What is Sustainable Stormwater Management?

This cross section is a representative graphic of how stormwater will be collected, stored and infiltrated along North Street. When rain falls on a stormwater quality element it will be infiltrated to subsurface storage which is stored underground in stone reservoirs while it slowly infiltrates into the ground recharging ground water tables. If rain falls on impervious surface it will gravitationally flow to the nearest stormwater quality element where it will be collect, stored and infiltrated.

Planter

Tree Well

Pervious Pavers

Rain Garden

Pervious Concrete

Underground Gravel Reservoir

The Scales of Sustainable Stormwater Management

Sustainable stormwater management will not only affect the area immediately surrounding the North Street but also the City of Lafayette and the Wabash River Watershed. Projects like North Street will affect the entire watershed and if these projects are implemented throughout the region they will have a major affect on communities throughout the Midwest.

Wabash River Watershed

The Wabash River, which flows through Lafayette, forms the largest watershed in the state of Indiana. A watershed is an area of land in which surface water drains to a single location. The river drains over 39,000 square miles of area across Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. Major tributaries of the Wabash include the White River and the Tippecanoe River. The Wabash River is a tributary of the Ohio River. The Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River, which then empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Wabash River Watershed

Lafayette Watersheds

Lafayette Sub Watersheds

Combined sewers are located throughout North Street’s historic urban neighborhoods. Lafayette’s stormwater is conveyed through combined sewer systems.  These systems collect and move stormwater, domestic sewage and industrial wastewater through a single pipe.  In normal conditions, the stormwater is conveyed to a waste water treatment plant, and then discharged into the Wabash River after treatment. However, after moderate to large rain events, the system cannot treat the increased volume; therefore the untreated water is then directly released through combined sewer overflows into the river which causes serious environmental and public health risks.

CSOs near North Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North Street Project Area

The North Street project area stretches nine city blocks from 3rd Street to Erie Street near downtown Lafayette. The 2,700 lineal foot integrated infrastructure project has the potential to remove over 6.6 million gallons annually from the city’s combined sewer system.

 

North Street Surface Stormwater Flow