By KEVIN PROFT/ecoRI News staff
 |
LID techniques result in less stormwater and
manage any that is created sustainably.
Here, the narrow road reduces impervious
surfaces, the lack of curbs and gutters
allow water to infiltrate the ground close to its
source and the dense vegetation
on the property helps absorb rainwater.
(Photos courtesy of DEM) |
Rhode Island is experiencing more rain and more storms, and the state’s current infrastructure doesn’t manage this excess water very well.
The Ocean State’s abundance of impervious surfaces, such as roads, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, roofs and compacted soil in residential lawns stop rainwater from being filtered by the ground in a natural way. Worse, curb and gutter systems along the sides of roads funnel all this stormwater runoff into drains, which then pipe the water en mass directly into local streams, wetlands and Narragansett Bay.
While rainwater making its way into a stream just down the road doesn't sound detrimental to the environment, it is, according to Scott Millar, the state Department of Environmental Management’s (DEM) watershed initiative leader. The problem is that by the time the water reaches the stream, it has collected a wave of pollution — oil from streets and driveways, fertilizers from lawns and pesticides from gardens. This toxic concoction pollutes the local ecosystem, as well as the entire network of streams and rivers downstream from the stormwater’s point of entry. All of it eventually flows into Narragansett Bay.
