Earlier this month, Bay Daily colleague Tom Pelton wrote about efforts in Lancaster, Pa., to convert some of that city’s paved areas to landscapes that more resemble a “green sponge.”
The idea is to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff that rushes off pavement and rooftops every time it rains. This runoff flushes pollution -- oil, dirt, bacteria, nutrients, and litter -- directly into nearby streams, erodes river banks, and causes mega problems for residents and critters downstream.
So Lancaster is encouraging the construction of “green” parking lots, roofs, alleys, and playgrounds that soak up rainwater and allow it to seep into the soil instead of running off to pollute nearby waterways.
Lancaster is not alone in efforts to find innovative ways to reduce stormwater runoff, the only major Chesapeake Bay pollutant that is getting worse instead of better. Among other Bay-region localities, Richmond, Va., has undertaken a number of pilot projects aimed at curbing – make that absorbing – stormwater runoff.
Richmond also has partnered with the Science Museum of Virginia to “Bayscape” museum grounds and install rain gardens, pervious pavers, vegetated buffers of trees and native plants, a green roof, and a cistern to capture runoff for plant irrigation. Read more here.
Teaming up with four local garden clubs – Boxwood, James River, Three Chopt, and Tuckahoe -- the city is constructing new bio-retention tree planters along 14th Street in downtown to capture rainwater that typically courses down this sloping street (left) toward the nearby James River. Deep, gravel- and earth-filled wells are being installed on either side of the street and in the median that will catch and absorb runoff to nourish new trees planted in this project called Capital Trees.
The city is also using NFWF grant funds to refurbish two downtown alleys into “green alleyways” by replacing old, rutted, and impervious cobblestones with new pervious pavers that not only look like historic cobblestones but allow the water to sink in to the ground beneath them. A similar pilot project was recently completed on Handy Lane, a small neighborhood road plagued by nuisance flooding until pervious pavers and a water-absorbing rain garden were installed. (See before and after photos to the right.)
Two school yard pilot projects are also under way at Richmond’s Chimborazo and Norrell elementary schools. Curbside planters and rain gardens are being placed beside playgrounds and other hard surfaces to reduce runoff.
The city also planted a green roof atop a building at its wastewater treatment plant beside the James. The plants on the roof (below) will absorb and use rain water rather than allowing it to wash down into the river.
Richmond homeowners are also getting into the runoff reduction act. Responding to a city incentive to receive up to a 50 percent credit on their annual stormwater utility fee, more than 200 property owners have installed rain barrels, rain gardens, pervious pavers, and otherwise slowed or reduced the rainwater running off their yards.
“We’re still working to get the word out, to educate everyone,” says Michelle Virts, deputy director for Richmond’s Stormwater Utility, who expects more property owners to take advantage of the credit program in the coming months.
“It’s early in the process,” Virts says of the city’s stormwater projects, which are a major part of Richmond’s efforts to better protect the health of the James River, one of the region’s most important economic, cultural, and recreational assets as well as a major Chesapeake Bay tributary.
“The demonstration projects will help us find the best, most cost-effective techniques that work for the city.”
Richmond, Lancaster, and localities across the Chesapeake Bay region are working hard to solve stormwater runoff problems. If you’d like to help, contact your locality’s planning office or water utility. I’m sure your interest, ideas, and involvement would be welcomed.
Chuck Epes
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Photos: Top, iStock; bottom three photos, courtesy Richmond Department of Public Utilities; all others, CBF.
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