If you own a residential, commercial, or industrial real estate property in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, maintaining private storm water drains that are located within the bound of your property is actually your responsibility. This is an area of property maintenance that a great deal of property owners simply do not understand. Most people don’t ever actually think about their storm water drains. The ones that do are typically under the impression that the town or city is responsible for maintaining them. However, if your storm water drains are considered to be part of a private property, they are actually your responsibility.
That means you should have them properly maintained on a regular basis. Let’s start by talking about what happens when a storm water drain is not maintained on a regular basis. First and foremost, they will become clogged with leaves, dirt, and other debris. When that happens, the water that is supposed to flow into them has nowhere to go. Do you know what happens next? It’s a little something called flooding. The intent of a storm water drain is to catch the excessive amounts of water that are caused by rainstorms and the snowmelt that happens in the spring.
Have you ever noticed that when there is a torrential rainstorm, running water quickly forms in the street? In essence, the stormwater flows like a stream until it makes its way into the stormwater drains. When the stormwater drains are blocked, and the water has nowhere to go, it starts to flow more like a river than a stream. At that point, the water can cause quite a bit of damage if it floods into yards, inside of homes, into parking lots, and inside of buildings. If you fail at maintaining private storm water drains than you may be held liable from a financial standpoint.
The bad news is that most problems that occur due to floods are not covered under your property owner’s insurance policy. However, there is some good news to report. If you simply have your storm water drains properly maintained by a professional environmental company, you will avoid problems now and in the future. It’s as easy to do as simply picking up the phone, going online, or emailing for more information. The storm drain maintenance company will send over a commercial vacuum truck and an experienced operator. He or she will remove any obstacles that are preventing the storm water drain from working properly.
It is actually an incredibly cost effect way to have peace of mind knowing that you are doing your part to avoid causing floods. Besides causing a tremendous amount of damage to properties, floods also cause a significant amount of damage to the environment. For example, floodwater may flow into local waterways such as streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and even the ocean. The storm water can be full of chemicals, particles, and trash that are dangerous for the environment.
If you have any questions maintaining private storm water drains, or would like to schedule service we are happy to help. Jolin Paving & Excavating, Inc. is your New England connection for a vast variety of environmentally related services. Our company has been serving Boston Massachusetts, Southern NH, VT & ME as well as Northern CT & RI since 1952. Please Contact us to learn more today.
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