Downspout & Gutter Drainage in Wildomar

Downspout & Gutter Drainage questions from Wildomar customers

Can downspouts on a Wildomar lot discharge into a dry well?

Test results decide it. A geotechnical investigation for a Wildomar project at Baxter Road and Central Avenue measured percolation of 0.12 and 0.46 inch per hour. The Santa Margarita watershed LID handbook lists infiltration basins, trenches and permeable pavement at a factored design infiltration rate above 0.8 inch per hour, and the County's infiltration testing guidance applies a factor of safety of three to percolation test results.

What is under a Wildomar yard that stops roof water soaking away?

Pauba Formation. The same Wildomar investigation encountered that bedrock from the surface to depths of 51 and a half feet, beneath clayey sand with lesser amounts of silty sands, sandy silts and sandy clays. It also reported that nearby wells indicate depth to groundwater of between 50 and 100 feet. Shallow bedrock under fine-grained soil is what stops roof water from disappearing into a pit.

If a dry well is out, what does the Wildomar-area handbook allow instead?

The Santa Margarita handbook places biofiltration with partial infiltration in the 0.1 to 0.8 inch per hour band, below the range it sets for full infiltration. It also requires 10 feet of vertical separation from the historic high groundwater mark and five feet from bedrock or an impermeable layer beneath an infiltration facility. Those two setbacks often rule out a deep pit on a Wildomar lot before any rate is measured.

Can downspout piping be run out through the curb in Wildomar?

Riverside County's road standards, which Wildomar's improvement standards work from, include Standard 310 Private Drain Through Curb, Standard 309 Under Sidewalk Drain Cast in Place, and Standard 308 Curb Outlet Drain. Any of those is work in the City right-of-way, and Wildomar requires contractors to secure an encroachment permit for work within City and Flood Control District right-of-way before commencing.