h a l f b a k e r yInexact change.
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Consider the gutter. In residential neighborhoods, runoff into the gutter is minimally contaminated and most contamination is fertilizer / pesticide from lawn care. In old neighborhood there might be a combined runoff and sewage line but in newer ones the runoff sewer is seperate and is often dumped
untreated into river or sea. In the US southwest I suspect a fair amount of the runoff captured on a daily basis is from broken or misapplied sprinklers.
This runoff water could be captured and used without further treatment to irrigate landscapes / agriculture. It would be good to clean it of sand and dirt if possible.
Anyone watching gutters will have noted that when cracks grow weeds, pools form behind these weeds. A fair amount of dirt and sand collects in these pools. Usually this is considered unsightly, but it must render water going into the drain cleaner.
In the water reuse system, gutters will have depressions, possibly with small overlying plates with holes. The point will be to retain dirt and so encourage growth of weeds which in turn act as small wetlands, slowing water and preciptating out dirt and sand. Periodically homeowners will shovel trapped dirt (and maybe some weeds) int the shubbery.
Similar implementation baked.
http://maps.google....TF-8&gl=us&t=h&z=20
[scad mientist, Jul 15 2011]
[link]
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Is it Phoenix, Arizona, that has its runoff water system feed into a sandy wetland that filters the water and allows it to be reused? |
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the gutter grass will block the flow of water and
there won't be any gutters left. (-) |
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I propose this also be used in bowling alleys. As punishment for a gutter ball, not only do you hit no pins but your ball comes back wet. |
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This would be a good idea if lawn run-off really had that high a concentration of fertilizers and pesticides, but it doesn't. Most of that actually comes from commercial farming. I think that a better idea would be to create artificial wetlands and pass sewage water through it as a means of natural purification. This would also suck a lot of the phosphorus from laundry detergent out of the water and decrease anoxic zones at river mouths. |
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[Voice] I thought the same, then realised it's for street gutters, not roof gutters. |
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I suspect that the most problematic contaminants are heavy metals and asbestos, rather than nutrients; hence yes to pits to collect sediment, but ni! to growing things in it and shovelling it into the shrubbery. |
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This concept with a slightly different implementation has been baked fairly recently. See my link to a satellite photo. I don't know if this idea came first or not. |
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Along a newly widened section of road I noticed an odd looking arrangement of tree wells and storm drains. There were cutouts in the curb by the tree wells that would allow water flowing along the curb to flow in. A few feet downhill from that was a standard storm drain. I assume that when there are small amounts of rain (typical at this location), all of it will flow into the tree well and keep the tree well watered. In a big storm, the tree well will saturate and excess water will flow past and go down the storm drain. It seem to me that this would keep the drains dry most of the time, and they would usually only carry water when there was a large quantity, so the drains would be much less likely to get clogged with sediment. |
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That is nifty! It gives me an idea too. |
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