About Step Pool Conveyance Systems
Step Pool Conveyance Systems safely convey, attenuate, and treat the quality of storm flow. These structures utilize a series of constructed shallow aquatic pools, riffle grade control, native vegetation, and an underlying sand/woodchip mix filter bed media. The physical characteristics of the SPSC channel are best characterized by the Rosgen A or B stream classification types, where “bedform occurs as a step/pool, a cascading channel which often stores large amounts of sediment in the pools associated with debris dams” (Rosgen, 1996).
The pretreatment, recharge, and water quality sizing criteria presented in these guidelines follow closely the State of Maryland’s criteria for a typical stormwater filtering device. These structures feature surface/subsurface runoff storage seams and an energy dissipation design that is aimed at attenuating the flow to a desired level through energy and hydraulic power equivalency principles.
Current SPSC Design Guidelines
- Design Guidelines for Step Pool Stormwater Conveyance (SPSC) Systems, Anne Arundel County Bureau of Watershed Protection & Restoration, June 2022
- Anne Arundel County SPSC CAD Details, June 2022 (.zip folder)
- SPSC Sizing Spreadsheet - Based on AACo SPSC Guidelines, Revised July 2022
- SPSC Sizing Tool
Presentation Materials
- Step Pool Storm Conveyance June 10, 2010 Workshop - Session 1 Presentation to DPW Bureau of Engineering
- Central Sanitation Facility SPSC Poster
- Central Sanitation Facility - One Year After Restoration
- Riva 400 (Before and After Restoration pictures)
- Mid Atlantic Stream Restoration Conference Nov. 2011 - Use of Low Head Weirs to Reconnect Severely Entrenched Perennial Streams with Their Floodplains
- RSC Fact Sheet
- Manhattan Beach WEF paper