Detention ponds are not where you send ducks who cause trouble! Learn more about these ponds that you have seen but never knew for for! Anthony Maginity, a deaf civil engineer shares more details! #stemvee
[Video description: Anthony, a white man with short dark hair and a goatee. Wearing a blue 2 button t-shirt with an Under Armour logo on the chest. In the background is a pond with houses in the distance.
0:27: Location changes. The background of Anthony is now an open green field with a row of trees in the distance. The sky is gray and it is raining a bit.
1:04: The background of Anthony shows a pond on the left with a blooming tree behind Anthony. On the right is grass and a picnic table.
1:16- 1:22: on the right is an image of an outlet control structure, a concrete square with a grid on top surrounded by dirt.
1:41: video zoom over to a sign next to the pond that says “private property fishing for residents only. fishing pass required. No swimming, wading, boating, ice skating or ice fishing. Guests must be accompanied by homeowner. Violators will be prosecuted”.
1:52: Anthony is inside in a corner with white walls. On the right are two shelves with green pothos plants.]
Transcript: In your neighborhood, you might notice a pond like this. This is a detention pond….What is a detention pond? A place for ducks to go when they are in trouble? For people’s pleasure? No! It is a stormwater management technique that is commonly a part of designing a new development, usually designed by civil engineers. Imagine an open field such as farmland or similar undeveloped land. When it rains, runoff is mild, and a good amount of water is absorbed by the ground (infiltration). Now say that the same land is developed into something urban – residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, etc, the same amount of runoff is more intense. Why? Because the ground is now impervious, which is pavement or a similar hard surface that severely restricts infiltration. How does runoff stay regulated to or better than what it used to be? A detention pond is one of the solutions. A detention pond is sized for the rainfall volume while regulating the outgoing flow by a device such as an outlet control structure (Insert image of OCS). There are many different designs and types, but ultimately controls the outgoing flow in order to slow down the flow. In addition, detention ponds can be used for water quality treatment which includes total suspended solids (TSS) treatment to a certain target. In this case, the solids would settle in the pond while the clean water would exit the system. Now you may now understand why you usually see “no swimming” signs in your neighborhood’s pond. Don’t think you’d want to swim in that… Leave it to the bad ducks! I just described about detention ponds. Is that the only solution? No – there are many different types of stormwater management techniques. Every state, city & region has their own specific detention requirements to follow. Thats why it is important for the civil engineer to know which local requirements need to be complied with. This can also be why you might have noticed the wide variety of ponds out there.
