All You Need To Know About Stormwater Detention Systems

When building a new residential or commercial project, local regulations may want you to build a stormwater detention system. The necessity arises if you live in a flood-prone area where management of stormwater runoff is needed. Therefore, when building a new project, ensure you abide by the local authority and install a water detention system. 

If you want any help related to the topic, read this article for essential information on stormwater detention and its importance. 

Stormwater, as the name suggests, is water from rains or storms. Generally, any precipitation that falls from the sky, whether rain, snow or hail, comes under the umbrella term of stormwater. 

But it has two contrasting endings when it falls on the earth surface. If the surface is a vast landscape with porous soil, the water seeps in and makes groundwater. However, in urban areas where concrete is everywhere, on rooftops, sidewalks, and roads, the water is not absorbed and swept across the buildings as stormwater runoff. 

Stormwater runoff makes a huge problem to tackle in urban landscapes. It acts as a pollutant in water bodies, rivers, and lakes, as it flows across the city, pushing over contaminants like chemical waste, litter, garden fertilizers, pet waste, etc. Apart from polluting water bodies, it also creates environmental issues like:

● Pushing over excess sediments into the water bodies along with contaminants.

● Eroding the riverbanks and damaging aquatic habitats.

● Creating floods in urban and suburban landscapes. 

Stormwater detention systems collect the stormwater flowing down the roads, driveways and other areas with contaminants and sediments through the drain system and pours it in special tanks designed with slow-release valves. Once the water is detained in the tank, it is then slowly released to drain. If you wonder why the unique type of tanks and mechanisms are needed to detain water, you will have to understand that every council has its own rules. 

Some councils do use tanks with higher capacities or pools to take over the work of detention, whereas some discretely demand stormwater detention systems to be built because of different areas with different rainfall patterns. 

Areas prone to heavy rainfall demand a strong build detention system so that it can take up all the water efficiently during consecutive downpours without compromising the system. 

Getting the system installed depends on the location of your property. If your property is in a high rainfall zone and as regulated by the council, you will have to install one. So, contact the local council and ask about the related regulation. You can also contact a reliable builder of the detention system to inform you about the peculiarities. 

The factors which play into the decision-making are property size, roof area, hard surface area on your property and development type. They ask for roof and hard surface areas because water is impossible to absorb on these surfaces and causes problems during runoff. 

There are four types of detention tanks.

●Rainwater tanks: These have a small storage capacity and may not fit council requirements.

● Surface holding tanks: Anything like a pool, trench or pits that can hold water. 

●Underground storage tanks: Specially designed tanks to store runoff water under the driveways.

●Stormwater detention tanks: With split-storage or compartment storage for rainwater harvesting and detaining the stormwater. 

So, contact your local council and get the details of the stormwater detention system. You can also contact experts from the industry to get advice. 

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