Just to reiterate for those that may have missed my previous post:

I am currently undergoing a research thesis as a part of my uni degree. I am trying to design a filter basket that can be placed inside stormwater drains to prevent vegetation, sediments and rubbish from passing through into our drainage systems. My main goal is to capture vegetation and hence stop it getting into our pipes. Currently, it gets swept into our drains every time it rains and just rots away, thus releasing huge nutrient loads of nitrogen and phosphorous which allow harmful bacteria to thrive that eventually makes its way into our waterways. (This is now becoming a scary issue all around the world and nothing seems to be getting done).

This being the case, I need to devise an appropriate filter media to be used in the drain basket. Obviously drains are there to prevent flooding so flow loss/pressure drop is still a key priority. This makes it a juggling act between how fine a filter I can go and hydraulic capacity. The ultimate goal is to be able to capture sediment down to 63µm.

Can anyone provide me with some potential filter mediums that could potentially suit this task that I could look into?

Thanks again for all the comments on the last post.

I am undertaking a research thesis as part of my engineering degree and have chosen stormwater drain filtration as my topic. Initially, I was more interested in stopping plastics from entering our waterways by designing an 'end of pipe' solution. However, after conducting extensive research, I have now realised that plastics are only the tip of the iceberg. The real issue is that when it rains, vegetation ends up in our stormwater systems and begins to rot away. This rotting vegetation provides huge nutrient loads for cyanobacteria to thrive on and our drainage systems make for the perfect conditions for such bacteria. All around Australia we are starting to see these harmful bacterial blooms spreading into our local waterways. It begs the questions, why are we still not doing anything about this? Has anyone else noticed anything in regards to this? I have found it very difficult to get good information on this issue but it seems like the problem is starting to reach boiling point. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts and if you have any information, please reach out.

I'm trying to build a property and I'm limited to 2500 sqft of land disturbing activity to avoid a storm water plan. The footers of the building are considered land disturbing, but not the entire footprint of the slab. I'm being told my parking spots entirely would be considered this as well, however what if I used previous concrete for the with dug footers? Wouldn't the same concept apply as the slab? From what I understand they can also act to hold excess water as well, which should benefit storm water.

I'm at a loss of where to start. The civil engineer I'm working with isn't a storm water expert, and I'm trying to find ways to limit land disturbing activity.

Thank you

How to create a Streeter-Phelps model using #OpenHydroQual https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4z0urClgJA

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Hi all,

I live in a damp part of Australia and have an issue with high moisture in the front of my property which is translating to rising damp in my house. I've been advised to dig a 14 meter trench at the front of my property to a depth of 1 meter. I will use ag-pipe, geofabric, and gravel to create a drain which runs to a pit which will pump the water out to a proper drain. Quotes for this work are ridiculously high and I feel like I can do it myself. The challenge I have is the stormwater pit where the ag-pipe will drain to, and a a submersible pump will operate. I need this pit to be about 1.3 meters deep.
I saw this video where a guy used an old wheele bin as a stormwater pit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKBKufVlVvY This would be much deeper, and cheaper than commercial stormwater pits and would suit my needs perfectly. Does anyone else have experience of using a wheelie bin for this purpose and are you happy with the results? I wouldn't want it to collapse under pressure from the surrounding soil and clay. I also wouldn't want it to suddenly pop up from the ground due to water pressure underneath

I know they’re subsurface structures but is there a hatch or something I could look for to locate it? Gotta get one cleaned out as part of a contract and of course the client doesn’t have the asbuilts.

Any suggestions on how to landscape around the community stormwater drain in my back yard? It looks repulsive, but I need to ensure I don’t use plants with drain-busting roots or drain-clogging leaves. The HOA rules indicate you must plant at least 3 feet from the swales. Rules are less specific about what you can plant at the top of the drainage basin where the rocks are located. Problem I see is that the swales lead to the basin, so I would not be able to put anything within three feet. Wouldn’t plants help prevent erosion?

Thanks.

Stormwater friends, MS4 friends!

I've been reviewing and assessing our MS4 program. I've bounced between Indiana Code, IDEM info, our MS4 permit.

I feel like there is a distinct difference between a spill report and an IDDE event. Both from a municipal standpoint and a public standpoint. If someone takes a rut in a yard and dumps their motor oil in it.

Right at that moment, without a rain event, it's not an illicit discharge because it hasn't been discharged to a storm drain, outfall or waterway.

It's almost like there's a spill report, for unintended accidents, IDDE for intended or unintended discharges to storm, and a third category for spills (whether intended or unintended) from residents that aren't active IDDEs. Potential IDDE.

How have you all seen this handled with the provided example?

Hello everyone, I am a recent chemistry grad from UC Santa Cruz and I have always wanted to pursue a career in environmental science/protection. I recently got a job as a Stormwater field technician. The job is offering to pay for my QSP certification as well as my CPESC certification.

I do not want to stay as a technician forever and was curious to the possible career paths I can take with my degree and certifications. Any insight is greatly appreciated, thank you!

It seems all the formulas used to calculate flow through open channels assume the channel slopes. When a 0% slope is added to the formula, it doesn’t work. how do you calculate flow through non-sloping channels?

What calculations do you use to predict max flow through drainage grates on grade or very slightly below grade?

