Storm drain in use

A storm drain, storm sewer, stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) or surface water system (UK) is designed to drain excess rain and ground water from paved streets, parking lots, sidewalks, and roofs. Storm drains vary in design from small residential dry wells to large municipal systems. They are present on most motorways, freeways and other busy roads, as well as towns in areas which experience heavy rainfall, flooding and coastal towns which experience regular storms. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 800 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 533 pixelsFull resolution (1200 × 800 pixel, file size: 1. ... Look up drain in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Rain is a type of precipitation, a product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the earths surface. ... Groundwater is any water found below the land surface. ... Dry well refers to an underground storage facility for water, typically storm water runoff. ... Motorway symbol in UK, France and Ireland. ... A flood (in Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages; compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float) is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land, a deluge. ... For other uses, see Coast (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Storm (disambiguation). ...

Ideally, storm drains should be separate from sanitary sewers, though in some places the runoff from storm drains is subjected to sewage treatment when there is sufficient capacity to spare. In these systems a sudden large rainfall that exceeds sewage treatment capacity will be allowed to overflow directly from the storm drains into watersheds via structures called combined sewer overflows. A sewer is an artificial conduit or system of conduits used to remove sewage (human liquid waste) and to provide drainage. ... Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater, both runoff and domestic. ...

Most drains have a single large exit at their point of discharge (often covered by a grate or a grating to prevent access by humans and exit by debris) into either a canal, river, lake, reservoir, sea or ocean and spread out into smaller branches as they move up into their catchment area. This page is a candidate to be copied to Wiktionary. ... Curb, gutter, and grating covering a storm drain A grating is any regularly spaced collection of essentially identical, parallel, elongated elements. ...

Small storm drains may discharge into individual dry wells. Storm drains may be interconnected using slotted pipe, to make a larger dry well system. Storm drains may discharge into man-made excavations known as recharge basins. Dry well refers to an underground storage facility for water, typically storm water runoff. ...

Pipes can come in many different shapes (rectangular, square, bread loaf shaped, oval and, more commonly, circle) and have many different features (including waterfalls, stairways, balconies and pits for catching rubbish or Gross Pollutant Traps (GPTs). Several different materials can also be used, such as brick, concrete and even plastic in some cases.

Building codes vary greatly on the handling of storm drain runoff. New developments might be required to construct their own storm drain processing capacity for returning the runoff to the water table and bioswales may be required in sensitive ecological areas to protect the watershed. Cross section showing the water table varying with surface topography as well as a perched water table The water table or phreatic surface is the surface where the water pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure. ... A bioswale is a piece of landscape designed to function in aid of local water drainage. ... A drainage basin is the area within the drainage basin divide (blue outline), and drains the surface runoff and river discharge (green lines) of a contiguous area. ...

An international subculture has grown up around the exploration of stormwater drains. Societies such as the Cave Clan regularly explore the drains underneath cities. This is commonly known as 'urban exploration', but is also known as 'draining' when in specific relation to storm drains. In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a set of behaviors and beliefs, culture, which could be distinct or hidden, that differentiate them from the larger culture to which they belong. ... The Cave Clan is a primarily Australian group dedicated to urban exploration. ... An urban explorer stands near the outfall of a muffin shaped brick and concrete storm drain, under Saint Paul, Minnesota. ...

Gallery

External links

• Groundwater Foundation glossary - storm drain
• U.S. E.P.A. Storm Drain Stenciling Project Guidelines
• Los Angeles storm drain system
• 7 Steps to Clean Water from Great Lakes Green Initiative
• [1] Jay R. Smith Storm Drains