Where Stormwater Strategy Meets Practical Guidance

Across towns and counties, road departments replace cross culverts every day. The motivation is usually sound. Aging pipes fail without warning, and a collapse beneath the roadway can create a serious safety hazard, not to mention an expensive emergency repair. Proactive replacement is responsible a…

In many cases, wetlands announce themselves clearly with standing water, saturated soils, and soft, mucky ground. However, some of the most regulated and environmentally sensitive wetlands are far less obvious. They may appear dry for much of the year, support grasses and shrubs, and even look suita…

Street sweeping rarely gets much attention. It is slow, repetitive work, often done in the early morning hours, and the equipment itself can be temperamental and expensive to maintain. Sweepers are subject to constant wear, from abrasive debris, dust, and the mechanical strain of brushes, conveyors,…

*Author's note: The primary image paired with this article depicts a road with a paved wing - Richmond Hill Drive in Queensbury, NY, to be precise - while flooded during a pre-thaw heavy rain event. A winged road with adequate drainage would not normally retain that amount of stormwater. If you …

Closed-circuit television, or CCTV, drainage inspection has become one of the most effective tools available to municipalities for understanding the true condition of their buried stormwater infrastructure. Unlike surface inspections, which can only reveal limited information, CCTV inspections provi…

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System, or MS4, compliance is built on documentation. Whether you are demonstrating outfall inspections, tracking illicit discharge investigations, or verifying maintenance activities, a well-organized photo-log can be one of the most effective and defensible tools in …

Infiltration-based best management practices, or BMPs, are designed to capture, store, and gradually infiltrate stormwater into the ground. These systems, which include bioretention basins, infiltration trenches, dry wells, and porous pavement systems, are particularly vulnerable during and immediat…

Fire hydrant flushing is a common and often necessary practice for maintaining water distribution systems. Municipalities flush hydrants to remove sediment, verify system performance, and ensure adequate flow for firefighting. While these objectives are important, the practice can carry a range of u…

When addressing a drainage problem, one of the most important decisions is whether to move water away through a traditional catch basin and pipe system or to manage it on-site using a dry well. Both approaches are widely used and effective when applied in the right context, but selecting the wrong s…

Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System programs, commonly referred to as MS4 programs, are often viewed as regulatory obligations, while stormwater asset management is treated as an operational necessity. In reality, these two efforts are deeply interconnected. When properly aligned, a strong asset m…

Is a Catch Basin Appropriate Here? Before a catch basin is installed, it is important to step back and ask a simple but often overlooked question, what purpose is it actually going to serve at this location? Catch basins are frequently installed out of habit or because “there has always been o…

Understanding Natural vs. Problematic Foam in Streams, Channels, and Lakes If you spend enough time around streams, roadside ditches, or lakes, you will eventually notice patches of foam collecting along the edges or drifting in slow-moving water. For many people, the immediate assumption is that th…