Urban Stormwater Management in the U.S.

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Permalink Reply by Gary E. Geraci on February 23, 2009 at 7:32pm

Due to our proximity to the Edward's Aquifer, a source of drinking water in our Central Texas area, we've already got some interesting and extensive stormwater regulation and design criteria to consider when designing civil land development projects. For example - take multiple acre public school projects where buildings and playing fields are commonly scattered across singular and multiple drainage basins alike. Our hydrologic and hydraulic processes are based on a number of regulatory criteria, several of these having been named in the National Academies article, namely: stormwater flow regulation (post-developed stormwater flow exiting the site must be equal to or less than pre-developed flows exiting the site), impervious cover limitations (the post-developed impervious cover area can't exceed a certain percent of total impervious cover allowed in the drainage basin), and the treatment of stormwater for water quality (a "first flush" depth of rainfall must be first captured and treated for the removal of so many pounds of Total Suspended Solids). The state agency here, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) runs the Water Pollution Abatement Program (WPAP) over all of the state's sensitive drinking water aquifer areas. Gary