Retention ponds why do we need them? My sub-division has two. Can’t the water just get drained to the river?
In: Engineering
I’m a civil engineer and design stormwater retention and detention facilities. They serve a few functions, the main ones being treatment of runoff for pollutants, and to control the flow rate leaving a site to match the pre-developed conditions. Most municipalities have some requirements to match the runoff flow rate that the site produced prior to development. To do this you need to hold on to the water and releases it slowly. This usually takes a lot of storage volume, surface ponds are the most cost effective way to do this, but sometimes if a project doesn’t have the real estate for surface ponds, underground vaults, or gravel filled trenches are used.
TLDR: retention/detention ponds help prevent worsening of flooding as a watershed is urbanized and developed.
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