Healthy oceans, waves, and beaches start upstream. We can all play a part in protecting clean water, reducing flooding, and creating climate resilience. Rain gardens and other nature-based solutions are beautiful, resilient features that you can add to your yard to protect our waterways and waves from pollution.

What Is Stormwater and Runoff Pollution?

When it rains, a lot of water that would naturally sink into the soil is blocked by hard surfaces like concrete sidewalks, asphalt roads, parking lots, and rooftops. The displaced water is quickly funneled into gutters, storm drains, and waterways that ultimately flow out to the ocean.

All of the pollution that collects on these hard surfaces is swiftly washed out to the ocean.

Pollution we can see, like:

  • cigarette butts
  • plastic food wrappers
  • plastic and foam fragments

And things we can't see, like:

  • bacteria
  • pesticides
  • fertilizers
  • oil
  • heavy metals

The volume of stormwater can also cause flooded streets or overwhelm sewer systems, contributing to sewage spills that flow downstream.

Stormwater is a huge source of water pollution - but it doesn't have to be.

Rainwater retention features can help guide rain into contours in the ground, slowing down and spreading out the flow of water, helping retain the rain long enough so it can sink into the soil. This turns a problem into a solution by improving drainage in your yard, reducing flooding, and buffering our communities against extreme storms.

Instead of becoming runoff that pollutes our beaches and coastal waterways, these features can be used to hydrate your plants and replenish local groundwater and aquifers, transforming this pollution problem into a valuable resource.

We can flip this problem into an opportunity, reimagining the grey infrastructure of pipes, concrete, and drains into nature-based solutions that function in harmony with our ecosystems.

Rain Gardens and Other Nature-Based Solutions

These nature-based rainwater retention features all serve the same purpose: to make your yard or landscape less flat, direct rainwater toward plant roots, and slow the flow of runoff. They can also help tackle problems of poor drainage or flooding.

Read the full article about rain gardens by Kathryn Dressendorfer at Surfrider Foundation.