If the Detention Pond Meets the Rules, Why Is My Neighborhood Still Flooding?
A detention pond can meet its stormwater requirements while a neighborhood downstream still floods. The difference between how fast water arrives and how much arrives explains why both can be true.
What Happens When You Drive to Work?
Follow a familiar drive from your driveway to the interstate, and see why each kind of road trades direct property access for through movement.
What Happens When It Rains?
Rain is the third kind of water in a city, and nobody turns it on. Follow a raindrop from roof, lawn, or street through Columbia’s drainage systems to the Congaree River.
What Happens After You Flush?
Where does it go when you flush? Follow wastewater forward, from your toilet through the sewer system to the Congaree River, explained for people who are not engineers.
What Happens When You Turn On the Faucet?
Follow a glass of water backward from your kitchen faucet through the pipes, pumps, treatment plant, and source waters that make an ordinary glass of water possible.
Why a 1-Hour Thunderstorm Can Cause More Flooding in Columbia Than a Day of Rain
Why rainfall intensity, timing, drainage paths, and downstream conditions can produce serious local flooding even when 24-hour rainfall totals seem modest.
Defining the “Standard of Care”: How Expert Witnesses Evaluate Professional Engineering Negligence
Professional negligence claims rarely turn on whether an engineering design was perfect. This article explains how experts evaluate the applicable standard of care, distinguish code compliance from reasonable professional judgment, reconstruct the project context, and separate a potential departure from technical causation.
Why Stormwater Facilities Fail: Design, Construction, Maintenance, or Changed Conditions?
Stormwater failures rarely fit neatly into one category. This article explains how design assumptions, field execution, deferred maintenance, and changes to the surrounding watershed can interact, and outlines the evidence used to distinguish among them.
What Counsel Should Gather Before an Initial Civil Engineering Case Review
Civil engineering disputes may involve design, construction, maintenance, changed site conditions, or a combination of those factors. This practical guide identifies the plans, surveys, photographs, rainfall data, construction records, maintenance documents, and other information counsel should gather before requesting an initial engineering review.