Urban storm water infiltration

Excerpt

MORE than two decades have passed since Luna Leopold (6) pointed out that urbanization is accompanied by increases in short-term flood peaks. At that time, local governments across large parts of the country were quick to adopt detention programs for controlling floods in urbanizing watersheds. The apparent solutions to the problems perceived at the time became cast into aggressively enforced rules of practice: “Pipes must get bigger downstream.” “Water must be moved away.” “Control of peak flow is the objective of stormwater management.” It was believed that any designer who properly solved a hydraulic equation complying with a detention ordinance found the answer.

But today urban stormwater has become an issue with many faces. The cleanup of point pollution sources during the 1970s and 1980s exposed to view the importance of nonpoint sources, such as stormwater. The 1986 amendments to the Water Quality Act put the federal government into the stormwater regulation business for the first time; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now in the process of implementing regulations for its control. Recurrent drought has forced water supply issues to be linked to drainage (water disposal) issues. Multiple control technologies have …