Managing Stormwater Onsite

What’s the Problem?

Rain falling on our roofs, roadways, and compacted soil runs off fast down ditches and pipes. This “storm water” can back up and flood homes, cause sewer overflows, and erode hillsides and stream banks. Stormwater also carries dirt, oil and metals from cars, landscape pesticides and fertilizers into Washington’s salmon spawning streams, lakes, estuaries, and swimming beaches.

Why Manage Storm Water Onsite?

Managing rain where it falls is much more cost-effective than giant pipes and tanks downstream. Simple onsite methods reduce the need for that concrete “gray” infrastructure, by slowing and cleaning rain runoff and soaking it into the soil.

What’s the Solution?

Rain: Slow it, spread it, filter it, soak it in – restore the sponge. In the forest, rain gets slowed down by tree needles and leaves, then spread out over spongy soils and plants that filter out pollution, slowly letting the rain seep down into the groundwater that keeps our streams running cool all summer. We can help our twowns and cities work more like the forest by taking some simple steps during our building and landscape construction, often called “Low Impact Development.”