Increasing development disrupts the natural hydrologic cycle by increasing runoff and decreasing evapo-transpiration and infiltration. At their core, the goal of all BMPs is to restore the hydrologic cycle and therefore reduce flash flooding, pollutants and erosion in streams, while increasing the amount of groundwater.

Although the infiltration of stormwater is currently garnering much attention, it is not a new idea. Several seepage pits located on the southern side of Tolentine Hall, located at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania were discovered in July 2005. These seepage pits presented a unique opportunity to study the long-term impacts of infiltration. The history of these pits is still somewhat uncertain because of their age and a fire in Tolentine Hall in 1923. It is understood that the structures were built at the turn of the 20^th century around the time Tolentine Hall, at the time called College Hall, was built. Originally, four pits existed in the area to collect and infiltrate stormwater off of Tolentine Hall, St. Thomas Monastery, and St. Thomas of Villanova Church which are located on the southwestern corner of the main campus. At the time of this research, two of the pits have been replaced by large box culverts and are no longer functioning as seepage pits.  The pits are brick cylinders with sand bottoms. The pits were given names based on their location to certain buildings (i.e. “Monastery” and “Tolentine”).

The goal of this study was to determine the functionality of the pits, the impact of infiltrating stormwater for 100 years, and what would be required to restore the pits. Our analysis showed that although elevated copper concentrations were found in the soils beneath the pits, these levels were not above Pennsylvania standards for clean fill. The infiltration capacity of the Tolentine pit was quite high; however, the infiltration capacity of the Monastery pit had been compromised by the inadvertent addition of organic matter. The organic matter entered the pit when a sewer line was connected to the seepage pit. A design using earthquake drains was used to alleviate the Monastery pit infiltration capacity problems. Our study into the efficacy of this improvement technique was inconclusive.