What a difference a year can make in clean water projects, as a one-year snapshot on the impacts of 2022 green stormwater infrastructure shows. And we continue to learn from these projects. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) uses engineering with nature to recreate processes that help clean, slow and capture rain fall and runoff.
The projects highlighted in the 2022 report on Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) in King County show that by getting creative and working together, small efforts add up to a big impact.
The designs described in the report range from backyard rain barrels to large public facilities. Even a partial, underestimate from these projects has about 259,000 square feet of surfaces capturing rainfall, and over 288,000 gallons of rainwater stored, filtered or captured for groundwater and that can help slow erosion and flooding.
The 2022 GSI Progress Report on green stormwater infrastructure (watch this video for GSI examples https://youtu.be/_9z_dD6hTM8) shows how government, nonprofits, homeowners, and businesses creatively pooled money and resources to do their part to protect our clean water resources. And the best part of these projects? That investing our efforts in clean water are good for our health too.
Check out how the different programs: RainScapes, RainWise, the WaterWorks Grant program and Water Quality Capital Program with King County’s Stormwater Services Section work with communities, property owners and partners. Partners include the Green Start crew, Fairwood Church, White Center Rain Garden and Snohomish Conservation District, University of Washington and Seattle Housing Authority, Burien Courthouse Rain Garden, Kent Meridian and Emerson High School, the Tilth Alliance – and many engaged property owners.
The 2022 GSI Progress Report describes projects that King County, Seattle and others have helped support, from property donation to engineering, funding, partnerships, employment, training and more. But first, some background on green stormwater infrastructure.
Changing landscapes in King County: why green stormwater infrastructure?
As our growing urban, suburban and rural areas support more built homes, businesses and roads, we have changed how landscapes respond to rain, snow and our summer dry seasons. Green stormwater infrastructure uses engineering to recreate how nature slows, captures and cleans rain before it becomes polluted runoff.
This illustration shows how using plants, trees, soil and engineering works with nature to address modern stormwater pollution.
Green stormwater infrastructure projects – right in our backyard!
Get inspired by these examples of green stormwater infrastructure projects. These projects show how programs like RainWise, RainScapes, WaterWorks Grants and King County’s Stormwater Services Section Capitol project’s teams work to match funding, geographic and legal criteria, partners and community needs to get things done. The projects give a short outline of how programs, partners, and people came together to figure out answers to the stormwater challenge.
If you’ve wondered if even small projects can make a difference, take a look at the project stats. For example, in White Center, even planting a medium sized Vine maple tree, a Pacific NW native tree, can offer money savings in managing stormwater (check out your tree on the National Tree Benefit Calculator at arborday.org). Or a home-sized project like Ha Nguyen’s two 205-gallon cisterns that captures rainfall from his 1,419-square-foot roof and supports his garden in the summer.
Bigger projects, like the Fairwood Church Rain Garden collects 125,000 gallons of rainwater from the 17,420 square feet church roof and sends it to a new parking lot rain garden. This addresses the parking lot flooding and captures, filters and slowly releases the rain to the soil and groundwater.
An engineer-designed example like the Burien Courthouse GSI Retrofit project is do-over of an existing detention pond to a bioretention pond. The city, state and county worked together to update the pond to store and clean runoff before releasing it and protect Miller Creek from stormwater that has been killing coho salmon. The pond now removes sediment, toxic metals and slows the flows into the creek.
Many projects are low-cost, like cisterns, large containers used to capture and slowly release water back into the soil and groundwater, or store rainwater for use in the dry summer. Another project is to de-pave, or remove pavement or asphalt, and replace it with gardens or materials that water can slowly soak through.
Building community with green stormwater projects
The cross-team effort of these projects offers ways to build health, jobs and connection. Most money and support (over $6.00 of every $10.00) is going to projects that manage about 1.8 million gallons per year and are created in partnership with income challenged property owners or nonprofits.
To support this growing interest and need, the Green Stormwater Infrastructure Workforce Collaborative is focused on workforce development and created a FREE job training program on project design, installation and maintenance.
Projects like these bring people together to address big issues like climate change and community health. By working with nature and communities on green infrastructure solutions, we all help to create a healthier future.
Thank you @KingCountyWaterworks @KingCountyRainwise and @KingCountyRainscapes!
Tools & Resources
Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) in King County
700milliongallons.org/tools/
Green Stormwater Infrastructure Workforce Collaborative
FREE GSI workforce curricula on project design, installation and maintenance