Comments on: Stormwater Management: City or Homeowner Responsibility?

By: How to Install a Rain Garden

How to Install a Rain Garden — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:44:36 +0000

[...] Stormwater management has become quite costly for municipalities. The use of bioretention facilities is much more cost effective than traditional stormwater methods, and this approach treats water as a resource, not as waste. [...]

By: Managing Rainwater in your Wildlife Garden

Managing Rainwater in your Wildlife Garden — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 02:35:30 +0000

[...] much better option may be to manage water where it falls—allowing rainwater to infiltrate into the earth, storing water in the soil and recharging [...]

By: Erin

Erin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:39:38 +0000

I live in Whitpain Township in Montgomery County. My family and I started an environmental group called Wissahickon Growing Greener (WGG) back in April. We have been creating rain barrels made from 55 gallon food-grade, recycled barrels for our group members (made about 45 so far!) The cost to them is only $30.00 ($50.00 for non-members). We felt like it was a great way to 1. get the word out about our group, and 2. to help people deal with storm-water management issues for very little money. I had grand hopes of having a “rain barrel” street, but only one other neighbor has opted to use one. If there’s a way our group can help you, let me know. Check https://www.bigtent.com/groups/wggg.

By: Debra Dalessandro

Debra Dalessandro — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:05:55 +0000

Alison makes a great point about municipalities supporting rain garden and rain barrel efforts. I’m hopeful that once Philly gets on the other side of its current fiscal crisis that they’ll go in this direction. The mayor has created a cabinet-level position of “Director of Sustainability” who is looking at this and many other issues. Hopefully they will publicize success stories of individual homeowners, as you suggest.

By: Alison Kerr

Alison Kerr — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:24:58 +0000

I think the most valuable thing a city could do would be to disseminate information, to showcase success stories and to get neighbors speaking to neighbors.

One of my neighbors had 3 different landscapers come round to talk with her about retaining wall needs. She has a lot of water flowing through her back yard which is a challenge. She was actually told by at least one landscaper that rain gardens don’t work because they harbor mosquitoes. I told her that I don’t believe that’s true. But neither of us knows of anyone local with a successful rain garden.

I have lots of water flowing through my garden. But most of it comes from the roofs of 3 of my neighbors and the volume is too large for me to deal with in a rain garden. However, there is no incentive for my neighbors to handle the problem because it doesn’t affect their gardens. This is where I think a campaign to raise awareness and success stories could help. At least then if I went to talk with the neighbors they’d know what I was talking about.

Also, landscape designers and master gardeners need to better understand how to handle water in the home landscape. One landscape designer I spoke with didn’t want to change the water flow in my yard in case it caused foundation problems. He just didn’t want to be responsible and didn’t know enough to advise me.

I don’t know about in Pennsylvania but when it rains here in NE Kansas the volume of water that comes down is huge (almost always several inches in a day) and basement and foundation problems are pretty commonplace. As much as anything there’s a real lack of engineering knowledge among professionals in the community to deal with water I think.
Alison Kerr´s last post ..Can We “Out Nature” Mother Nature in Our Gardens?