On July 25th and 26th, NRWC, with the assistance of the East Lyme School Department, the Department of Public Works and volunteers from the MIllstone Environmental Stewardship Team, installed a 480-square foot rain garden at the East Lyme High School. Rain gardens catch rain water from hard surfaces like driveways, parking lots and rooftops and soak it into the ground. This keeps rain water, which picks up a variety of pollution as it flows along the ground surface, from entering nearby streams. Organisms and chemical processes in the soil treat the rain water and filter it before it reaches the water table. The rain garden at the high school, located in a grassy area behind the baseball field, will catch rain water from about 5700 square feet of the driveway and parking lot, and soak it into the ground. Before the rain garden was installed, rain water from the driveway flowed into the storm drain system and was discharged to Latimer Brook. Now, the rain garden will prevent approximately 90,000 gallons of polluted ran water from entering the brook.
This project was funded in part by Dominion Energy.
The stage is set!
Excavation of the new rain garden at the East Lyme High School is underway. Many thanks to School Superintendent Jeff Newton, Ted, Hunt, Kyle Foley, Pete Levanti, and Owen and CJ for their support and assistance with the rain garden installation.
Raking the excavated garden into the shallow bowl shape that will catch and soak in rain water.
Excavation is done and the rain garden is ready to be planted. Thank you to Hayes Services for screened loam and mulch.
The Millstone Environmental Stewardship Team has arrived and is ready to plant!
The boulders are in place and the first few plants are going in .
Planting an array of native plants, including coneflowers, black-eyed susans, little bluestem and prairie switchgrasses, and redtwig dogwoods.
Almost finished!!! The garden is looking great. A soaker hose has been installed to water the garden and mulch will be put down to suppress weeds and keep the soil cool and moist for the plants.
The Millstone Environmental Stewardship Team overlooking the new garden.
Done! This rain garden will catch water from a 5,700 square foot area of the driveway and parking lot and soak it into the ground. In the event of a heavy rain fall (greater than 1 inch) the rain will flow into the catch basin at the rear of the garden. That catch basin connects to a storm drain system that ultimately discharges to Latimer Brook near the Route 1 bridge.
