Our rich water resources provide us with quality drinking water, safe recreational areas, and abundant wildlife. By doing our part to reduce stormwater pollution we can preserve our precious resource.
WHAT IS STORMWATER? Stormwater is rain that flows directly into a storm sewer system which directs it UNTREATED into our creeks and rivers. "Non-point source pollution" or "polluted runoff" comes from many different activities in our daily lives like washing cars, fertilizing our lawns, constructing buildings or roads and painting our houses.
More Information For:
5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO PROTECT OUR WATER
- NEVER dump anything down storm drains or in streams
- Vegetate bare spots in your yard
- Use fertilizers sparingly
- Plant a rain garden
Plant a Rain Garden!
Planting a rain garden reduces pollution while giving you a garden that is easy to maintain and needs little or no watering. A rain garden on your property can conserve water and help protect our waterways at the same time. All you need is a little imagination and some space on your property to build a rain garden.
A rain garden receives stormwater runoff water from roofs or other hard surfaces such as driveways and holds or slows the runoff water so that it can soak into the ground, instead of flowing into a street and down a storm drain. The plants, mulch and soil in a rain garden combine natural physical, biological and chemical processes to filter and help remove pollutants from runoff. Rain gardens not only filter runoff, they also provide a beautiful addition to your garden that can attract birds and butterflies.
While an effective rain garden depends on water infiltrating into the soil of the garden, water should stand in a rain garden no longer than 24 hours after the rain stops, no more. Mosquitos cannot complete their breeding cycle in this length of time, so the rain garden should not increase mosquito populations at all.
Constructing a rain garden is fun and easy, but requires some shovel work. Click the links below to learn the step-by-step process of creating your own.
How to build a rain garden: Video instruction about building a rain garden