Reduced pollutants: Bioswales/bioretention ponds remove pollutants by filtering stormwater runoff through natural vegetation and soil-based systems.Reduced runoff: In a typical road, a 4-meter (13-feet) swale can reduce approximately 25 percent of total rainfall runoff.The renovation included bioswales on the adjacent sidewalk that diverts and reuses 65,000 gallons of stormwater a year.īioswale/bioretention pond benefits include: A recent project by the New York Restoration Project, financed by the city, installed stormwater infrastructure capable of capturing 150,000 gallons of stormwater a year at the Gil Hodges Community Garden in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. In New York City, the department of environmental protection offers a green infrastructure grant that enables communities and organizations to implement more sustainable stormwater strategies. Local governments are offering homeowners incentives to create green infrastructure on their properties. The landscape architect, Kevin Robert Perry, ASLA, worked with the city and local community members to replace a parking area on a residential street with stormwater curb extensions, disconnecting the street’s rainwater runoff from Portland’s combined storm/sewage system and managing it through landscape approaches. The NE Siskiyou Green Street project (above) in Portland, Oregon, is an example of this collaboration for better stormwater management through the landscape. Homeowner associations and local community groups play a part in maintaining these systems. Local governments can work with planners and landscape architects and designers to develop more sustainable, decentralized stormwater management systems featuring bioswales and bioretention ponds. Bioswales and bioretention ponds not only reduce water flow into overtaxed storm/sewage systems, but also create beautiful amenities. Local communities can instead invest in decentralized green infrastructure by expanding the use of bioswales and bioretention ponds in residential areas. Centralized stormwater management systems are energy-intensive and costly to create and maintain. Under federal and state requirements, local governments must implement stormwater management plans and systems. Bioretention ponds are depressed vegetated areas that capture and store stormwater runoff and can work in combination with bioswales. The agency estimates that stormwater runoff accounts for 70 percent of water pollution in lakes, rivers, and creeks.īioswales, which are wet or dry swales made out of grass, rocks, and other types of vegetation, must be sloped to move water through the system in an efficient manner. These systems can also dramatically reduce pollutants and contaminants in an effort to increase water quality.Īccording to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), pollution from urban stormwater runoff impairs water quality in approximately 5,000 miles of estuaries, 1.4 million acres of lakes, and 30,000 miles of rivers. NE Siskiyou Green Street, Portland, Oregon / Kevin Robert Perry, ASLAīioswales and bioretention ponds use plants and soils to infiltrate and treat stormwater runoff. ASLA 2007 Professional Residential Design Honor Award. Stormwater runoff is collected through a series of curb extensions designed to capture and filter stormwater.
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