The Chronicle Herald of Sunday, October 10, 2010, had an article about the storm water management system design at the new Yarmouth High School. It was quite an encouraging report. The design is an underground water containment system that collects the runoff from the school site. The water will not run into Broad Brook but will be gradually returned through percolation to the water table. Under extreme conditions a valve system will release some of the water to an overflow but mostly that won’t be the case.
The system was designed by a New Brunswick company, Soleno. It is constructed of multiple PVC plastic chambers which are encased in a bed of gravel and wrapped in special fabric. The bed is covered with earth and grass to create a soccer field on top. When it rains, storm water is collected through grates placed in the parking lots and grassy areas around the school. Sediment is removed before the water enters the storage chambers.
Now that Yarmouth has a prototype example that shows that innovative approaches are possible we must insist that future developments take advantage of such technologies. There is no longer an excuse for the type of systems and excessive run off from sites such as the Wal-Mart, Staples and Superstore complex.