Rookie town planner here, super into stormwater management! Wondering if there are any other similar online courses...there's that StormwaterOne website with a few free webinars, but I want to learn how the engineers make their calculations and decide on BMPs, and more on MS4 (did a two hour training on reporting illicit discharges for our town cert but that's it). Anything free out there? The towns I work for are teeny, so I try to take anything free that I can find instead of asking for a $800+ training budget.

Stormwater runoff

Hi everyone, I just built a home which is part of an informal HOA. There are two shared driveways. (In red on the sitemap.)Attached is a photo of the site plan in case it helps. At a recent HOA meeting, my neighbors (house 3) who developed the lots and sold them to the rest of us- told us that he had recently gotten a bill from the landscaper for 26k to repair the stormwater mgmt system which had failed last year due to all the rain we got… and he said that he would like all of us to split the bill. He said that house 1 neighbors wont have to contribute as the drainage issue doesn’t have much of an impact on them. He said there is some impact to my property, so he is requesting that I pitch in (though a bit less than house 2 and house 3)… but a bit less than 9k is still a lot of money. I had no damage from the drainage issue whatsoever (house 2 and 3 had significant erosion issues.)… My house is at the highest elevation. The shared driveway below us with house 1 and 2 is at the lowest elevation. I don’t want to be a bad neighbor and not pitch in my fair share, but im struggling to understand how any of this drainage stuff impacts me. I have never even had to think about stormwater management. My only thoughts on potential HOA expenses were shared plowing costs in the winter. (We live in MA.) It might not be easy to say without looking at the properties, but if anyone has any thoughts on whether or not this is fair to me, please advise!

I've been dealing with this for many years and I'm finally going to do something about it before the rainy seasons comes- I live in Florida.

One house over from me is a stormwater drain at the corner but *none* of the runoff makes it there, because it all turns into my driveway and then runs into my backyard. During a normal rainstorm, I get 4-6" of standing water...if it's raining good for a couple days, it usually is 6-8" standing- it's like a literal swamp. This means I have zero lawn in the backyard, tons of mosquitoes without proper control, and my front yard erodes away at the driveway with street debris building up. It's almost created a berm at the very back of my yard from all the soil movement, which ultimately means it's created a pond for the water to sit.

I realize my home and property sits somewhat lower than my neighbors, but I can't help that. This problem was exacerbated 3 years ago because they laid new asphalt down and it raised the street up another few inches.

I complained to the city, and they came out and used cold patch to build a hump at my driveway entrance. All it did was make the rainwater enter my yard earlier! They also didn't make the edge line up with the street, so it simply doesn't work.

Tell me if my idea works: I want to scrape out the cold patch and then form up and pour a concrete curb along my entire property against the asphalt. Probably only 4" above the road surface. Ignore the writing on the picture about a channel drain, I can't afford that type of correction right now so I will just make the curb go all the way across my driveway but slope it so I can enter/exit.

I can't afford a new driveway, which would probably help. I am capable and able to do the above myself.

Here you can see the street BEFORE I called the city to add the cold patch along with the other layers of prior street below it that they have built up, causing more issues for me over time.

Current situation.

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This is prior to city paving and prior to them adding the cold patch. Ignore idea about channel drain

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Hi stormwater friends ☔️ I’m a masters student in Landscape Architecture, and I’m analyzing the storm water runoff pre and post neighborhood construction.

I have the topography pre and post development with surface meshes built in Rhino, but I’m still fresh to the equations needed to exemplify the changes.

Does anyone have any references where this may have been done before?

I spotted these kids eating my straw wattle roll today. I’ve seen my BMPs run over, spilled over, rolled up and crushed, but never eaten. 😂 had to tell our install contractor to put those on the opposite side of the fence. Damn kids

Does anyone have example problems of what will be on Part 2 of the CPSWQ exam? I passed the first section but not the second which was all the math questions. I'm taking the exam again in a couple months and would really like any practice questions to study.

I understand that a good portion of treatment occurs from sediment just settling in a pond/swale/planter etc. and a lot of pollutants adsorb to sediment in the runoff. But are there any other mechanisms of treatment for chemicals, nutrients, etc.? Do pollutants attach themselves to other components of the treatment system? Are pollutants broken down into different molecules during their time in stormwater facility?

First, I'm not an engineer but a medical entomologist doing research on mosquitoes which like to use storm water catch basins and pipes for larvae and adult habitats.

I'm working on a journal article comparing the design of Madison, WI storm water sewers which have linked catch basins (the catch basins are in the main pipe under the road fed by curb inlets) and Arlington Heights, IL which have curb grates with catch basins which then flow into the separate main sewer pipes.

My questions are:

1. Do these two types of separate storm water sewers have specific names? If so, what are each system called?
2. What would be a good source for reading about these different designs.

Thank tyou

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Here are some of my poorly done diagrams of the separate sewer systems in Madison and Arlington Heights

https://preview.redd.it/7g89qpf1pndc1.png?width=626&format=png&auto=webp&s=13840eb624de6aae61646fe72327a5b8d0ee2e50

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https://preview.redd.it/acjw779bpndc1.png?width=604&format=png&auto=webp&s=c68dc8e3eada2c9793d183988323e5aaff06fb9e

Arlington Heights

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https://preview.redd.it/dy83yimhpndc1.png?width=614&format=png&auto=webp&s=e15acbf62f01f1ae2404f61679c0b20d8e96d93d

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https://preview.redd.it/10xcrqilpndc1.png?width=617&format=png&auto=webp&s=3487a3a82db302c37fb94c57e1fb639e0e6c4cb4

Thank you,

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