How Can YOU Help?
Below are some green infrastructure practices that you many be able to try on your own. Some you already may be doing without thinking about it and some me be great additions to your current stormwater setup. If you live in an urban or suburban area, use the following techniques to help keep our stormwater management infrastructure in good condition and able to keep up with the runoff of extreme rainfall events.
Downspout Disconnection
Disconnecting your downspout from the storm sewer is one easy way to reduce the amount of water entering our storm pipes. This only requires detaching your gutter's downspout from the standpipe (that leads to the storm sewer), capping the standpipe, and redirecting the downspout to a more pervious are such as part of your lawn or a flower bed.
Rainwater Harvesting
Similar to downspout disconnection, you can also reduce the amount of water from your gutters entering the storm sewer by just storing it! Connecting barrels or other storage devices to your downspout may be a great way to recycle water as well as prevent it from entering the storm drains. You can use this storage in the future to water plants!
Private Rain Gardens
Like stormwater terraces, rain gardens are also another option. The only exception is that you have to build it on your private property. In this case, you can build somewhat of a mini detention basin in your front yard, plant many native species of plants throughout, and redirect the water coming from your downspouts to the rain garden!
REIMBURSEMENT FOR PRIVATE GI PRACTICES
For city-approved GI constructed:
**must be in GI Study Area
By a contractor, the Stormwater Utility shall reimburse 80% of expenditures up to a maximum of $1,000
By the homeowner, the Stormwater Utility shall reimburse 100% of documentable expenses up to a maximum of $1,000
For more information on reimbursement, visit:
Resident Reimbursement for Green Infrastructure in the Green Infrastructure Study Area