The two essential functions of a stormwater management system are to control the 1) quality and 2) quantity of runoff leaving a site. There are various ways to do this; a common method is with an aboveground system in the form of a detention pond, but these take up usable land space. This is not a major issue in rural areas, but in urban environments, land space is expensive, and a loss of land space results in lost revenue.

As a result, engineers and developers often turn to underground solutions, which take many forms. One of the most common is an underground detention system made from corrugated metal pipe (CMP). These systems are employed on a site to reduce the quantity of stormwater runoff leaving a site by temporarily storing the runoff that exceeds a site’s allowable discharge rate and releasing it slowly through time.

Designing CMP detention systems is a complex task. This article is not intended to be a complete design guide; it is intended to address three questions engineers often have regarding designing CMP detention systems…

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