Occasionally, every area experiences storms, and very often those storms create water that finds its way into our lawns, into fields, and in some cases, into our sewers. The truth of the matter, however, is that stormwater can be a lot more dangerous than many people realize, particularly when it comes to the health of our environment.
There are a number of ways in which stormwater can be detrimental to the environment, all of which occur because this polluted runoff flows over impervious surfaces and collects pollutants along the way. There is no instance in which unexpected flooding is a good thing for an environment, especially if the stormwater is coming from an unexpected place and is carrying pollutants. Yes, flooding can cause significant damage to public and private property, but it also changes ecosystems and poses threats to the plants and animals that reside there.
Utilities Kingston offers lateral inspection services. Learn more about extraneous flows. It is illegal to have sump pump outlets or downspouts terminating in the sewer system. These are major contributors to sewer overflows. Citizens are encouraged to terminate them in rain barrels, artesian wells, rain gardens or onto their property where the water will be at least partially absorbed by the soil.
Learn more about sumps and sump pumps. Learn more about downspouts. Always consider the suitability of these solutions for your landscape before implementing them. Many of these techniques will also help you use less treated water on your lawn and garden. Soil high in organic content retains much more water than other types of soil and is also a superb growing medium. Compost is an excellent source of soil that has high organic content. Compost is easy to make yourself with an outdoor composter, and large quantities are available at your local nursery or garden centre, as well as at KARC.
If you are building a new house insist that at least a foot of high quality soil be used. Many new developments overlook this inexpensive landscape feature that can prevent flooding and provide an excellent base for gardens and lawns. Unfortunately many new developments use an inadequate amount of poor soil underneath the turf.
Survey Manual. When rain falls onto the landscape, it doesn't just sit there and wait to be evaporated by the sun or lapped up by the local wildlife—it begins to move due to gravity. Some of it seeps into the ground to refresh groundwater, but most of it flows down gradient as surface runoff.
Runoff is an intricate part of the natural water cycle. After a heavy rainfall you might see sheets of water running downhill When rain falls onto the earth, it just doesn't sit there, it starts moving according to the laws of gravity. A portion of the precipitation seeps into the ground to replenish Earth's groundwater. Most of it flows downhill as runoff. Runoff is extremely important in that not only does it keep rivers and lakes full of water, but it also changes the landscape by the action of erosion.
Flowing water has tremendous power—it can move boulders and carve out canyons; check out the Grand Canyon! Runoff of course occurs during storms, and much more water flows in rivers and as runoff during storms. For example, in during a major storm at Peachtree Creek in Atlanta, Georgia, the amount of water that flowed in the river in one day was 7 percent of all the streamflow for the year.
That part of the precipitation, snow melt, or irrigation water that appears in uncontrolled not regulated by a dam upstream surface streams, rivers, drains or sewers. Runoff may be classified according to speed of appearance after rainfall or melting snow as direct runoff or base runoff, and according to source as surface runoff, storm interflow, or groundwater runoff. The depth to which a watershed drainage area would be covered if all of the runoff for a given period of time were uniformly distributed over it.
Improving community aesthetics. Encouraging more neighborhood socialization. Green water is the water transpired by the plant that comes from rain water stored in soil. Blue water is the water in our surface and groundwater reservoirs. In irrigated agriculture, blue water is abstracted to maintain transpiration. Managing Urban Runoff To decrease polluted runoff from paved surfaces, households can develop alternatives to areas traditionally covered by impervious surfaces.
Porous pavement materials are available for driveways and sidewalks, and native vegetation and mulch can replace high maintenance grass lawns. Urban runoff has a detrimental effect on aquatic animals and organisms. Many contaminants can sicken and kill off fish, coral and other aquatic animals.
Other contaminants can lead to algae blooms which can also reduce the populations of necessary organisms. The rain that falls over a town or city, sliding off roofs, down storm drains and over driveways and streets, is called urban runoff. When rain passes over these surfaces, it picks up pollutants, including sediment, motor oil, pesticides and fertilizers.
Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Physics Why is stormwater runoff bad? Ben Davis January 11, Why is stormwater runoff bad?
Why is stormwater runoff a problem? How do you divert runoff water?
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