Mt. Airy Rain Catchers

Spring 2010 Update

Last fall, Tetra Tech cleaned up the rain gardens by adding mulch where needed and trimming plants. Now that the long, cold winter is over, we are gearing up for the spring round of maintenance. In April and May, we will be weeding and adding compost to rain gardens. For the berms, we are using pine straw as ground cover since we’ve found it holds to the slope and lasts better than wood chips. We will be planting some new plants where we have had substantial die-off, but most gardens won’t need plants.

Rain barrel owners do the operation and maintenance for barrels. They should all be back in service now that the risk of a hard freeze is past. We have seen some barrels that were broken this winter, likely from freezing when full of water. See the Rain Barrels page to see an example.

Owners should be proud to be Rain Catchers - part of an important study of green technologies and how they might improve the health of our streams and rivers. (Updated April 2010)

Welcome to the Mt. Airy Rain Catchers Project. This is your one-stop shop to learn about the project and find information on rain gardens and rain barrels. Here, you can learn about the advantages of catching rain in your yard and catching rain can improve the environment. Questions or concerns? Feel free to contact your local project-leader.

The Mt. Airy Rain Catchers Project

The Rain Catchers project offered home owners the chance to receive an exciting, natural landscape feature that uses less water, fewer chemicals and, most importantly, less time to maintain than the average lawn. The installation was free of charge including three years of maintenance!

Many Mt. Airy residents chose to have one or more rain barrels installed to collect and store rainfall from the roof. During a rainfall, each barrell collected 55 to 75 gallons of rain water for use in the yard and garden.

The benefits of rain catchers extend beyond the yard to the drainage ways and area streams. When you catch the rain water and let it soak into the ground, less of it will run off onto the hillsides and ditches. Less water running off means less soil erosion, reduced flooding, and better water quality downstream.

Mt. Airy Rain Catchers Brochure (PDF file)

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How Can Rainfall Pollute?

Rainfall causes pollution problems in our communities because it runs off paved areas where it collects and transports soil, pet waste, salt, pesticides, fertilizer, oil and grease, litter and other pollutants. This stormwater flows directly into nearby creeks and streams without receiving treatment at sewage plants. Polluted stormwater contaminates our local creeks and streams (for example, Shepherd Creek), which affects recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, and aesthetic value.

Overloaded storm drains also lead to local flooding and flooding-related damage to our properties and communities. We pay the increasing costs of stormwater runoff problems: flood damage (to buildings and also roads), water pollution, lost recreational value, dwindling ground water supplies and harm to native fish and wildlife.

Rain gardens can help prevent these runoff problems by allowing more rainfall to soak into the ground– about 30 percent more rainfall will soak into a rain garden than a conventional lawn. In fact, you can think of rain gardens as “a beautiful solution to pollution.”

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Advantages of Catching Rain in Your Yard

Photo of a butterfly. Everyone uses lots of water in the summertime. If you have a rain garden or a rain barrel, you will use less water and fewer chemicals-meaning you can save on water bills and yard maintenance costs. Local water quality will benefit from a decrease in chemical pollutants and lowered runoff will decrease local flooding. As a bonus, rain gardens are attractive and add aesthetic value to any garden or property.

A beauty to the eye and a boon to the environment, this landscape feature is a fun, innovative way to put rainfall to use in growing beautiful wildflowers and native plants.