Stormwater Control Measure: Water Quality Solutions

Is your stormwater control measure suffering from turbid, or muddy, water?

In a developing area, seeing a construction site with heavy equipment rolling over newly cleared land is commonplace.  In an area as desirable as the Triangle, this image is almost as familiar as Bojangles and barbecue fundraisers.  Living in an “up and coming area” translates to new homes, shops, and restaurants being built in a perpetual cycle.   Forests and farmlands are constantly being converted into apartment complexes and commercial properties at a rapid pace.  With this development comes an unavoidable strain on our stormwater infrastructure.  When rain water falls on this cleared land, it generates muddy water. Despite best practices, it then escapes the construction sites and enters into our stormwater system.  This muddy, or turbid, water eventually settles into the stormwater control measure (SCM), like the one in the picture below. 

Stormwater Control Measure, Water Quality: Turbid, or muddy, water is visible due to suspended particles.

This issue is only exacerbated by the red clay that is so prevalent in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  It doesn’t take many suspended clay particles in a pond before the water looks less like a healthy, natural ecosystem and more like an iced latte, commonly purchased at an establishment that will almost certainly occupy the nearby construction site when completed.  Unfortunately, water bodies with extremely turbid water, especially directly after rain events, are becoming as ubiquitous as the new developments.  However, when we see a muddy stormwater pond, it is actually an indication that the system is working as designed.  The Stormwater Control Measure is catching and holding this turbid water and preventing it from polluting the nearby stream.  This is what we want.  We want our stormwater ponds to look like this, instead of our rivers and streams.  But that doesn’t mean that nothing can or should be done while this polluted water is temporarily held in the stormwater system.  We want to be as proactive as possible with our management tactics in order to improve the surrounding community’s water quality, especially with an issue as prevalent and pervasive as turbid water. 

What we do while this water is temporarily stored in the Stormwater Control Measure is incredibly important to achieving this goal.  In addition to being an aesthetic eyesore, turbid water leads to conditions that should be antithetical to what we are looking for in our SCMs built for water quality enhancement. This includes low oxygen levels and unhealthy populations of macro organisms.  The design alone of most Stormwater Control Measures and the passive water filtration methods that they implement are almost always inadequate at improving turbid water due to suspended clay particles.  Clay particles are incredibly small, and do not easily settle out of the water column, even in still water.  It often takes more active measures in order to sufficiently enhance the pond’s water quality as well as improve its aesthetic appearance.

One time treatments with flocculants to bind up the particles do produce results, but the results are often short term, which necessitates ongoing successive treatments that are impractical both logistically and financially.  In order to produce lasting improvements that fit into our client’s budget, we prefer to use site specific polymer logs that are designed to bind suspended clay particles. 

These Polymers Are:

• Tailored and tested to floc the suspended particles at each individual site to ensure better results

• Environmentally friendly

• Have a ‘lifespan’ of 4-6 months, providing water quality enhancement for an extended period of time

Using these polymers in conjunction with aeration increases the efficacy of the treatment program.  At this site, the polymer logs were floated above the diffusers of an aeration system.  The aeration system circulates the water past the polymer logs which instigates the binding process. Using these tools together helps create a practical and affordable solution. 

Stormwater Control Measure: Before Water Quality Treatment

Stormwater Control Measure: After a few months of water quality treatment with polymer logs

The only way to permanently mitigate muddy water is to totally eliminate land clearing or erosion in a watershed.  For the reasons discussed above, we may never experience that reality again.  In an area of increasing development, turbid water is here to stay, especially with the red clay that is so predominant in our region.  We have to proactively look for creative solutions and adapt, in order to adequately confront this prevalent issue.  I’ve heard that “red clay doesn’t grow good plants, but it does grow good people”, which epitomizes the situation we are in.  It encapsulates the challenges that clay soil presents and the requirement for increased knowledge, creative thought, and intentional action to produce results that would come naturally in a more optimal environment. The residents of the Piedmont region of North Carolina have created a “red clay culture” through struggling with these challenges, and it has made them more resourceful, more knowledgeable and more resilient.  Hopefully, the stormwater industry can follow that same trajectory. By struggling with this issue, we are forced to create better management practices that will improve our community’s water quality, in spite of challenging conditions.  Through this struggle, red clay can grow good stormwater practices as well.

Stormwater Control Measures and More

Learn about the process a stormwater pond goes through from construction basin to engineer certification. Read about utilizing Integrated Pest Management as part of a comprehensive stormwater maintenance plan.

Dragonfly Pond Works is a lake, pond, and stormwater management company. We provide pond water quality improvements, stormwater maintenance, stormwater control measure repair, and more throughout North Carolina, in Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, Cary, and Wilmington. Our pond and lake maintenance services can be found throughout Florida, in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Naples, Sarasota, Fort Myers, and Orlando. We also provide lake and pond maintenance in Myrtle Beach, Charleston, and Columbia, South Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia. We strive to develop long-term relationships based on quality work, timely service, cost-efficiency, and of course, trust. Please contact us to learn more.

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