Oliver Brown Blog #1

This week’s work was mostly spent attempting to narrow down our research project idea. Our project is based on the following problem. If a storm deposits enough water in the catch basin for the Dog River in a short enough time, the river will have a flow rate higher than the treatment plant is designed to handle. If the treatment plant is receiving storm water above capacity, it will overflow and release untreated water into the river. To decrease the amount of storm water the treatment facility is receiving directly after a storm event, the runoff needs to be decreased. Man-made infrastructure such as roads, parking lots and roofs increase runoff. This occurs because impermeable concrete surfaces allow storm water to race down roads and drain directly into the river. Naturally, a higher portion of this storm water should seep into the ground and reach the river over a longer period of time. Our project is to educate the towns-people and provide them with options to help combat man-made runoff on their properties.

Options such as rain collection barrels and gravity filtering systems such as French drains help to decrease runoff into the river which decreases peak flow in the river and in turn decreases the probability of the treatment plant receiving water above capacity and overflowing.

We are trying to provide options that would also benefit them in some other way to help incentivize the action. The benefits of personal rain collection and filtration systems extend past decreasing runoff, for example, a simple barrel under the gutter spout can collect fresh water that can be used in a garden. Or even if filtered through materials included in the barrel, this rainwater could be used for much else, for example cooking, drinking, cleaning, or laundry.

A French drain is an underground filtration system that directs seeping water away from building foundations. This is a huge benefit during high volume rain events, a French drain could save a homeowner the annoyance and costs of a flooded basement.

For lab today (10/10/18), we visited multiple storm water management sites in Northfield, including the filtration system that filters and slows down runoff at the intersection of Central Street and Wall Street. The filtration that is used there would be similar to the filtration used in a French drain, although the focus of the French drain is more to redirect the water away from the foundation while the one downtown filters FOG (Fats Oils and Greases) along with petroleum products, heavy metals, and other particles collected by the storm water.