Well…it’s June, and that means that summer is nearly upon us. Many of you have probably spent the last month or two opening up your seasonal camps and cottages, throwing the windows open, raking up the leaves and acorns, and removing debris from your beach or shoreline. Along with these standard practices that we undergo every spring, we should be including one more really important one, checking your property for signs of erosion and inspecting any landscaped features that have been installed to manage stormwater on your property.
AWWA YCC Crew Leader Jordan Shepherd inspects a waterbar on Wilson Lake this spring.
Sites with Stormwater Management
Those of you who have had the AWWA Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) install some Best Management Practices (BMPs) on your property know the importance of these features and also know that if they are not maintained properly, they will cease to function. Each spring, you should add this simple list to your “to-dos”.
- Inspect the area around the installed feature
-look for areas where runoff is overflowing and potentially eroding the surrounding area
-look for sediment build up in detention areas like drywells and rain gardens. Try to remove excess sediment when possible as the sediment will decrease the ability for features to infiltrate water - If the feature looks to be in good shape, keep an eye on it the next rain storm to make sure it is functioning
- If the feature appears to not be working or has failed, please contact the AWWA Program Manager for assistance at (603) 473-2500.
Although not in bad shape, this project was installed in 2011 and is due for a little maintenance due to leaf litter. The leaves on the infiltration walkway and dripline trench will prevent runoff from being able to get into the ground. A quick rake or sweep of the BMPs should remove the leaves. If these leaves were on an area of ground away from the camp, we would encourage you to leave them in order to buffer the movement of runoff toward the lake.
This series of infiltration steps and vegetation look great coming into their second year of existence. Minimal pine needles and no signs of erosion near the lake.Sites with No Stormwater Management
If you have never had the YCC install any features at your property and you have never installed any erosion features yourself, than it is important to monitor your property at various times of the year. The first time of year to check is during the spring. Little rills or even gullies can occur after we have our winter melt and runoff. If everything looks good in the spring, than the next step is to keep your eyes peeled during our increasingly intense thunder storms in the summer. These storms can now dump upwards of several inches in an hour onto a property. If you have any chronic erosion issues, know of runoff during storms reaching your lake, or would like to have a free technical assistance visit, please contact the AWWA Program Manager at (603) 473-2500 or see our contact info.
A site with runoff coming from the road, down the driveway and right into the lake. Look for evidence in pine needs and the displacement of rocks showing the flow.
Large Gullies are a dead give away that large volume of stormwater are washing sediment, nutrients, and potential pollutants into the lake.
If you have any questions, would like to request a free technical assistance visit, or need a new site design due to a failed BMP, please contact us at (603) 473-2500 or visit our contact info.