BMP and stormwater management

The initials "BMP" do not represent a new oil company! They are the abbreviation of "best management practices," a phrase that has become commonplace in the vocabulary of ecological and environmental discussions. BMPs are what make the difference between flooding and non-flooding in our community. The lack of BMP has led to the construction site and large agricultural runoff in the Chesapeake Bay basin and has been close to destroying the Florida Everglades.

BMPs include not only managing excess water created in storms, but also allocating and using water when there is not enough for everyone. The problem with the Florida Everglades is that sugar makers are directing the water to flow to the Everglades. Everglades and Chesapeake are great, dramatic and highly visible examples of what happens when water is administered by default. But standard administration happens in smaller ways every day in most of our communities. These include drainage ditches that are not cleaned, the leaves that people still throw on the streets to be washed in storm drains, and used oil that is still dumped into sewers.

Standard administration is a current "hot topic" regarding stormwater drains. In part, this is because where there is drought, runoff management to catch rainwater and thaw becomes more important. Of course, infrastructure planning and redesign is necessary to capture more runoff, an expensive task. Another motivator to consider BMPs in terms of stormwater management is that with better management there will be less flooding and less severe flooding. The comparison will be how much the community will cost a flood compared to proper drainage to avoid flooding.

Sewage (whatever comes out of houses and buildings) is controlled and controlled every day. On the contrary, rainwater is controlled and controlled only when there is a storm. The rest of the time we do not see rainwater and we trust that the runoff systems are under appropriate conditions. What we do not believe, however, is that the stormwater systems in our community are designed to fail in really big storms. In a letter in the Stormcom Show Issue of Stormwater, in an article titled "Stormwater Management for Wastewater Organization," Andrew Reese points out that stormwater management systems have generally been at the end of the budgeting process and the zoning process. It costs too much money to protect against floods in a hundred years. Protecting neighborhoods built on flood plains against catastrophic rain costs too much money, but there is pressure to allow development to increase the tax base and land value. And therefore, in most cases, communities know in advance that if the floods are severe enough, they will be destroyed.

Unfortunately, BMPs are likely to take a long time to become the rule rather than the exception in regional and community zoning and operations. There is much to regret. Chesapeake did not deteriorate in a day or a year. Neither are the Everglades nor most of our nation's lakes, rivers, streams and streams. The cost of doing well is so great, and the economic impact on owners and taxpayers is so great that the change will necessarily be gradual and long-term. But on the positive side, in our personal activities and in any country we own or control, we can all start doing BMP right away.

Sometimes these small-scale BMPs are nothing but common sense: don't throw paint in the trash and don't sprinkle. Dispose of old medicines properly instead of rinsing them down, use lawn fertilizer sparingly, cover the leaves and reuse them whenever possible. In the land we own or control, the starting point would be good land management and adequate supervision. Repair and correct erosion with planting and ponds. Prohibit customers and visitors from performing devastating land activities, such as emptying oil from their vehicles or starting waste fires For more information visit this website www.greetly.com/visitor-management-system

On other occasions, BMPs force us to study and learn new things. Connect with local and regional watershed management planning.