Press Release: NONPROFIT, NEIGHBORHOOD and UA TEAM UP TO HELP WASH, IMPROVE STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
TUCSON – This Valentine’s Day, 30 volunteers will converge on a University of Arizona parking lot to install rainwater harvesting basins, native trees and shrubs where previously only asphalt and bare earth had lain. Led by Tucson nonprofit Watershed Management Group (WMG), the volunteers will lend their sweat to the transformation of a neighborhood.
With funds from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, the project is the latest in a partnership between WMG and the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association (RHNA) to create a model for “retrofitting” urban neighborhoods with water harvesting features to sustainably manage stormwater. The February 14 workshop is a collaboration that also includes the University of Arizona as a partner. UA has recently committed its resources to retrofit seven of its own sites in the Rincon Heights neighborhood with water harvesting features. Like many Tucson neighborhoods, Rincon Heights is largely covered by roofs, asphalt and concrete—so-called “impervious” surfaces unable to absorb water. When it rains, runoff from these surfaces quickly floods the streets, which in turn run off directly into High School Wash, the neighborhood’s usually-dry stream. In the monsoon of 2007, flooding of High School Wash contributed to over $1.2 million in damage to the 4th Avenue commercial district . In addition, this stormwater carries with it everything that people put on the ground—purposely or inadvertently—from auto oil to yard chemicals to litter, potentially causing downstream problems for plants, wildlife, and groundwater supplies.
Rainwater harvesting helps turn the problem of stormwater into an a community asset. The Feb. 14 workshop will be WMG’s sixth in the neighborhood teaching volunteers how to harvest stormwater from streets, sidewalks and parking lots into landscaped water harvesting basins in the right-of-way (the City-owned strip of land between the curb and sidewalk). In these basins, plants use the stormwater and the organic pollutants it carries for their growth, while microorganisms in the soil and the soil itself help to capture and break down pollutants from stormwater as well. In turn, the plants beautify neighborhood streets while providing cooling, shade and wildlife habitat in the city.
This winter and spring mark a crescendo of related activity in the neighborhood. The current series of workshops follows on two years of RHNA and WMG efforts to retrofit rights-of-way, and will continue with workshops through April and again in the fall of 2009.With help from Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment Funds, RHNA has also just installed a series of “curb extensions” (also known as “bump-outs”) along 9th and 10th Streets. These features, primarily intended to calm traffic, were also designed to harvest stormwater from the streets, and will be planted with hundreds of native plants by neighbors in the coming months. Additionally, the UA’s recent commitment to retrofit seven of its properties in Rincon Heights has provided a big boost to the neighborhood’s efforts to manage stormwater. At these sites, stormwater running off the University’s vast parking lots will be captured in landscaped basins, helping to reduce both flooding and water pollution while feeding native landscaping.
The Feb. 14 workshop marks the first time that WMG, RHNA and the UA will work together to retrofit a site. WMG is also planning further water quality education efforts in the neighborhood, targeting the some 85% of Rincon Heights residents that are renters (many of whom are UA students). Collectively, these efforts will help to improve both water quality and quantity issues in the neighborhood. WMG plans to take the lessons learned from this project to guide urban neighborhoods in Tucson and the Southwest in improving their water management.
Watershed Management Group seeks to improve people’s lives through grassroots projects that integrate community development and conservation. If you would like to participate in the February 14 or future workshops, please contact James MacAdam at 780-9416, james@watershedmg.org. To learn more about WMG’s innovative programs, visit their website at www.watershedmg.org.