THUNDER BAY – People living in the Castlegreen Housing Co-operative have three new rain gardens in place to help protect them from flooding issues.
The project, completed with the assistance of EcoSuperior, is a fantastic addition to the neighbourhood, says life-long resident Stacey Livitski.
Water erosion has been a major problem in the area, which sits along the McVicar Creek flood plain, for the more than four decades of Castlegreen’s existence.
“These rain gardens are starting to help address a very serious issue of rain runoff and helping to avoid the muckiness excess rains can cause,” Livitski said.
“In years past we have had historic flooding in Castlegreen – not that these will help address that, but it will help alleviate some of our smaller rains.”
The strategically placed rain gardens collect water runoff from several structures in the neighbourhood, funnelling it away from storm sewers and into the ground, where the carefully chosen fauna soaks it up.
Julia Prinselaar, a program co-ordinator with EcoSuperior, said they are a natural approach to storm-water management.
“The water is slowed down. It’s soaked up by the rain (garden) and it’s kept a lot cleaner by simply running off into municipal storm drains and ending up in our rivers,” Prinselaar said on Thursday, after touring the project with a couple of dozen residents and interested parties.
She added a good rain garden is dependent on its infiltration rate.
“You want to place a rain garden in an area where the drainage is good or can be improved. We’re not designing ponds. We’re basically designing simple landscaped, shallow depressions in a yard – a residential setting in this case,” Prinselaar said.
“That water is runoff from the rooftop and collected in the rain garden and kept there for a short period of time. We want the rainwater to drain out within 24 hours.”
The plants are carefully chosen, the hollow mulched and rocks are also added for both drainage and aesthetics.
“They’re generally proportionate to the roof size,” she said, adding the collective impact of rain gardens throughout the city can have a major impact in slowing the flow of water into local storm sewers and waterways.
Anyone interested in constructing a rain garden in their own yard can contact Prinselaar at EcoSuperior.
“We also have the rain garden rebate program that’s funded by the city of Thunder Bay, that basically incentivizes the installation of a rain garden on a residential property in the city and we will reimburse you up to $500 for expenses toward planting one.”
For Levitski, it’s also a way to add beauty to the neighbourhood.
“We have a lot of people who don’t garden themselves because of their age and their abilities, but they do enjoy coming by and spending some time at the gardens,” she said.
