Good Knight Construction Sediment EarthCache

NOTE: This is an earthcache, there is not a physical container to find at the coordinates. To get your smiley for the cache, e-mail your answers for the questions below to the cache owner. This earthcache is located on the UCF campus and visitors will need to pay for parking. Thank you to the UCF Arboretum for Permission to place this earthcache.

While walking around UCF we stumbled upon a baffle box. Upon further inspection and some research we learned UCF has an entire storm water protection program!

Sediment is a made up of soil particles that have been detached from the land by erosion. In Florida, water is a main cause of erosion, and sediment is often dislodged by rainwater and transported by stormwater runoff. The largest pollutant of stormwater is sediment.

Before humans began building structures, water simply entered streams and was absorbed into the ground. However, because of construction, there are more roads, parking lots, and rooftops, thus streams need to handle more storm water than they used to. To help them handle the increased volume, many stream channels have been physically altered.  Some examples of alterations are: streams being lined with concrete, culverts added, or their course straightened through ditching. 

Because of construction and modifying stream channels, stream flows are more deep and faster than they used to be. This increased depth and speed of the water has great erosive force. Specifically, as construction sediment goes through manmade concrete, culverts, and ditches there is no place for the sediment to be deposited. The construction sediment then ends up polluting waterways if care is not taken. It's a good thing UCF has a plan for this!

UCF’s stormwater does not go through a water treatment facility. Around campus you may see signs that say “No dumping, drains to lake or No polluting, drains to river” installed on curb inlets.

Once stormwater enters the drain, it flows through underground pipes on it's way to stormwater ponds. Before entering the stormwater ponds, the pollutants and sediment travel through baffle boxes installed at pond outfalls.

A Baffle Box is a concrete or fiberglass structure with a series of sediment settling chambers separated by baffles. The main function of the box is to remove sediment and suspend particles that would be stormwater pollutants. Baffle boxes are usually located at the end of storm drain pipes. As storm water enters the box the water flow velocity decreases. Floatables and large trash are picked up by the screen at the top, and sediment settles in the bottom of the box. The largest sediment particles settle in the first chamber. The smaller sediment that does not settle in the first chamber moves on to the other ones. Periodically the baffle box is vacuum cleaned and the material is properly disposed of, preventing the sediment, debris and trash from ever entering the water way. At UCF in 2019 alone, 2 full dump trucks of debris was removed from the on campus baffle boxes!

Now it is time for the questions. To get credit for the cache, please answer the questions below. When answering the questions do your best. It is more important that you learn a new concept about our earth and can apply your knowledge, rather than have a precise answer.

Thank you for visiting this earthcache. Please send your answers to the above questions to the cache owner. In your "found it" log feel free to write about your experience, but don't include the earthcache answers. Thanks and we hope you enjoy the beautiful UCF Arboretum!

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