One of the great things about doing business in Seattle is the number of resources available to help businesses improve on environmental practices. We recently had a consultant from ECOSS (Environmental Coalition of South Seattle) come out to help us improve our spill prevention practices.

Ecoyards’ new spill response kit.

ECOSS is a nonprofit that works toward improving the environment and provides education, resources and technical assistance to businesses and communities. One of its fields of expertise is stormwater pollution prevention. The group provides free, confidential services. We recommend it to other businesses.

The group, working with Seattle Public Utilities and other groups, offers free emergency spill cleanup materials and spill contingency plans to Seattle businesses. ECOSS helped us prepare a spill prevention plan and gave us free spill skits for our trucks and warehouse located along the Duwamish in West Seattle. The spill kits are 6.5 gallon buckets that include absorbent booms, absorbent pads, goggles and other items.

New 49er stadium.

The San Francisco 49ers are getting a new football stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and there’s one particular landscape feature being built that we think is pretty cool and environmentally-friendly.

The massive construction project features a bioretention system, an innovative way to control stormwater runoff that pollutes local waterways. As you can imagine, a venue with seating for about 70,000 or so fans would require lots and lots of parking spaces, sidewalks and other hardscaping. Rain falling on parking spaces, for example, would wash grease, oil leaked from cars and other petrochemicals into storm drains and right into a local creek that eventually flows into the San Francisco Bay.

The contractors, however, used a low-impact development technique to slow the flow of runoff, filter that rainwater on site. They designed a bioretention system that collects runoff, prevents it from eroding surrounding natural landscapes, and treats the polluted stormwater on site. The stadium site will have six bioretention systems in parking lots and in the area next to the stadium. The bioretention and biofiltration system looks like any other parking lot planting strip. It will likely have flowers or trees, but in the trenches below are a series of pipes, gravel, soil, and other material that filters and then carries treated water out of the system. The stadium project was required to meet tough California rules; the treatment soil in the system had to retain 5 inches of water per hour.

Contact Ecoyards if you’d like to build a football stadium like this in your backyard.  😊

You’ve heard us talk a lot about the benefits of Seattle rain gardens. In the coming months, you’ll hear a lot more about rain gardens in West Seattle, as King County embarks on a bold project to control stormwater overflows by using so-called green infrastructure such as rain gardens, plantings, trees and other vegetative areas.

In December 2010, the county recommended a stormwater control project for the Barton basin that calls for rain gardens between sidewalks and curbs in a 66-block area in the Sunrise Heights and Westwood neighborhoods in West Seattle. Rain gardens use the natural properties of vegetation and soil to help soak up excess stormwater runoff that would otherwise end up in Puget Sound.

The Green Stormwater Infrastructure project is the first such “green” project for the King County Wastewater Treatment Division, which is responsible for wastewater treatment for Seattle and 16 other cities. The goal of the project is to reduce overflows from the Barton Pump Station near Seattle’s Lincoln Park. During times of heavy rains, pipes that carry both stormwater and wastewater get overwhelmed. Instead of sending water to the wastewater treatment plant, untreated water flows directly into Puget Sound near Lincoln Park. The county says this happens about four times a year.

In public meetings, many West Seattle residents told the county planners that they wanted a green solution to the problem of combined sewer overflows. The county is beginning its environmental project review in coming months, and says construction is expected to begin no later than December 2013 and take two years.

Our neighbors to the south in the city of Portland are doing some great things with rain gardens as well. Seattle has led the way, but other cities have been doing their part as well in stormwater controls. The Portland Tribune has this cool feature explaining how one couple in Portland, Ore. saved money on their utility bill with their three rain gardens.

Rain gardens — essentially sunken areas filled with plants to collect surface water — absorb rainfall coming off the roof of the Hubatches’ one-story home.

That eases the burden on Portland’s oft-overloaded sewer system. As a result, the couple get a discount on the storm water management portion of their water and sewer bill.

The article lists some great ways that homeowners can help manage rainwater runoff, including installing rain barrels or cisterns to capture and hold rain for later reuse. In an earlier blog post, we explained how Seattle rain gardens can help keep pollutants out of Puget Sound. We can help you design, install and maintain your own rain garden. Give us a call at 206-770-7879 or email us.

