Solutions to Improve
Our Drainage and Wastewater Systems
The Shape Our Water team developed this library of tools that help solve drainage and wastewater challenges.
In addition to cleaning, cooling, and slowing the water running into our creeks, the Duwamish River, and the Salish Sea, many of these tools also beautify neighborhoods and provide other community benefits like green spaces and gardens. Learn more about these solutions by clicking on the pictures below.
SPU is working in collaboration with the communities we serve to plan for how we’ll make equitable and environmentally sound drainage and wastewater investments that take care of our natural waters and the people who rely on them for the next 50 years and beyond.
By working together to brainstorm solutions, we can achieve meaningful benefits for our community, and improve the functionality and equity of our city along the way.
When solving drainage and wastewater challenges, we have many tools in our toolbox. The purpose of the solutions toolbox is to provide information to our community, stakeholders, and partners about many of the tools we can use to solve drainage or wastewater challenges. These tools should help us communicate, contemplate, compare, ask questions, learn, and share ideas.
Finding solutions that advance equity while balancing affordability, competing priorities, and future uncertainty is a complex and creative process. Some things to keep in mind as you review include:
Mix and match: Many of the tools here are related or frequently implemented in combination.
The tools are different: Some tools are non-structural (e.g., implemented without building physical structures) and some are structural (e.g., physically built to achieve the desired benefits). Even though nonstructural and structural tools are different from each other, they both have a role in helping solve drainage and wastewater challenges.
New and old: Some tools have been commonly used for decades while others are less practiced or new.Both new and old tools can be opportunities for innovation.
High-level: These tools do not include exhaustive descriptions or specific cost or performance information. They are meant instead to provide a baseline of shared understanding and vocabulary so that collaborators with different backgrounds and areas of expertise can participate fully and build on each other’s ideas.
What does this mean? These tools may include many terms and acronyms that may not be familiar to you. Please see the bottom of the page for a glossary that provides definitions and explains acronyms.
We hope these resources help you imagine multi-benefit solutions for Seattle’s drainage and wastewater challenges.
Non-Structural Tools
Drainage and Wastewater improvements can be delivered in a variety of ways that go beyond business as usual.
Opportunities to invest in new programs or infrastructure can go beyond traditional funding and financing methods to deliver greater benefits at a lower cost.
Research and piloting can lead to innovations in water management and climate adaptation.
Policy improvements can be made on several levels, from local utilities to governments at state and national levels.
Many different types of programs can provide opportunities for public audiences to learn and get involved in activities that benefit their local drainage and wastewater systems.
Structural Tools
Bioretention facilities are engineered and landscaped basins for capturing and cleaning stormwater.
A cistern is a large above ground container that captures and stores rain from a roof or other hard surfaces helping to reduce flooding and sewer overflows.
Sewers and storm drains collect and safely move water around the city. Investing in the maintenance and repair of existing pipes prevents failures and reduces the risk of flooding and sewer back-ups.
Investing in new and upsized sewers and storm drains can help reduce flooding and sewer overflows and protect water quality.
A creek culvert is a pipe that conveys a creek under a roadway or embankment. Old, damaged, or undersized creek culverts can cause upstream flooding, downstream erosion, or block the passage of fish.
Floodplain reconnection reestablishes a connection between a creek and the nearby land. Floodplains ease flooding and improve water quality by removing pollutants and storing sediment.
Green roofs are roofs that are partially or fully covered with plants, ranging from lightweight grasses to full gardens and trees. Green roofs filter, absorb, and store rain before it falls to the ground.
Non-potable water is water not meant for drinking. However, if treated properly it can be safely used for other purposes such as irrigation, toilet flushing, heating, and cooling.
Unlike traditional pavement, permeable pavement has tiny holes throughout and special types of soil and gravel underneath. This allows the ground to absorb stormwater.
Pump stations are structures that pump wastewater or stormwater. They can be used to move water over or up hills, move water from one basin to another, or move water to treatment plants.
Real-time controls and smart sensors help utilities use data and technology to adjust the drainage or wastewater system during storms to prevent flooding and overflows.
Sea level rise causes impacts such as flooding from storm surge and high tides, coastal erosion, and wetland loss. Adapting to sea level rise can mean protecting, modifying, or removing structures in areas affected by rising seas.
Healthy shorelines help prevent flooding, protect water quality, and provide habitat. However, many shorelines have been damaged over time by development and other activities.
Side sewers are pipes that carry wastewater from sinks, toilets, and drains to the public sewer in the street. Backflow prevention devices can be installed on side sewers to prevent back-ups.
Side sewers are pipes that carry wastewater from sinks, toilets and drains to the public sewer in the street. Side sewers require regular maintenance and repairs to prevent blockages, leaks, and other issues.
Source control is an approach to finding potential pollution sources and stopping them from entering the drainage or wastewater system.
Storage facilities temporarily store and then release stormwater or wastewater. These structures reduce flows during large storms, helping prevent flooding and sewer overflows.
In a combined sewer system, stormwater and wastewater travel through the same pipes to treatment plants. Stormwater flow separation removes stormwater from combined pipes by installing new storm drains to capture and carry stormwater directly to waterbodies.
Stormwater parks and ponds manage stormwater while providing open space. Stormwater parks and ponds collect and store stormwater from surrounding neighborhoods during times of heavy rain.
Streets are a significant source of pollutants. Street sweeping protects waterways by reducing pollutants before they blow or wash off streets to our waters.
Trees are a critical part of Seattle’s infrastructure. Trees help manage stormwater and improve water quality. Trees also provide many benefits beyond stormwater management including making people happier and healthier, providing food and habitat, store carbon, cleaning the air, cooling the city, and making the city beautiful.
Wetlands help manage flooding, protect water quality, and provide critical habitat. Over time, many wetlands have been destroyed or damaged by development and other activities.