Stormwater Management

Tracy Gateway Storm Drainage Master Plan, San Joaquin County, California

Balance Hydrologics used the Mike-URBAN time-variant hydraulic modeling program to represent

proposed stormwater conveyance and storage elements in a large residential, commercial, and indus-

trial development near the city of Tracy, in San Joaquin County. Individual storms and a series of

closely-timed storms were routed through the proposed stormwater management system, which con-

sisted of more than 25 detention basins and reservoirs, more than ten branches of buried pipes and

culverts, multiple control structures and a pump station. Model results were used to define the de-

sign modifications needed to contain storm flows within the system and limit peak discharge to the

receiving waters, a canal. To optimize design and operation of the system under multiple-storm con-

ditions required running the model for a wide range of designs and conditions. At completion, Bal-

ance provided the client with the optimal sizes for the stormwater basins, reservoirs, conduits, and

control structures and the predicted discharges from the site under multiple storm event scenarios.