Rain Garden Building

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If you enjoy the fun, sun and exercise of gardening, PRC East needs you! We recently received a PADEP Growing Greener grant to build 36 new Rain Gardens starting in Spring 2017, in partnership with the Eastern Delaware County Stormwater Collaborative https://edcsc.wordpress.com/.We are looking for volunteers all around the region who will work with their neighbors in local rain garden projects. With the health benefits of gardening, it’s a win-win opportunity for you and your community!

In densely developed areas, with large areas of impervious surfaces, excess stormwater runoff is a critical pollution problem for our waterways. Rain water runs off buildings, across roads and driveways into municipal stormwater lines which convey water to local creeks, streams, rivers and other water ways. Along with rain water the runoff delivers pollutants like oil, fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals into the water. This has an adverse effect on the health of the waterway and any wildlife dependent on clean unpolluted water. New federal and state regulations require each municipality to take responsibility for their share of this excess runoff, so simple Green Stormwater Infrastucture (GSI) projects will help save your community the cost of expensive engineered solutions.

One of the most simple and effective solutions is the installation of Rain Gardens. The shallow bowl shape captures runoff long enough to filter through soil, breaking down the pollutants and preventing dangerous flooding during wet weather events. Large or small, these gardens collectively can have big impact. Every inch of rain falling on 1,000 square feet of impervious surface (such as roof or asphalt) results in 600 gallons of runoff. The Philadelphia region averages 41 inches of rain per year, so a rain garden intercepting runoff from that area will capture, divert and filter nearly 25,000 gallons annually. Multiplying that by the dozens of gardens that will be built, we will keep millions of gallons of polluted runoff out of our waterways, and we want you to be part of this fun and exciting project!

For updates on this program, upcoming installation dates, and signups, please see www.prc.org or contact Jayne Young at young@prc.org.