Why manage runoff?
When a land area is developed from a natural state to other uses, especially urban land uses such as roads, homes or shopping centers, much impervious or paved surfaces are created. Thus, causing a situation (environment) not conducive to allow rainfall to soak into the ground (percolation). This process of percolation, promotes the breaking-down of pollutants and slows the flow of runoff before allowing the water to return to groundwater sources or to flow into the local environmentally sensitive waters of Boca Ciega Bay and/or the Gulf of Mexico. Instead, the rainfall strikes the land and begins to flow. Thus, becoming stormwater runoff. As land is further developed, the volume, speed or flow, and pollutant loading of runoff increases. To minimize downstream flooding, protect lives and property and to reduce the pollution reaching our water bodies, stormwater management practices should be used to retain, detain, and/or filter the runoff. Runoff Protection and The Introduction of Swa
