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Garage area runoff

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WARose

Structural
Mar 17, 2011
5,593
US
I have a situation where a garage area (basically a covered slab on grade with a sloping surface to a drain box) where equipment gets worked on is going to have more of it's cover removed. This "cover" consists of a bunch of cantilever posts running up to a roof. (Basically we are talking a tractor shelter here.) Originally, not all of the area was covered by this shelter.....and as I said: now more will be exposed to rainfall.

In addition to facing the increase in runoff......I am wondering if this is even ok to treat as storm water. (I had nothing to do with the original design, but I am going to own it now with this modification.) These guys (and I've watched them to be sure) don't dump drained oil and hydraulic fluid in the storm drain (and they have a disposal procedure)......but there is always the possibility of spills. So is it ok to treat runoff from this area like storm water?

I cannot find anything specific in the local storm water regs.....so I thought I'd ask here. Thanks in advance.
 
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If I understand correctly, this area was once primarily roof runoff (clean), and now will be a combination of roof and garage slab?

When you ask if it is "OK to treat as stormwater?" I assume you are asking if it's OK to lets this slab runoff into the surrounding vegetated area?

I see no issue with this, provided this isn't a heavily concentrated area. This is no different than a parking lot running off into a bio swale. I'll assume there are no wellheads in the immediate area?

 
I see no issue with this, provided this isn't a heavily concentrated area. This is no different than a parking lot running off into a bio swale. I'll assume there are no wellheads in the immediate area?

Thanks Twinkie. And to answer your question: no. No wellheads in the area.
 
"Treat as stormwater" is a loaded phrase, honestly. Some states will require "hotspot treatment" of stormwater that runs off of an area like that. Some won't. They all approach the Clean Water Act a little differently.

It wouldn't hurt to collect all the runoff from the garage slab and pipe it through an oil grit separator regardless of state rules.

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -
 
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