, as well as other tasks to maintain a healthy drainage infrastructure. Unfortunately, the City is faced with the challenges of sustaining its extensive MS4 program and existing drainage infrastructure due to the lack of additional financial resources. Certain sections of the City’s drainage system are more than 50 years old and deteriorating. As the City continues to grow and expand, the need for repairs, retrofitting and maintaining the City’s existing infrastructure is as equally important as creating new capital projects.

Possible solution example: Using a rain garden can dramatically impact the environment. During heavy downpours, our outdated sewer system cannot handle the runoff due to impermeable surfaces in the community. Dave Morris, who is a liaison to the mayor states, “Every homeowner should consider a rain garden to decrease the amount of pollutants running into the watershed” (305). Rain gardens provide a temporary place to hold rainwater, allowing it to be absorbed over time and filtering out contaminants that would otherwise end up in waterways.

The runoff carries pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediments into the Bay. In urban areas the standard city block creates five times more runoff than a forested area. About 30% of runoff in an urban area is evaporated, 55% stays runoff, and the other 15% soaks into the land with a variation of deep and shallow infiltration. About 40% of runoff in a forest evaporates, 10% stays runoff, and the extra 50% seeps into the ground with a variation of deep and shallow infiltration. The runoff is actually the fastest growing source of pollution for the Chesapeake

Storm water runoff gets formed by man-made areas such as driveways, parking areas and roofs. All of these types of surfaces are waterproof surfaces, so when they are placed around lakes, they tend to collect and transport precipitation over the land instead of allowing the water to penetrate into the soil. Storm water runoff affects the soil greatly along with all of the wild life and vegetation that needs the soil to live and form. That is the reason that areas of land around the lakes in Michigan have soil with lesser value than other

Storm water is a great danger to the environment because it does not receive any treatment before entering waterways. A storm can overload the system, causing it to reach its max capacity. The water treatment plant is then forced to let the overflowing, untreated, water dump into the river. This leads to an almost opaque water, like that found in the Puget Sound. There is an average of 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage water entering larger bodies of water each year in the United States (Barnett). The rain that falls on surfaces drains into bodies of water through storm water collection systems, usually, without treatment. There is a strong relationship between concrete thickness and imperviousness in residential areas, leading researchers to believe that roads create impervious surfaces. When rain down the streets and rooftops, it absorbs all the harmful materials from those surfaces and flows into the major bays and the Puget Sound. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates the remodeling of the aging water system would cost between $300 billion to $1 trillion over the next 20 years (Barnett).

To address this issue, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and NYS DEC have recently increased their attention to stormwater management. Explicitly requiring permits for municipalities in New York State that are located near urbanized areas, and have their storm sewer system separate from their sanitary sewer systems. Unlike municipalities with combined sewer systems, an MS4 discharges untreated stormwater directly into the nearest body of water. This type of system can be detrimental for numerous reasons and has ultimately resulted in the EPA’s creation of a federal regulation known as the Stormwater Phase II. It was published in the Federal Register on December 8, 1999 and has since effected every MS4 community in New York State (US EPA, 2005).

In this research paper I will be talking about the Connecticut River, the common sewer overflow and sewer discharge that goes into the river, I will be focusing on the pollutants that are in the CT river, I will also focus on the high density towns and the affect it has on them, then I will talk about the ecological impacts and economical aspects. The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region, it spans through five states Maine (Small portions), Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut, discharging into the Long island sound. The river serves more than two million people throughout New England. The main issue with the river is the untreated storm water and sewer waste that is being discharged into it which causes many harmful effects not only to the many different species that call the CT River its home, but to the people that live around the CT River. Combined sewer overflows (CSOs), the discharging of combined sewer systems directly into surface waters upon capacity overload, are a large source of pollution of U.S. waterways. A report from the Environment and Connecticut Research and policy center has said that industrial facilities have discharged 224,029 pounds of toxic waste into the Connecticut waterways in the year of 2012. There are many government agencies such as the EPA and committees like the Connecticut River Cleanup Committee that are raising funds and awareness in order to help clean up the Connecticut River

Moreover, urban runoff highest at Bulls Creek, which has parking lots, highways, and buildings nearby, and also houses

Associated activities may include installing drainage systems, grading slopes, ditching for storm drainages, and conduits for service utilities. The disturbance of natural patterns of runoff and rainwater infiltration through modified drainage can lead to the concentration of water flow at sites that previously only took direct rainwater infiltration; this can result in rapid forming cover-subsidence sinkholes (Waltham et al, 2005, p. 159). The many impervious surfaces used in modified drainage activities also impedes groundwater recharge, which can consequently lower the water

Most of the catchments depicted in Figure 1 where fully urbanised which caused surfaces in the catchment to be impervious; that is very little runoff would infiltrate into the ground

Mr. Sabey advises the public to take care of their own gutters and drains―especially during Fall—due to leaves and sticks that tend to clog up the storm drains. “A little help from every homeowner will go a long way.” The Natural Resource Defense Council outlines that the most successful storm water systems advance their plans and set clear goals, encourage government and community participation, prioritize pollution prevention over treatment of polluted runoff, tailor strategies to local needs and problems, and evaluate and improve programs as they evolve. These ideas should be implemented in our community’s solution to the overflow of water in the streets and

Human-environmental interaction contributes to processes that affect fluvial environments. Indeed, impervious surfaces are ubiquitous in urban areas; these anthropogenic surfaces reroute runoff (among other things), which can ultimately impact the morphology, water quality, vegetation, and floodplain soils of a local watershed if it is near an urban area. Similar to the above example, because of the complexities associated with

Currently, the way that we use the stormwater runoff is one of the most important issues that was raised, and that was wanting to be discussed. However, green infrastructure is a entire field of thinking for the conveyance of stormwater, and there are many different types of green infrastructure. Due to the variety of different green infrastructure types, the cost of the instastructure will vary, especially when comparing them to the beginning of construction than what typical grey stormwater management costs The main cost savings of green infrastructure are the long term benefits, from the reduction of flooding, and pollution in the water table, to the beautification or our communities. This has been shown in many different cities and urban landscapes, in New York City they calculated that the cost per gallon of storm sewer reduction for the Grey infrastructure was more expensive costing $0.62 per gallon while it only costed. $0.45 per gallon for Green infrastructure. This means that cities are going to be able to save money while reducing the amount of stormwater that enters the storm sewers.

After washing your hands there is not much thought to what happens to the dirty water. It goes down the drain and it is gone. Living in Canada is extremely fortunate as it has the most fresh water supply but with the increase of urban settings, toxins, and pollution, this “endless” fresh water supply is declining. A major issue is how to treat waste safely so that it does not affect the environment, or public health. The waterfront water treatment facility has run into constant bypassing issues which prevents water to be properly treated. Bypass water is excess flow discharge from water treatment plants when it reaches capacity. Untreated polluted water is dumped into the waterfront of Toronto which is progressively getting worse due to

The purpose of this report is to geologically evaluate the potential hazards for flooding in Hazard City. This report will include a detailed historic and extrapolated Stream Gauge Data Worksheet, as well as a graph of the Discharge Frequency Curve expected on Clearwater River. The report will provide Hazard city with my scientific analysis, conclusions, and provide recommendations concerning potential flood damages.