Stormwater facilities are like super sponges!  

As spring rain begins to fall, you may have noticed that many raingardens, bioretentions, and dry ponds have a significant amount of standing water in them. This is a good thing! Your friendly neighborhood stormwater facilities are working hard. Think of them like sponges. They soak up water, in this case, stormwater runoff, store it, slowly release it, and filter out pollutants like fertilizers, pesticides, oil, salt, and other chemicals from roads and keep them out of our streams. The slow release of water also helps prevent stream erosion and sedimentation which can be incredibly harmful to overall stream health and aquatic life.

Every superhero needs a sidekick!

Your facility may have lots of power when it comes to storing stormwater and keeping our streams healthy, but even a superhero needs a sidekick! Spring is the perfect time check up on your stormwater structures and take care of any issues so that your facility can keep on being super this rainy season!

A mosquito only requires a puddle the size of a bottle cap to lay her eggs. However, these facilities, also known as best management practices (BMP), are designed to drain dry within 72 hours. This keeps any mosquito eggs laid in the water from maturing to adulthood.

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While most people notice standing water in the larger facilities and make the necessary repairs, it can be easy to overlook the smaller problems like a broken drywell cap or damaged mosquito screen on a rain barrel that can bring these problems right to your back yard.

If a facility isn’t draining in that time, there may be a clog in either PVC piping or the filter media. The first step to problem solving a drainage issue is to check the facility outfalls and observation wells for blockages and sediment accumulation. If there is filter media in your facility, sediment may accumulate there as well.

So remember to be a great sidekick to your stormwater facility this spring and help it keep being super!