What is Stormwater?
Stormwater Facts:
• Impervious surfaces like streets prevent stormwater from naturally soaking into the ground.
• Stormwater can pick up debris, chemicals, dirt and other pollutants, and flow into a storm sewer system.
• Polluted runoff is the nation's greatest threat to clean water.
• Polluted stormwater often affects drinking water sources which, in turn, can affect human health and increase drinking water treatment costs.
• Debris (plastic bags, six-pack rings, bottles and cigarette butts) washing into our rivers and streams can choke, suffocate or disable aquatic life such as ducks, fish, turtles and birds.
• Bacteria can wash into recreation areas and create health hazards.
• Sediment can cloud the water and destroy aquatic habitats.
Low Impact Development Strategies To Address Stormwater Issues
Rain Gardens
A rain garden is an attractive, landscaped garden that is used to treat stormwater runoff, usually from a roof, parking lot, or other impervious surface. The garden is planted in an excavated shallow depression (usually 4-8” deep) that is strategically located to collect storm runoff coming from a roof or parking lot.
During a rain event, the garden will temporarily fill with water, but this water will infiltrate back into the soil within a few hours. In this way, most of the stormwater is returned to the groundwater supply, instead of running over the land and directly into our stormdrains, streams, and lakes. Rain gardens also help prevent pollutants from reaching our streams, since toxins in runoff often adhere to soil particles in the garden, or are taken up by plants.
Click on the link below to view the Rain Garden Manual
Rain Barrels
A rain barrel is a 55-gallon recycled food-grade plastic barrel that is placed at the outlet of a roof gutter to catch snowmelt and rooftop runoff during a storm (referred to as “stormwater”). When stormwater runs off of impervious surfaces like roofs, parking lots, compacted soils, and roads, it accumulates fine sand, nutrients like phosphorus, bacteria from animal wastes, oil, grease and heavy metals from cars, and delivers these pollutants to nearby rivers and streams. Stormwater threatens the integrity of our drinking water source, the water quality of streams that we swim in, and the habitat of fish and other aquatic life. Rain barrels are an important part of the solution, as they intercept stormwater before it runs across the landscape and into our waterways. The stormwater collected in a rain barrel can be used to water lawns and gardens, thereby conserving water and protecting water quality.
Additional Resources Regarding Low Impact Development
Click on links below
LowImpactDevelopmentStrategiesforCommunities3-20-2008-Emmappt
MunAssistCtrpaper-ManagingswwithLID
South Burling LID Manual 5-18-09
*This information is provided by the Winooski NRCD