General BMP Information

_{Details on all of these BMPs can be found in the supporting documents below.} 

♦Prevent Runoff: Minimize Impervious Area BMPs♦

Share Parking Spaces BMP – In commercial areas it may be possible to share parking with another business with differing peak hour land use, such as a church and a movie theatre. This is easier to implement with help of third party.

Minimize Pavement Widths BMP – With fire/driver safety in mind, pavement widths can be minimized on public and private roadways, parking lots, and sidewalks.

Minimize Front Setbacks BMP – Move buildings closer to the road to minimize impervious surfaces like sidewalks and driveways.

Share A Driveway BMP – Share a driveway with your neighbor, especially effective for long driveways.

Minimize Building Footprint(s) BMP – Build up, not out.

Minimize New Pavement BMP – On many public roads and private property, areas of pavement were paved as a convenience for the asphalt installer, but are not really needed or used by cars or pedestrians. Not paving these areas greatly decreases runoff.

♦Prevent Runoff: Limit Disturbance BMPs♦

Construction Sequencing BMP – schedule construction so that only those needed are there at a time with the goal of minimizing the erosion and control sediment.

Conserve Fast(er) Draining Soils BMP – There are two steps for placing impervious surfaces on the slower draining areas of a site:

(1) Runoff Prevention – conserve the faster draining soils, leaving them open to the sky to manage rainfall more effectively than slower draining soils or

(2) Runoff Reduction – plan for the runoff reduction BMPs that will infiltrate the remaining surfaces.

Cluster Development BMP – Planning approach that locates buildings and other infrastructure requiring road access to one place on a site.

Tree Protection BMP – Protecting individual and groves of trees can help maintain the existing hydrology and water quality functions of that portion of development.

Minimal Foundation BMP – Allow water to pass through shallow subsurface soil to more closely approximate pre-developed groundwater flow conditions.

♦Prevent Runoff from Landscape and Hardscape Areas♦

Restored Soils BMP – Simple, cost-effective practice for restoring and preserving long-term permeability of soils compacted by vehicular or, in the case of clayey soils, even foot traffic. Till the soil as well as compost the soil.

Tree Planting BMP – Plant trees to reduce impervious surfaces and water runoff.

De-pave Existing Pavement BMP – Tearing out existing pavement and replacing it with landscaping.

Contained Planter(s) BMP – A potted plant placed over impervious areas to intercept rainfall.

Vegetated Roofs (Green Roofs) BMP – roof system assemblies that manage storm water by holding rainfall in the pores of the growing medium, the draining layer below if used, and by plants. These are very heavy and often require a build permit. This LID method greatly reduces the heat island effect by shielding the roof from UV radiaion and extreme temperatures.

♦Reduce Runoff from Landscape and Hardscape Areas♦

Porous Pavement (Rainfall vs Runoff) BMP –

A stormwater management facility that allows water to move through void spaces within the pavement surface and rock below and infiltrate into underlying soils. Some pavements handle just rainfall, and others handle both rainfall and runoff.

Infiltration Rain Garden, LID Swale, or Stormwater Planter BMP – Ways to manage runoff in depressions in the ground.

Rain Garden: gentle side slopes, any shape, installed on flat ground, has a single area where water is ponded before it infiltrates or, in large storms, overflows. Can be utilized for a variety of different uses such as small residential lots, parking lots, courtyards...etc.

LID Swale: gentle side slopes, linear in shape, installed on sloping areas, using check dams that allow water to back up. The open channel design is used to filter and collect stormwater runoff. 

Storm Water Planter: in or above ground, vertical sides created by deep curbs, can be any shape.

Soakage Trench BMP – Evacuated trenches filled with coarse stone and wrapped in geotextiles that receive runoff via a pipe and store it in the rock voids until it is able to infiltrate into surrounding soils.

Drywell BMP – A well, assembled of perforated pipes, or drain tiles, that receive runoff from impervious surfaces and infiltrates that runoff underground. Needs DEQ authorization.

WQ Conveyance Swale BMP – Linear vegetated, channeled depressions that convey and treat runoff from a variety of surfaces.

Dispersion: Vegetated Filter Strips BMP – Spreads runoff over a landscape area specifically to reduce pollution and runoff. Facilities that manage sheet flow are known as vegetated filter strips. Sheet flow or overland flow is unconfined runoff over a large area.

Dispersion: Downspout Disconnection BMP – Spreads runoff over a landscape area specifically to reduce pollution and runoff. Facilities that manage concentrated flow are called disconnection. Concentrated flow means water, usually storm runoff, flowing in a confined feature such as a channel, ditch, swale, river, etc.