Typical maintenance problems and activities for dry swales
Typical maintenance problems and activities for dry swales
Link to this table
| Inspection Focus | Common Maintenance Problems | Maintenance Activity | Recommended Maintenance Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drainage Area and Drawdown Time | Clogging, sediment deposition | Ensure that contributing catchment areas to practice, and inlets are clear of debris | Monthly |
| 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. De-thatch 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 | |
| Site Erosion | Scouring at inlets | Correct earthwork to promote non‐erosive flows that are evenly distributed | As necessary |
| Unexpected flow paths into practice | Correct earthwork to eliminate unexpected drainage or created additional stable inlets as necessary | As necessary | |
| Vegetation | Reduced drawdown time damaging plants | Correct drainage issues as described above | Replace with appropriate plants after correction of drainage issues |
| Severe weed establishment | Limit the ability for noxious weed establishment by properly mowing, mulching or timely herbicide or hand weeding. Refer to the MDA Noxious Weed List | Bi‐monthly April through October | |
| Vegetative cover | Add seed/plants to maintain ≥95% vegetative cover. | Bi‐monthly April through October |