Students ‘Weed-Out’ Flooding in Rogers Park
Recent Storm Demonstrates the Importance of Capturing Raindrops Where They Fall
WHAT: Less than a year ago, on October 18th, the students at St. Margaret Mary Elementary School in the Rogers Park neighborhood planted 500 seedlings of 17 species of native plants in a bioswale cut out of the main parking lot.
On Monday, October 6th, students will venture into the garden again, to spend the afternoon weeding the 50 by 18-foot bioswale. Sixth, seventh and eighth graders will remove the Eurasian weeds so the native plants can thrive and continue to protect the parish. Come and see schools of students immersed in the sea of grasses and wildflowers.
WHEN: Monday, October 6, 2008, 12:15 – 2:30 PM
WHERE: Saint Margaret Mary Church and School, 2324 W. Chase Avenue, Chicago, IL 60645
WHY THIS IS TIMELY: The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) worked with the parish school, students, Chicago’s Green Corps and Ozinga Concrete crews to install the bioswale, along with two rain gardens and pervious concrete donated by Ozinga, which only a year later appear to have shown their worth. These green infrastructure features paid off when, on September 13th and 14th, the largest storm on record hit Chicago.
In the words of Father James Barrett,
“At St. Margaret Mary, we were very fortunate in that there was little rain damage… Since we put the water permeable concrete in the Activity Center parking lot and the bioswale in the church parking lot, there has been no water in either building… Thank you Ozinga Concrete Company and the Center for Neighborhood Technology. You saved us hours in clean up costs.”
Or, in the words of facility manager Jack Kent,
“For the first time with a significant rain, let alone a record breaker like we had, we had no water in the school backing up whatsoever… The only difference was the bioswale and raingardens. And none in the activity center, so the (permeable) parking lot did its job. It worked.”
“Margaret Mary is a great example of the community putting green infrastructure to work to capture raindrops where they fall, protect clean water, create beautiful urban spaces, and help prevent flooding,” said Steve Wise, CNT’s natural resources program manager. “Expanding Chicago’s use of green infrastructure features like these needs to be a major part of the solution in limiting stormwater runoff and the flow of pollution to the lake, while coping with future rainstorms that climate scientists expect to be more frequent and more severe.”
Since 1978, CNT has been a leader in promoting urban sustainability – the more effective use of existing resources and community assets to improve the health of natural systems and the wealth of people, today and in the future. CNT’s Natural Resources program focuses on Green Infrastructure; a stormwater management approach that saves money, supports sustainability, and more efficiently uses limited financial and natural resources. By capturing raindrops where they fall, Green Infrastructure utilizes the absorbing and filtering abilities of plants, trees and soil to protect water quality, reduce polluted runoff, and recharge groundwater supplies while reconnecting people with their local environment.
More information at www.cnt.org/natural-resources.
