Natural ponds remove nitrogen more effectively than stormwater ponds
By Brad Buck, UF/IFAS
Summer brings daily storms in the Sunshine State, and with the rain, you need to control flooding in some neighborhoods. Florida is swimming in 76,000 stormwater ponds.
Designed to control flooding, stormwater ponds are not as effective as natural ponds at removing nitrogen, a pollutant that can go downstream into lakes, rivers and other bodies of water, new University of Florida research shows.
New neighborhoods must use stormwater-control measures to handle any changes in stormwater runoff.
Stormwater ponds are usually installed before houses because you need to have them in place before any potential hydrological or ecological impacts could occur on downstream waters. But sometimes homes and developments are built around naturally occurring ponds.
Despite the prevalence of stormwater ponds, scientists say the internal processes within them are understudied.