Permeable Pavers in Bonney Lake, WA — Infiltration Tested Against Bonney Lake's Plateau Gradient.

A permeable interlocking concrete pavement system moves water through the joints into an open-graded reservoir base and, ideally, into the native soil below. That last step is the one that is not automatic. If the native soil will not take the water, the system is a very expensive puddle. Bonney Lake sits up on the plateau above the White River valley. Drainage is genuinely good here — better than most of our service area.

Which means water is not the enemy; velocity is. Water leaves fast on these gradients and takes unprotected soil with it, during construction and after. So we test infiltration before we design, and the design follows the answer. Where the soil accepts water, the reservoir infiltrates directly. Where it will not — which is common on the tighter ground in and around Bonney Lake — the reservoir is sized to store the design storm and release it through a perforated underdrain, so the system still performs and still counts. That distinction also drives whether the project earns impervious-surface credit under Pierce County stormwater rules, which is the reason most Lake Tapps homeowners come to us about permeable in the first place. Designed correctly, it also neutralizes erosion and washout on a steep gradient, not standing water.