Kennebecasis Watershed Restoration Committee
Worth Wading Into
Storm Water Awareness
With frequent flood events over the past few years and predicted for the future, the KWRC strives to restore riverbanks and ecosystems to be more flood-resilient. However, another subject emerges which doesn't always get the attention it deserves, and that's storm water.
Storm water refers to rain or melted snow that accumulates quickly during and/or following precipitation events. Large amounts of storm water can put pressure on infrastructure and cause problematic flooding. When it falls on impermeable surfaces such as pavement, or even grass where it can't be absorbed fast enough, it is known as storm run-off. When this happens run-off collects all kinds of dirt and debris as it finds its way into storm drains and eventually into rivers and even our drinking water.
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There are ways that storm water run-off can be managed and pollutants filtered out before they run into our rivers. This issue along with its mitigation tactics has become a regular component in our Education Outreach work, whether we share pamphlets at markets or engage local youth in storm water awareness activities. It was when our staff noticed a significant amount of litter and debris scattered across flood zones we decided it was time to reduce polluted run-off from entering the river. Our municipal partners were also starting to feel a public push to improve flood mitigation actions within their boundaries.
In 2016, the KWRC developed a partnership with Trout Unlimited Canada which enabled us to start developing a public awareness campaign about the impacts of storm water run-off. We came up with a variety of ways to reduce pressure on existing storm water infrastructure and improve the water quality within the watershed.
This campaign involved:
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joining Trout Unlimited Canada's Yellow Fish Road program,
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generating a Storm Water Pathways Information Series of pamphlets that can help the public understand storm water run off and how rain barrels, rain gardens, and permeable pavers can mitigate the impacts of storm water, and
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developing local public demonstration sites for rain gardens and rain barrels so that people can see first hand how they can improve storm water runoff rates and water quality.
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Yellow Fish Road
The Yellow Fish Road program is recognized across Canada as a storm drain painting effort that identifies and brings attention to community storm drains that directly empty untreated runoff into our waterways.
The aim of the program is to reduce the amount of contaminants people unknowingly put into the watershed. By marking drains in this manner we hope to make people more aware of the impacts storm water has on the water quality of our riparian zones and our overall watershed health.
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The KWRC enlists volunteers to help us carry out this program each summer. If you or a group you belong to would like to help us paint storm drains in the Kennebecasis watershed, please contact us!
Storm Water Pathways Information Series
The Storm Water Pathways Information Series offers a general explanation of storm water, the impact it can have in our watershed and suggests some measures we can take to reduce run-off rates and pressure on storm water infrastructure by using:
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Rain Barrels
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Rain Gardens
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Permeable Pavement
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Click on the photos to view the pamphlets or stop by our office to pick up copies.
Rain Gardens
Rain Barrels
Permeable Pavers
Rain Garden and Rain Barrel Public Demonstration Sites
To help the public better understand how rain gardens and rain barrels help manage storm water runoff, we partnered with local community activity centers, businesses and municipalities to install demonstration rain gardens and rain barrels so the public could come view them and learn more about them.
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Rain Gardens
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As of 2018, we have installed three rain gardens at public locations in the Town of Sussex.
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The first was installed in the Fall of 2017 at Sussex Middle School with help from the students. The other two were installed in the summer of 2018 with one being located outside the KWRC office at 5 Moffett Avenue and the other at the Potash Corp Civic Centre with the help of the PCC daycampers and staff.
Sussex Middle School Rain Garden
49 Bryant Drive, Sussex
KWRC Rain Garden
5 Moffett Avenue, Sussex
Potash Corp Civic Centre Rain Garden
240 Main Street, Sussex
Rain Barrels
In the Spring of 2018, we promoted the benefits of household use of rain barrels to collect storm water by offering a giveaway of 50 rain barrels to residents, businesses and community partners in our watershed. Some of these rain barrels were installed at locations open to the public where people could stop by to see them in person.
To see all the public demonstration rain barrels and rain gardens, click on the map to find their locations.