Project Mirfield News Letter November 2014

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Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) are coming to Mirfield

Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) aim to mimic natural process. They do this by either allowing water to infiltrate or attenuating runoff. There are many different types of SUDS features which can generally be split into two different types, hard SUDS and soft SUDS. There are advantages and disadvantages with each. Soft SUDS resemble natural features and include techniques such as swales, ponds and wetlands. Hard SUDS are more similar to traditional drainage methods, but introduce SUDS principals, examples of hard SUDS are attenuation crates, permeable pavements and proprietary SUDS features such as filtration systems and vortex separators.

This all sounds well, and good BUT what people don’t now is most hard SUDS only have a life expectancy of 20 -40 years.

Q Who is checking that SUDS proposals are technically robust?

Q Who takes responsibility for SUDS once they are constructed?

Q How are SUDS regulated over the lifetime of their operation?

Q When SUDS fail who is responsible for cleaning up, and how long would the decision take?

 

Quote from Kirklees Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Page 18

Groundwater Flooding

Groundwater flooding occurs as a result of water rising to the surface from underlying ground or abnormal springs, usually as a result of sustained increased rainfall raising natural groundwater levels. Groundwater flooding is usually more prevalent in low-lying areas where normal water tables are high and underground aquifers are present. In Kirklees, it is very unusual to see groundwater breaking through the surface of the ground but the high number of basements in older properties in Kirklees, a product of its industrial heritage, means that groundwater flooding to “below ground” rooms is increasingly common. How does SUDS fit-in with this statement? SUDS discharge surface water in to the ground?

Quote from Kirklees Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Page 21

Number of properties at risk from flooding

If a rainfall event with a 0.5% chance of happening in any year occurred in Kirklees the number of properties at risk of flooding are:

 

• 12,000 from river flooding, and
• 15,000 from other local sources (surface water, minor streams and groundwater)

Quote from Kirklees Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Page 21

The general principles of the Strategy are that:

Flooding will always occur. It is uneconomic to totally prevent it and flood management will always be a balance of preventing flooding and managing the consequences of flooding.

Flood risk management will be a compromise between managing today’s problems and reducing the risk from future, larger, catastrophic flooding.

More and better information on drainage systems and flood risk will result in more effective schemes and initiatives.

Various authorities have flood risk management responsibilities but, ultimately, householders and businesses are best placed to protect their own properties.

New developments offer the best opportunity to reverse the mistakes made by previous generations in building developments in high flood risk locations.

The Strategy will pay due regard to the local, natural environment maximising opportunities for enhancement.

 

As a resident, and home owner in Mirfield I reserve the right to as per Kirklees Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Page 21: I demand the none use of SUDS to protect the future of homes in Mirfield

The Quote from page 49 is the only way foreword to create a robust drainage system.

Quote from Kirklees Surface Water Management Plan Page 49

Measures

• Increasing capacity in drainage systems
• Separation of foul and surface water sewers
• Improved maintenance regimes

by; S Benson

For more information on SUDS please contact me on email  steve@yourmirfield.co.uk

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