Best Management Practice Demonstration Horse Farm

Construction of Back Paddock Drainage – Dry Wells

Situation

  • Stormwater management is a growing concern for equine facilities.
  • Regulators are concerned stormwater runoff carries nutrients and pathogens from facilities into local streams and lakes.
  • Paddocks that are adjacent to barns at the Equine Science Center are a main area of concern.
  • The gutter/downspout system on the barn captures relatively clean stormwater runoff from the roof.
  • Downspouts discharge the runoff onto the paddock where manure is present.
  • Clean water runs through the paddock mixing with the manure, carrying pollutants off site.
  • Additionally, this system of managing roof top runoff makes for a muddy paddock, which can have negative health implications for the horses.
  • Rain water that lands on the paddock continues to wash soil and manure into a drainage ditch that discharged to a local stream, thereby threatening the health of this waterway.

Action

  • The Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE) Water Resources Program designed an infiltration system to remediate the situation described above.

    • Dry well - bird's eye view

  • The system was designed to allow rain water from small storms to infiltrate into the ground.
  • Rain water from larger storms is conveyed around the paddock area, discharging this clean water to a drainage swale down gradient of the paddock area.
  • The system was fairly easy to construct and relatively inexpensive. A three foot wide, two foot deep trench was excavated adjacent to the foundation of the barn.
  • Six inches of clean ¾ inch stone was placed in the trench and four inch diameter perforated PVC piping was placed on top of the stone.

    • PVC piping on top of stone

    Dry well cross section

  • Additional stone was used to place six inches of cover on the pipe. The downspouts were connected to the PVC pipes in the trench. The system was covered with soil to assure that the top of the trench was brought back to existing grade as not to endanger the horses.
  • A PVC-Tee was used to connect the downspouts to the piping in the trench.
  • This PVC-Tee serves as an emergency overflow if the PVC piping in the trench should get clogged.
  • Additionally, a clean out was installed in case the system becomes clogged.

    • Laying PVC pipe

    Covered up trench

Impact

  • Rain water no longer flows through the paddock on its way to the waterways and in turn, no longer ponds there.
  • Impact of pollution being carried to the local stream and horse health is minimized.
  • This project represents a relatively simple, inexpensive and effective strategy for reducing contaminated runoff and maintaining the structural quality of a paddock area.