#stormwater — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stormwater, aggregated by home.social.
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Research - #RainBarrels and Other Household Stormwater Strategies Are Working — For Now.
May 5, 2026
Excerpt: " 'When we talk about #CircularEconomy, most people think about #recycling waste and materials. But the concept of circular economy also applies to water. Here we're talking about installing #rainwater #cisterns, reusing water from the sink to flush toilets and using water-efficient appliances. While those may seem like small steps at the individual level, we found that if they are widely adopted, they can have a significant collective impact,' said Fernanda Cruz Rios, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering, who was a co-author of the research. 'They help reduce demand on the municipal supply, and the energy needed to treat and distribute that water. But what we found was that these strategies offer a real double benefit. In areas like #PhiladelphiaPA and #CamdenME, that are particularly vulnerable due to their proximity to large bodies of water, we were able to see a meaningful reduction in flooding volumes when circular water strategies were adopted.'
"Despite the ongoing compliance efforts, the cities of Philadelphia and Camden have around 16 billion gallons of combined #sewer overflow, according to reports from their respective water utilities.
"Over the last two and a half decades, Camden has established a stormwater management plan, including decentralized strategies, an upgrade to #stormwater infrastructure and storm water management modeling. To understand the overall impact of these efforts, in hopes of applying findings to other vulnerable urban areas, the Drexel team created a computer model of stormwater movement using data from Cramer Hill, a neighborhood of Camden in the state’s 'coastal hazard zone' that is highly susceptible to tidal and storm-surge flooding.
"The researchers structured the model so that it could quantify the distinct effects of outdoor strategies (cisterns and rain barrels) and indoor strategies — efficient fixtures and reusing sink wash water (#greywater) for toilet flushing. It simulated and measured the effect of 16 different combinations of strategies, ranging from rain barrels of different sizes, to varying levels of adoption of water-efficient fixtures and greywater reuse."Each scenario was simulated using precipitation and tidal data from 2014 as a baseline and flooding measurements projected at locations across the neighborhood and at five stormwater outfall areas that contribute to combined sewer overflow discharges into the #DelawareRiver.
The results show that the combination of retrofitting homes with #WaterEfficientFixtures as well as installing rain barrels and practicing greywater reuse, when adopted by 75% of households, could reduce the volume of combined sewer overflows by as much as 11% and the volume of #floodwaters by up to 13%.
" 'This finding is an important and encouraging piece of information for municipalities that are facing similar challenges,' Marques said. 'Although broad adoption of these measures can be challenging to achieve, confirmation of its effectiveness may help to make the case.' "
#SolarPunkSunday #ClimateChangeAdaptation #Graywater #StormwaterSeparation #StormwaterReduction #WaterCisterns #UrbanPlanning #WaterUse #WaterIsLife #ClimateChange
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This is #PicnicPond in #BrunswickMaine. It is closed to the public because of #PFAS contamination, but there is plenty of #Wildlife in the area, and the pond empties into #HarpswellCove / #CascoBay.
Image source and more info about Picnic Pond:
https://maineanencyclopedia.com/brunswick-landing/#Stormwater #Environment #PFASPollution #BrunswickLanding #BrunswickNavalAirStation #CascoBay #PollutionRunoff #OceansAreLife #WaterIsLife #WebOfLife #Superfund #PFOS
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'Foam is being blown by the wind here, there, and everywhere': #BrunswickMaine #PFAS clean-up continues
Within a mile of the #BrunswickLanding are three bodies of water that make up the local storm water systems, which the DEP said have likely been contaminated.
Author: Pearl Small
Published: 9:44 PM EDT August 21, 2024BRUNSWICK, Maine — "Three days after an accidental spill of more than 1,000 gallons of foam containing PFAS at the Brunswick Executive Airport, foam was still seen flying through the air on Wednesday as crews including #CleanHarbors and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection attempted to clean it up.
"'Foam on these ponds is being blown by the wind here, there, and everywhere,' Suzanne Johnson, who sits on Brunswick's #restoration advisory board, said. Johnson said this situation was one of her worst fears for the town. Although the DEP has said they have reason to believe the spill will not affect the town's drinking water, there are other #environmental concerns at stake.
"'This stuff is a forever chemical. It doesn't go away. So, the foam dissolves, but the chemical is still there,' Johnson said. Within a mile of the Brunswick Landing are three bodies of water that make up the local storm water systems, which the DEP said have likely been contaminated with the foam. Those three sources are natural ponds filled with #fish and plant life.
"'Open water body sources was the #StormWater system for this property. This chemical spewed directly into those open bodies of water,' Johnson said. The path takes the foam directly into two ponds that lead to a source called #PicnicPond, which eventually connects to #HarpswellCove.
"'I believe the areas connected to the discharge are already closed,' [but still teeming with #wildlife] Melanie Loyzim, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner, said at a press conference on Wednesday. The ponds are mostly unreachable by people because they've already been listed as #superfund sites and blocked off by the town due to past PFAS contamination. Loyzim said those levels will likely increase now. 'What we focus on is reducing exposure and preventing people from being exposed,' Loyzim said. [But who cares about wildlife or #CascoBay?!]
#PFASPollution #WaterIsLife
#OceansAreLife #PollutionRunoff #WebOfLife #PFOA