Typical maintenance problems and activities for infiltration practices
Link to this table
| Inspection Focus | Common Maintenance Problems | Maintenance Activity | Recommended Maintenance Schedule | Applicable Infiltration Practices1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'Drainage Area and Drawdown Time' | Clogging, sediment deposition | Ensure that contributing catchment areas to practice, and inlets are clear of debris | Monthly | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
| Erosion of catchment area contributing significant amount of sediment | In case of severely reduced drawdown time, scrape bottom of basin and remove sediment. Disc or otherwise aerate/scarify basin bottom. Dethatch if basin bottom is turf grass. Restore original design cross section or revise section to increase infiltration rate and restore with vegetation as necessary. | Upon identification of drawdown times longer than 48 hours or upon complete failure | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | |
| 'Pretreatment' | Pretreatment screens or sumps reach capacity | Remove sediment and oil/grease from pretreatment devices/structures. | Minimum yearly or as per manufacturer's recommendations | 1,2,3,4,5 |
| Vegetative filter strip failure | Reduce height of vegetative filter strip that may be limiting in‐flow. Re‐establish vegetation to prevent erosion. Leave practice off‐line until full reestablishment. | Mow grass filter strips monthly. Restore as necessary | 1,2,4,6 | |
| 'Site Erosion' | Scouring at inlets | Correct earthwork to promote non‐erosive flows that are evenly distributed | As necessary | 1,2,3,6 |
| Unexpected flow paths into practice | Correct earthwork to eliminate unepxected drainage or created additional stabile inlets as necessary | As necessary | 1,2,3,6 | |
| 'Vegetation | Reduced drawdown time damaging plants | Correct drainage issues as described above | Replace with appropriate plants after correction of drainage issues | 2,6,8 |
| Severe weed establishment | Limit the ability for noxious weed establishment by properly mowing, mulching or timely herbicide or handweeding. Refer to the MDA Noxious Weed List | Bi‐Monthly April through October | 2,6,8 |
1
- Infiltration Basin
- Bioinfiltration Basin
- Infiltration Trench
- Dry Well
- Underground Infiltration
- Dry Swale with Check Dams
- Permeable Pavement
- Tree Trench/Tree Box