Water Drainage
Once the runoff begins to move down hill it will ultimately drain to a particular body of water. The total land area that drains water into a given stream, river, lake, pond or other body of water is a watershed. New Brighton is located completely in Rice Creek Watershed District, which also covers parts of Anoka, Hennepin, Ramsey and Washington Counties.
Extensive uses of impervious surfaces (such as buildings, parking lots, and roadways) can increase the amount of storm water runoff in the watershed. In urbanized areas like New Brighton, the increased storm water runoff can increased the chances of flooding and cause stream bank erosion.
New Brighton has designed its drainage routes for different extreme runoff events to provide acceptable levels of flooding. Mortgage companies may require a homeowner to have flood insurance if their property is located in a low area. The federal government determines the location of these flood zones through its National Flood Insurance program.
Impervious Impact
Impervious surfaces are building, roads, curb, gutters, driveways, parking lots and sidewalks with a solid hard surface. These hard surfaces do not allow water to pass through them like the natural ground features did before people built the impervious surfaces. With less water infiltrating into the groundwater we have more storm water runoff in the watershed. Learn why City Streams flood more at EPA’s web page.
The increased volume of storm water runoff on hard impervious surfaces also travels faster than storm water runoff on green areas where some water soaks in. The increasing velocity of storm water runoff can scour stream banks and beds, destroying habitat for aquatic life, and carry more pollution.
The storm water runoff carries more soil particles, pesticides, fertilizers, bacteria, pet waste, trash, debris, oil and other toxic materials into our ponds, streams, lakes and wetlands much easier when these pollution sources are left on or near the impervious surfaces.
Sub-Watersheds
New Brighton has used the physical barriers that cause water to ultimately drain to a particular body of water to divide the City into seven major watershed areas and numerous sub-watersheds.
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