Comprehensive Environmental Inc. (CEI) won a stormwater design contest in the professional category. The contest was sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It challenged contestants to develop innovative designs for residential housing that would reduce the impact of stormwater runoff on the Charles River in Cambridge, MA.
Stormwater is mostly created when rain falls on impervious surfaces and runs off rapidly to nearby waterways. The rapid runoff creates several major environmental problems: increased flooding of low lying areas; a loss of natural groundwater recharge; and pollution of waterways. In addition to reducing the natural recharge of groundwater and surface water drinking water sources, it also picks up many pollutants and carries them into waterways. Stormwater, also called non-point source pollution by the U.S. EPA, has been identified as the number one water quality pollutant today in the United States.
CEI's design consisted of several key components, including
- cisterns that feed recycled rainwater from the rooftops to the home's toilets for flushing;
- rain gardens that are irrigated with stormwater from the yard;
- a rain barrel system for irrigation with compost tea (a favorite of gardeners); and
- raised beds that are also irrigated with roof runoff.
"If techniques like these and other commercial techniques we are working on were used on a widespread basis, water quality in the United States could be vastly improved," said the firm's president, Eileen Pannetier. "There would be fewer beach closures and more productive fisheries."
But the most positive impact of these types of techniques could well be on our dwindling water supplies, both in terms of quality and quantity and that is something to think about in drought conditions.
View the winning CEI design by clicking on image above.
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