The Importance Standards in Preventing Flood and Water Damage Clean-Up in Macomb County, MI

The concepts of drainage and water management are some of the most significant factors to flooding prevention in a community. If the drainage systems are not properly managed, flooding can occur more frequently and more severely. It is impossible to prevent extreme weather from happening, but a place can do something about their equipment in order to lessen the negative impact of the weather.

In Macomb Country, MI, it is the Macomb County Public Works Office (MCPWO) that is put in charge of the drainage systems. The group originally made use of the 1967 Rules and Regulations for Internal and External Drainage for Subdivisions in its operations. However, there have been newer regulations that changed its guidelines. For instance, the second phase of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Stormwater Regulations has updated design standards applicable to stormwater drainage. The purpose of such changes is to keep up with the alterations of the community features and to increase vigilance in preventing flood cleanup requirements in the first place.

The happening of floods and as such, the need to conduct cleanup after water damage depends on how the excess water that is produced is managed. Aside from the community itself, the state of the river systems is also dependent on how the water is handled. With so many features of the land at stake, it is easy to see why a community such as Macomb Country emphasizes the need to have efficient management of drainages.

The most effective way to manage the drainages is to start at the subwatershed and catchment scale levels. According to researches done in the past, the more impervious surface area there is, the more likely it is to have detrimental effect. Examples of such effects would be a deterioration of water quality, erosion, and alterations in the stream ecology.

Impervious surfaces are placed that does not allow the rainfall to be absorbed into the soil like roads, rooftops, and driveways. When a construction is done, the ground is unable to store rainfall naturally. The rain that should have been absorbed simply washes away. The runoff then alters the characteristics of the watersheds. It is then more likely for flooding to become more severe and frequent. For the community, this translates to more instances of flood cleanup or water damage clean-up in Macomb County, MI.

To prevent such disastrous consequences, the MCPWO states that development sites should feature enough access locations for existing drainages. The resulting changes in the amount of water from the runoff should not be of the volume that causes detriment to other locations, particularly those that are found downstream. Downstream properties are those that are more vulnerable to flood cleanup.

The adverse situations in the downstream properties are flooding, excessively saturated soil, crop damage, and erosion. The decline of water quality of the location should also be avoided. Any developments made the County of Macomb should feature the proper drainage systems that conform to the county requirements in order to lessen the need for water damage restoration due to floods.