That’s getting more and more common. Around here, they’re starting to push (very gently, but push, none the less) people to use permeable concrete that lets the water flow right though it back into the ground. Setup underground cisterns with holes on the bottom that can collect rain water from french drains/gutters/sump pumps and leech it back into the ground over time and other ways of keeping water that falls on the property, on the property.
New construction in some areas is required to set up some kind of retention pond or other way to deal with runoff water. The city has even started to experiment with turning some of the medians into swales that can collect water and let it dissipate back into the earth instead of down a sewer.
And this is in Milwaukee. A good chunk of our street sewers dump directly into Lake Michigan. Our sewage treatment plant dumps the treated water into the lake. The water company draws water from the lake and treats it so it’s safe for drinking.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure they have their reasons. But it always seemed in an area next to the largest fresh water reservoir in the world, they’d be happy for us to get the water back into the lake as quickly as possible.
Of course, on the other hand, there are issues with that. In many parts of town the storm sewers and sanitary sewers are tied together. Meaning, not only does the sewage department have to clean storm water, but when there’s huge storms, sometimes they have to dump raw sewage into the lake. It’s a whole big thing when it happens. Also, while we (Milwaukee) use the lakes for our drinking water, not that far inland, they’re pumping water out of the ground, so I guess it’s a good thing to make sure the aquifers remain full.
