PA Environment Digest

As spring approaches, citizens in at least three Westmoreland County communities will have an opportunity to learn more about what can be done to reduce flooding and stormwater runoff in their communities, thanks to a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation and an outreach program by the Westmoreland Conservation District.

The Conservation District will use the grant to hold meetings in Mount Pleasant, Scottdale, and Vandergrift during 2010 where citizens are invited to learn more about why rainwater and runoff are causing problems their communities, and some of the innovative things being done to resolve them.

The public meetings will focus on projects that are currently under way or soon to be undertaken in each community:

-- Vandergrift – the addition of a bank of street trees and permeable pavement in a unique planting bed that will lessen the volume of rainwater entering the city’s sewer system;

-- Mount Pleasant – the addition of a number of landscaped “rain gardens” in and around Ramsay Terrace to help reduce flooding; and

-- Scottdale – the addition of infiltration paving and landscape features in the new library garden plaza to protect water quality in Jacobs Creek and lessen runoff into the community’s sewer system.

Effectively managing rainwater and runoff is important to everyone because it can reduce flooding, recharge the groundwater supplies that feed wells, and lessen the stress on our storm sewer systems.

Effective rainwater and runoff management also can keep our local streams cleaner and healthier by reducing the amount of pollutants (including motor oil and lawn fertilizers) that wash into our streams.

Mount Pleasant Meeting February 25

Mount Pleasant residents of Ramsay Terrace and nearby streets may be eligible for a free program that will create landscaped gardens as a response to flooding in local neighborhoods.

Borough officials are urging interested residents to attend a free meeting on February 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the VFW Post 3368, 416 West Main Street, Mount Pleasant, to get more information about the program, which will use federal funding to add a special kind of landscaping – called a “rain garden” – in the yards of 30 to 40 homeowners in and around Ramsay Terrace who choose to participate this year.

The Westmoreland Conservation District is assisting the borough in this project by coordinating the garden designs and installation. Eligible residents who elect to have a rain garden installed will be responsible for giving it the same kind of routine, normal maintenance – weeding, watering, and pruning – they conduct on other parts of their yard and landscape.

On the surface, the roughly 10-foot by 20-foot “rain gardens” will be attractive landscape features, with perennial flowers, shrubs, and/or small trees. Underneath, they are actually very hard-working and effective ways to reduce flooding, a problem that has historically plagued the Ramsay Terrace neighborhood and, in particular, North and South Geary streets.

Rain gardens reduce flooding by managing excess rainwater. They take some of the rain that normally would flow into the sewer system or the street and collect it in a shallow, unseen trough underneath the plants. The plants then use this water to grow, and any water left over slowly sinks into the ground.

Compared to a conventional patch of lawn, a rain garden allows 30 percent more water to soak into the ground. Even though it is called a “rain garden,” water does not pond or stand on the surface of this landscape feature.

The Westmoreland Conservation District has created rain gardens in other locations in the county. One of the largest captures rainwater from a 750-square-foot section of roof on the GreenForge office building on Donohoe Road in Greensburg.

Although the Mount Pleasant rain garden program targets residents of Ramsay Terrace and surrounding neighborhoods, any borough resident interested in learning more about rain gardens and other ways to reduce rainwater runoff is invited to attend the free informational meeting.

Borough officials and Westmoreland Conservation District staff members will be on-hand to explain more about the rain garden program and homeowners will have the opportunity to indicate their interest in participating.

The borough also plans to mail information about the rain garden project and the informational meeting to homeowners in Ramsay Terrace and surrounding neighborhoods in the next few weeks.

Funding for the rain gardens is being provided by the Department of Environmental Protection through Section 319 of the Federal Clean Water Act administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Visit the Westmoreland County Conservation District website for more information.

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