If You Build It Constructed wetlands provide an ideal solution
for dealing with stormwater in increasingly urbanized
environments - By Scott D. Wallace - Apr 01, 2006 Stormwater
managers around the country are challenged by growing regulatory
requirements in the face of increasingly urbanized land uses. As
cities continue to grow, more and more areas are covered with
roads, buildings, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces.
Instead of storing and slowly releasing water, these impervious
surfaces quickly shed rainfall. At the same time, contaminants
on these impervious surfaces, such as salt, oils, and sediments,
are picked up and carried away in the runoff. The result is both
an increase in runoff volume and a decrease in water quality,
contributing to the decline of urban and suburban streams
throughout the United States. This threat to our streams and
rivers has lead to intense interest in stormwater best
management practices (BMPs). Because stormwater managers often
have very limited areas in which to