Earthen-built Stormwater Features vs. Vault-based Stormwater Features

OK, maybe I’m a stormwater geek, but I think this is an interesting topic.  I have seen hundreds of stormwater systems, both water quality and water quantity, and I think that I know a thing or two about them.  Furthermore, I’m forever looking at them and reading about them, so I’m pretty sure I am a stormwater geek.  No matter – if you don’t find this interesting, you probably haven’t read even this far. For decades we engineers have been designing stormwater quality systems that are built

Ponds, ponds, and more ponds

As we continue to discuss stormwater features, we wouldn’t be doing the topic justice if we didn’t talk about ponds.  It seems like stormwater ponds are everywhere, but as we will learn, no 2 ponds are created alike.  There are many different types of ponds and telling them apart can be tricky. As we’ve already learned, stormwater control means several things – controlling the water quality of the stormwater runoff as well as controlling the rate which stormwater is leaving the site.  Ponds can

An Ounce of Prevention

Here at CatchAll Environmental, we think we have found the absolute best way to keep your stormwater costs as low as possible.  We use the Catch-All® Storm Drain Maintenance Insert, inserted in your catch basins, so that keeping the storm inlets free of sediment and pollution is as inexpensive as it can be.  Then, by keeping the catch basins clean, the whole downstream system, including the more expensive stormwater features, stays cleaner longer.  But does the whole approach work or is it just

Water Quality Systems - Stormwater Filter Systems

Continuing in the world of Stormwater Quality systems, the next system we will look at is the stormwater filter. There are several different types of proprietary stormwater filters.  Designs range from systems that are intended to take out a single pollutant to those that are effective at removing a range of pollutants.  Although the systems do differ in their intent, they often are fairly similar in their construction. Stormwater filter systems are typically placed in a vault underground,

Water Quality Systems - the Oil/Water Separator

So the typical stormwater system has catch basins and it may have a water quality and water quantity system.  Let’s keep water quantity for the future and discuss water quality first. As I alluded to in my last blog post, both water quantity systems and water quality systems can really be considered under the heading of water quality.  Water quantity systems restrict the flow off of a constructed site to approximately the rate of flow that occurred from that site before construction.  The

Stormwater Quality and Water Quantity Systems

In the last blog I wrote about the catch basin, the workhorse of the stormwater system.  Often the next item we find downstream of our catch basins is a water quality or water quantity system.  In stormwater facilities present on most every commercial, industrial, or housing development site, there are 2 types of major design systems intended to protect the quality of our waterways – water quality and water quantity.  Water quantity denotes a system put in place to restrict the rate that