subject: One Way Of Preventing Foods And Erosion [print this page] Ever since the time early humans started living in centralized urban settings, storm water run-off has always been a recurring problem. The issue of excess storm water run-off grew to almost exponential proportions when early man began using dwelling styles and homes that included a considerable amount of impervious surfaces in its design.
Storm water run-off can be defined as any amount of excess water that is produced during natural precipitation. This amount of excess water is often caused by water not being absorbed into the soil because of urbanization, and the increasing amount of non-porous, impervious surfaces.
The abundance of impervious surfaces such as buildings, rooftops, roads, sidewalks or even compacted soil, causes water that comes from precipitation such as rain or the melting of snow to fail to penetrate into the underlying ground earth. Instead, the run-off flows in every direction causing soil erosion and flooding.
Aside from the disruption of soil and flooding, storm water run-off often washes pollutants from these impervious surfaces along with it. These pollutants can occur in great quantities because of everyday human activities. A piece of candy wrapper on the street can get washed into drainage systems. In large amounts, these pollutants not only impede the flow of storm water run-off, but also affect its quality by introducing bacteria and other forms of contaminants into the water supply.
That is why modern building construction nowadays requires stormwater systems, also known as storm water best management practices or BMPs, to ensure that storm water run-off is kept at a minimum.
As a law, building contractors in the United States are required by state and local storm water systems regulations to acquire certain permits from the NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) in accordance to the Clean Water Act of 1972, as mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Environmental Protection Agency ensures that storm water run-off is regulated in every construction project. They can perform routine onsite inspections in order to make sure that contractors are complying with regulations and are implementing sufficient storm water systems to prevent run-off from flowing into and contaminating bodies of water that are near the construction site.
by: Chris Cole
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