When civil engineers from Day Engineering began designing a storm water system for the new Orange County Choppers’ headquarters and showroom facility in Newburgh, N.Y., they were met with a variety of onsite challenges. These included a lack of available land, a high water table with a neighboring protected stream and a zero-discharge restriction. Additionally, the engineers, who planned to use the storm water captured on the site for irrigation, wanted to ensure that the storm water system would create minimum land disturbance in the eco-friendly development.
They specified many recycled and locally processed building materials with no formaldehyde or urea, used energy-efficient equipment and recycled construction waste. Stone-filled trenches and above-ground detention ponds that the engineering firm had relied on previously could not fulfill the site’s requirements. Instead, Newburgh used CULTEC underground plastic chambers as the site’s best management practice (BMP) for controlling storm water.
The Recharger V8 —currently CULTEC’s largest-capacity storm water storage chamber—was selected. The storm water system collects water in catch basins and feeds it into the underground chambers, where it is treated and retained until it can be infiltrated back into the ground. That satisfies the zero-discharge requirement that all storm water runoff be captured, treated and stored on site to preserve water quality of the local waterways.
Installation
The 400-chamber system occupies 17,000 sq ft of the 3.2-acre development area, offering approximately 50,000 cu ft of storage capacity. The installation began with excavating a bed, laying filter fabric along the sides and the bottom and adding a layer of crushed stone.
“The CULTEC system was installed very quickly, with only half a day needed to install the chambers,” said Dennis Lynch, field engineer at Day Engineering. “It was the first time we ever used an underground system, and CULTEC walked us through every step of its design, layout and configuration.”
System Benefits
The Recharger V8 storm water chambers have more than 40 percent greater storage capacity than the company’s next largest model and can be used for retention, detention, recharging or controlling the flow of onsite storm water runoff. The chamber incorporates all the distinctive key benefits of CULTEC chambers, including built-in endwalls for strength throughout the system and a patented, overlapping rib connection, which allows for easy installation and a stronger connection between chambers.
The system also uses a unique in-line manifold system that allows for additional design flexibility. Chambers are constructed of high-density polyethylene for greater chemical resistance to parking lot runoff.
“When an open detention pond is used to control storm water runoff, the site loses acreage,” said Larry Ruscitti, site supervisor at Ultimate Land Developers Inc. “At Orange County Choppers’ development, they needed to use a smaller footprint because there was a water stream at the back of the property. The CULTEC system allowed for some extra space they wouldn’t have had with an above-ground system. That space was later used to add to a parking lot and create a grassy area.”