There are many landscape tools homeowners can use to control stormwater runoff, considered the largest source of pollution in Puget Sound. From planting trees to installing a rain garden or large cisterns, you can help minimize the excess rainwater runoff that washes toxic pollutants into Puget Sound each year. Every time it rains, water falling onto roofs, parking lots, driveways or hard-packed soil washes unfiltered into storm drains and directly into our streams, creeks, rivers and sound. The stormwater carries grease, oils, heavy metals, PCBs, flame retardants and other toxic pollutants into waterways. The excess runoff also causes flooding in streets and sewer systems to backup.

What exactly is a rain garden and how do they help pollution? Rain gardens allow you to redirect rain from your roof into a shallow depression that filters, holds and absorbs water. By holding and infiltrating rainwater, rain gardens help protect our waterways and reduce flooding. These gardens can be shaped and sized to fit your yard. They also can be attractive landscape features, filled with native plants or other shrubs, trees and plantings that fit your soil, sun conditions and surroundings.

Typical rain garden layout in Seattle, Ecoyards LLC.

Ecoyards can help you through the entire process, from designing a rain garden to constructing it to helping you maintain it. Our experienced staff will find the best spot for your garden, suggest the best plants for it and recommend ways to maintain it. Rain gardens are ideal for many properties that are fairly level (up to about 5 percent slope). There should be a way for roof or driveway runoff to flow to the rain garden, whether over the yard or through a pipe or rock-filled ditch. We can help you determine where to install the garden and how big it should be.

Ecoyards is a licensed landscape contractor with the city of Seattle’s Rainwise Rebate program. That innovative program will pay most of the cost of installing rain gardens and cisterns for eligible residents in Ballard, depending on how many square feet of roof runoff is controlled. (Check this map for the qualifying area). Residents can get rebates up to $4 per square foot of area that contributes to retaining runoff. The pilot rain garden rebate program was launched earlier this year in the Ballard neighborhood. You must hire a licensed contractor, such as Ecoyards, to do the work; the city isn’t currently giving rebates if homeowners do the work themselves. A Seattle Public Utilities inspector will do a pre- and post-inspection on site, and you must fill out the rebate form and send it in within 90 days of completion. Don’t worry, contact us and we’ll help you figure it out.

It goes without saying that trees provide a lot of benefits to the homeowner, but now there’s a way to actually calculate the actual savings in terms of real dollars.

A two-inch thick vine maple (a ubiquitous feature in the Seattle area) provides about $50 in overall benefits, with the bulk of it coming in gains in property value, according to this cool National Tree Benefit Calculator developed by Casey Trees. OK, it’s not meant to be a scientific assessment of the tree’s value, but it’s a simple way to get you to start thinking about the value of a tree planted in the parking strip, in your front yard, or along the street.

What I like about this calculator is it takes into account all the benefits of a tree. There’s the gain in property value from having trees in your front yard — a spectacular specimen tree like a Japanese maple, for example, can help you create curb appeal . Then there’s the tree’s role in curbing stormwater runoff; this calculator notes that a two-inch vine maple intercepts 52 gallons of runoff a year. How? It holds rain on leaves, branches and bark and reducing soil erosion by slowing rainfall before it hits the soil; all that means a little bit less oils, chemicals and other bad stuff washing into the local waterways.

The calculator also takes into account the benefits of air quality (trees absorb pollutants) and energy conservation (planted in the right spot around the house, it can help warm or cool your house during certain times of the year).

If you’ve been interested in learning to how build a rain garden, the city of Bothell is hosting two free rain garden workshops on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 7-9 p.m. or  Saturday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to noon at the Bothell Police Community Room (18410 101st Ave. NE, Bothell). No registration is necessary.

What are rain gardens? They’re simply shallow depressions in the soil landscaped with perennial flowers and native vegetation that soak up rainwater and slow the flow of runoff into our lakes, streams and other water bodies.

Why is this important? Rain gardens, along with other tools such as rainwater harvesting, compost-amended soils among others, can help filter out pollutants such as grease, pesticides, oils, fertilizers and others before they flow into storm drains and then drain untreated into our waters. Residents can create a rain garden on their property and divert the stormwater from their roof, driveway, or sidewalk to this garden. Another benefit of doing so is to slow the flow of runoff and help prevent flooding, while also increasing the amount of water that seeps into the ground and recharges local groundwater.

Here’s a comprehensive booklet on rain gardens by Washington State University Pierce County Extension. And a brochure on rain gardens and how to build one.