Belmont Driveways Can Soak Up Stormwater

 January 2016, Newsletter, Stormwater  Comments Off on Belmont Driveways Can Soak Up Stormwater
Jan 132016
 
Belmont Driveways Can Soak Up Stormwater

By Anne-Marie Lambert Most Belmont driveways are impervious surfaces, and they make local flooding and water pollution worse—but that doesn’t have to be the case. When a driveway is made of asphalt or concrete, rainfall flows quickly to catch basins, erodes soil along the way, and increases pollution and flooding risks in downstream neighborhoods. Water that soaks into the soil doesn’t have any of these effects. More and more homeowners are taking advantage of today’s porous paver technologies in order to allow the soil to soak up rain before it reaches our catch basins and waterways. Plus, the pavers can [READ MORE]

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Homeowners Can Reduce Yard Runoff

 Newsletter, November 2015, Stormwater  Comments Off on Homeowners Can Reduce Yard Runoff
Sep 162015
 
Homeowners Can Reduce Yard Runoff

By Fred and Anne Paulsen We have lived for a long time with a cracked concrete driveway complete with weeds growing through the cracks. To the rear of our house, the driveway widens to include a large impervious parking area. As part of the Stormwater Working Group’s (SWG) efforts to reduce the pollution of runoff from streets and parking lots, all townspeople are urged to allow much of their rainwater and snow melt to infiltrate into the ground. Frank Frazier, a SWG member, wrote a handout for the Belmont Building Department with instructions for porous repaving and relevant web sites. [READ MORE]

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Porous Pavement Can Drain Sloped Sites

 May 2015, Newsletter, Stormwater  Comments Off on Porous Pavement Can Drain Sloped Sites
May 122015
 
Porous Pavement Can Drain Sloped Sites

by Kristopher Houle, P.E. A longer version of this article, including several references, originally appeared on the Ecological Landscape Alliance’s blog. Many green infrastructure alternatives exist for reducing stormwater runoff. Porous asphalt is one that has clear benefits. In New England, porous asphalt has been used successfully in sidewalks, parking lots, subdivision roads, and highways. Research has demonstrated its function for  stormwater attenuation, recharging local waterways, runoff treatment, and chloride source control. As an engineer and practitioner, I commonly see projects that would benefit from its use, but porous asphalt has been excluded from the final design for reasons relating [READ MORE]

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