STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
DC's Antiquated stormwater management system is broken
DC's stormwater system is antiquated. It was not designed to handle the amount of rain water it receives today. During heavy rains, the system is overloaded resulting flooded basements and property damage in areas of the city. Moreover, large volumes of overflow is dumped untreated into creeks, streams and rivers; eroding waterways and stripping away valuable soil that supports plant life. These waterways are left unable to function as our natural filter system for our stormwater and they are contaminated with road chemicals, fertilizers and untreated sewage.
We are helping fix this problem one house at a time.
Our goal is 100% stormwater management on site
When it rains, water infiltrates into the ground watering plants, trees and lawns and eventually makes its way to recharging underground aquifers. However, most roof downspouts connect to DC’s stormwater system and rainwater bypasses this natural system. The reality is that soil in yards can absorb large amounts of rain water. True Turtle looks for opportunities to disconnect from DC’s storm system and allow this infiltration to occur.
We use a variety of strategies to make this happen.
Rain gardens
A raingarden is a storm water management tool where roof runoff is gathered in a depression in the lawn and water is allowed to infiltrate into the ground while simultaneously watering plants. We disconnect the front downspout and route the water to a raingarden...growing beautiful native plants as part of our comprehensive stormwater management strategy.
Planted detention areas
Areas of properties are designed to accept roof run off where they hold the water until it infiltrates into the soil. These areas are heavily planted with non-fussy landscape plants that thrive in both dry conditions as well as occasional standing water.
Drywells
Drywells are subsurface stormwater management tools. They are effectively a water storage “tank” that allows water to infiltrate to the surrounding soil. They can be an actual tank or an engineered system or a built on site cistern. All three of them function the same way: the water is collected underground and allowed to slowly disperse to the ground below.
They are also equipped with overflow pipes connecting to the storm system and test wells to monitor their performance.
Pervious paving
We install paths and patios and parking areas that allow water to infiltrate through the paving materials. Whether it is flagstone, bluestone, Redirock or humble patio block, all allow water to flow to the ground below...and look great doing it!