: : : Hazelwood Rain Garden on Chatsworth Ave

Hazelwood Rain Garden on Chatsworth Ave

This installation consists of a swale that drains into the rain garden area.  The swale is meant to manage water runoff and filter pollutants while the rain garden has different plant species incorporated to ensure that rainwater becomes available for plants as groundwater rather than being sent through stormwater drains.The bottom of the site has a berm scattered with willow trees that will act as an extra buffer to catch rainwater. When stormwater enters a storm drain in a combined sewer system, it joins with the sanitary sewage coming from homes (sinks, showers, toilets, etc.). Combined sewer systems are designed to overflow and discharge excess untreated wastewater directly to nearby streams, rivers, or bodies of water in the event that the system becomes overwhelmed (in our case, when more than 0.1” of rain falls during one storm event). Therefore green stormwater infrastructure installations like rain gardens are crucial to mitigating stormwater runoff and preventing combined sewer overflows (and their associated health impacts) from occurring.