Tributary 7 Virtual Tour
Tributary 7 indicated by blue line below, transects the Butler Farms and Oak Creek communities before discharging into Potash Brook. This viewing tool allows you to download baseline and flood storm events from various locations on the tributary. As the video files are relatively bulky, a dial up connection will load very slowly, so you might want to view this with a DSL or cable connection. Our intent is to illustrate the cumulative effects of impervious surface loading and its significant impact on the tributary.
This is an orthophoto of the Butler Farms/Oak Creek Village residential developments. The orange lines represent underground storm water infrastructure, some of which empties into the detention basins at the north end of the Oak Creek Village property.
The green dots indicate observation points in the tributary. Click to zoom onto that location.
Prior to downloading video clips, please review the general background. Through a comparison of baseline and storm events, we can witness typical impervious surface runoff dynamics, which tend to overwhelm tributaries and receiving waters.
If you click
on the sites at Butler Farms and progress downstream following the
blue arrows, you will see a gradual increase in storm water volume
in the tributary as the BF/OCV runoff empties into Trib 7.
Comparing "before" and "after"
The upstream site on the left is Tributary 7 as it enters Butler Farms and the right photograph is approximately one mile downstream, after it has received runoff from both communities. This rapid increase in stream discharge is typical for communities which don't effectively manage stormwater. The photos and clips are from a storm event on 8/31/04.
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As suburban development will continue in the Potash Brook watershed, we face a challenge: do we continue with the 'business as usual' model, or do we begin to more effectively manage our storm water runoff?
Do we wait for the city government to construct costly end-of -the pipe solutions, or can we proactively take responsibility for our own home and neighborhood? Which choices will cost us less money? Which will reduce environmental impacts?
In the BMP section of the toolbox, we explore these concerns in a review of different stormwater technologies. The Virtual Tour is now complete. Please explore the next section in Stormwater Basics.