Photo Credit: Alex Mead
Seen here is the inside of a storm interceptor basin located near Detroit, Michigan. Most of the time this massive water storage unit sits dry, however, when a large storm hits the area, and dumps more precipitation than the sewer infrastructure can handle this tank begins to fill. The concept is that this tank can be filled and take up the extra water that is put into the system by the large rain event that the sewer system can’t handle. The water in the tank can then be filtered through the typical process once the precipitation event is over and the load on the system is lower. Tanks like this one are important because over flowing the sewer system usually results in a release of contaminated water into a natural water way.