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To build in the Almonte business park, the town requires a stormwater management plan. This plan must show how we’ll manage rain runoff from the lot so that it doesn’t exceed a certain rate (i.e. cannot be more than X liters per second per hectare). I tried to argue that I don’t need a stormwater management plan since my building will occupy less than 10% of the area of my lot. But the town wouldn’t budge. Luckily, the engineer working on my electrical and mechanical plans, Ian Clapperton, was able to also do the stormwater management plan. I can’t remember who introduced me to Ian but I’m lucky to have been connected. Not only is Ian a sharp engineer, he lives in Almonte and enjoys his spirits. The stormwater management plan Ian came up with divided my two acre lot into a developed half and an undeveloped half. The developed half will be graded to direct rainwater to a “stormwater detention area” at the SE end of the property. Rain water in the detention area is released into the municipal drainage ditch through a weir that limits the flow of water. This is exactly the setup my neighbour Matt at Sports Systems had to install on his property. The sad thing is that even in the heavy rains we’ve had this past summer, Matt’s weir was dry. Looks like most rainwater is absorbed by the ground. So I will most likely have a useless $25,000 civil engineering project as a feature of my property.