Have some of areas of your yard turned to mud from all the rain in the past few days? Many residents have experienced erosion and washouts of their yards.
In the Piedmont area our average rain is 1.2 inches, and we get over 40 inches of rain annually. Last week we got nearly 4 inches at the Cooperative Extension Service office in Winston-Salem.
With all this rain, it would seem that we were coming out of the drought. But according to the state (http://www.ncdrought.org/), we are still in a moderate to severe drought in the Piedmont. As we remove vegetation like trees, grass and shrubs and replace them with hard surfaces such as concrete or asphalt, the rainwater is unable to soak into the ground (a process called infiltration).
This is an important process that helps to recharge groundwater levels. Most streams in this area begin from springs or boils in the ground. When precipitation is reduced or deficient for a long time, this storage is reflected in declining surface and subsurface water levels.
What happens when all this rain falls on impervious surfaces? If it cannot soak into the ground, rainwater collects in large quantities. As the water moves, it gains energy, erodes whatever lands the current contacts, and travels to the nearest storm drain or waterway.
There is a common misconception that water traveling into storm drains ends up treated at the local wastewater treatment plant. Because of this misunderstanding, many citizens use storm drains and ditches as places to dispose of all kinds of pollutants.
The rainwater also can pick up pollutants (pesticides, engine drippings, street litter, pet waste) from our driveways and parking lots as well as sediment from uncovered land. Thus, storm drains carry large amounts of pollution away from urbanized areas mixed with the excess stormwater.
Because storm drains can be a major source of pollution to our waterways, it is important to keep polluting materials out of them.
Although we cannot control the amount of rain we get, we can try reusing or harvesting some of the water and even try to control some of the runoff from taking away our landscape by slowing the water down.
A new program called the Community Conservation Assistance Program (CCAP), which was created by 2006 legislation, provides technical assistance and cost-share money for urban landowners to install best management practices that improve water quality.
Under the program, homeowners, civic groups, municipalities and others can apply for cost-share funds to incorporate storm-water Best Management Practices (BMPs). This program will reimburse the applicant 75 percent of average installation costs for projects such as cisterns, backyard rain gardens, backyard wetlands, grassed swales, critical area plantings, impervious surface conversion, riparian (woody and herbaceous) buffers, and pet waste receptacles.
This program is implemented across the state of North Carolina through local Soil and Water Conservation Districts. In Forsyth and Stokes County, the district and Cooperative Extension Service work together to design these BMPs for citizens to install within their landscapes.
Some measures to control storm-water runoff are:
□ Rain garden: A depression, like a bowl, meant to capture diverted storm water from downspouts and hard surfaces using fast draining soil, compost, water-tolerant plants and mulch. Rain gardens can be designed by color or to attract wildlife and butterflies while blending into the surrounding landscape.
The options are numerous; lots of plant varieties can be incorporated but the purpose is to collect runoff from your roof and driveway and allow the water to infiltrate slowly into the ground within two days.
□ Backyard wetland: A rain garden meant to stay wet all the time.
□ Cistern: A specialized container above or below-ground to harvest rainwater from downspouts for outdoor water uses such as irrigation and car washing.
□ Critical area planting: Establishing permanent vegetation on sites that have steep slopes with high erosion rates, and on sites that have physical, chemical, or biological conditions that prevent the establishment of vegetation with normal practices.
□ Grassed waterway (swale): Have you ever driven into a rural community and noticed small grassy ditches (better known as swales) in everyone's front yard? These swales or channels are shaped or graded to required dimensions and established in suitable vegetation for the stable conveyance of runoff.
□ Impervious surface conversion: Removal of concrete or other hard surfaces to replace with vegetation.
□ Riparian buffers: An area dominated by trees and/or shrubs located adjacent to and up-gradient from water courses or water bodies.
□ Pet-waste receptacles: Receptacles and supplies to better manage pet waste, usually in public areas.
If you are interested in learning more about the Community Conservation Assistance Program, call the Forsyth County Agriculture Building at 703-2850 or e-mail bowmanml@forsyth.cc or me ag wendi_hartup@ncsu.edu.
By Wendi Hartup
Wendi Hartup is a natural-resources agent for the Forsyth and Stokes County Cooperative Extension Service.
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