by Liz Cooper
It’s a sultry, cloudy day – a typical mid-summer day in southern Ontario. Rain is in the forecast and a powerful thunderstorm would be a welcome relief from the humidity. After working on stormwater pollution prevention programs for over three years, I sometimes think that rain can seem like a double-edged sword. Water sustains life. Rain recharges our aquifers, nourishes our food and waters our gardens. As we continue to develop our landscape and cover it with impermeable surfaces like buildings and parking lots we block the water cycle. This reduces ground water quantities but it also sends pollutants running over land into lakes, rivers and streams. Each rain storm brings water, which we require for life, but also a potential influx of pollution. As we know from our RAIN workshops and Depave Paradise projects, this type of pollution, non-point source pollution, has significant ramifications for water quality, aquatic life and the people who depend on that water.
We've delivered workshops to help homeowners reduce their stormwater runoff and protect their properties from flooding. We’ve also completed demonstration projects like rain gardens and the removal of asphalt. We love advocating for green infrastructure projects like bioswales and rain gardens on individual properties. However, we’ve recently embarked on a new project which will help us affect stormwater management on a municipal level. Soak it Up Ontario is a new project from our friends at Green Communities Canada. They’re helping us make connections with key stakeholders in our community so we can have an open dialogue about green infrastructure projects in Kingston. It’s been an educational and energizing experience to speak with city and utilities staff; storm sewers, sanitary sewers and municipal water management is an incredibly complex system which relies on dozens employees from several departments, hundreds of kilometers of infrastructure and a great deal of money. When we started this project, I thought we would have a difficult time “selling” green infrastructure to city and utility staff. In fact, the complete opposite has been true: those who work on the front lines are already well aware of groundbreaking (pun intended) green infrastructure technology that could make our systems more efficient. They’re also aware of the limitations which exist in the current system and how implementing green infrastructure projects will be a challenge. We're excited and encouraged by the reception and we're eager to continue the dialogue.
We’re continuing our talks with individuals from the city, the community and the construction industry. We’ll keep you updated on how this project is going and this fall we’ll be publishing a report and a stormwater action plan based on our findings.
We've delivered workshops to help homeowners reduce their stormwater runoff and protect their properties from flooding. We’ve also completed demonstration projects like rain gardens and the removal of asphalt. We love advocating for green infrastructure projects like bioswales and rain gardens on individual properties. However, we’ve recently embarked on a new project which will help us affect stormwater management on a municipal level. Soak it Up Ontario is a new project from our friends at Green Communities Canada. They’re helping us make connections with key stakeholders in our community so we can have an open dialogue about green infrastructure projects in Kingston. It’s been an educational and energizing experience to speak with city and utilities staff; storm sewers, sanitary sewers and municipal water management is an incredibly complex system which relies on dozens employees from several departments, hundreds of kilometers of infrastructure and a great deal of money. When we started this project, I thought we would have a difficult time “selling” green infrastructure to city and utility staff. In fact, the complete opposite has been true: those who work on the front lines are already well aware of groundbreaking (pun intended) green infrastructure technology that could make our systems more efficient. They’re also aware of the limitations which exist in the current system and how implementing green infrastructure projects will be a challenge. We're excited and encouraged by the reception and we're eager to continue the dialogue.
We’re continuing our talks with individuals from the city, the community and the construction industry. We’ll keep you updated on how this project is going and this fall we’ll be publishing a report and a stormwater action plan based on our findings.
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