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  • Bioswale

What is Stormwater Management?

Climate change is bringing increasingly unpredictable weather. Dry spells can end in torrential downpours, taking valuable top soil and contaminants into local streams and rivers. Careful management of the rain water that hits the site of a building is necessary to minimize the effect of a building on its surroundings.

How do we use it?

Several Stormwater strategies have been implemented at the ERC. Our entrance way features pervious pavers that encourage rain water to infiltrate back into the water table. Our parking lot is graded to drain storm water into a vegetated filter strip called a bioswale which captures salt, sand, oil and other contaminants brought into the parking lot by cars. Rainwater is captured from our roof surfaces as well and reused in toilets and urinals, as well as stored for fire suppression systems.

How does it make us more sustainable?

The East Humber River is situated a couple hundred meters to the west of the ERC. Carefully capturing and treating our site’s stormwater helps keep the river clean and suitable for fish and other animals. The implemented Stormwater Management strategies help to recharge the local aquifer, offsetting the water that we withdraw for drinking. Salt and other debris from roads and parking lots are increasingly damaging our waterways. Systems such as ours can reduce the impact our structures have on these sensitive habitats.

Stormwater Management image gallery

Stormwater overview
Stormwater overview

The ERC site is designed to minimize runoff from precipitation that hits the many different constructed surfaces.

Bioswale in the spring
Bioswale in the spring

Our new parking lot area is designed to drain into a vegetated filter bed called a bioswale. Plants and filter media capture salt, sand, antifreeze and other contaminants that are deposited onto the pavers by cars and prevent them from entering the surrounding environment.

Before wetland restoration
Before wetland restoration

We are restoring the land surrounding the ERC through Project iRestore. The excavator here is starting to construct a wetland which now provides habitat and additional stormwater protection for the building site.

New wetland
New wetland

Native trees have been planted around the newly constructed wetland to aid in naturalization. These trees roots will also help to maintain the quality of water in the wetland.

Frog in the wetland
Frog in the wetland

Many native species have returned to the wetland area since construction, including this frog that is hiding in the grasses at the edge of the wetland.

Green roof drains
Green roof drains

10,000 square feet of vegetated green roof area also acts as a stormwater control feature. Once saturated, the soil will drain excess rain water or snow melt into this drain, where it is collected and directed to the non-potable water system.

Permeable pavement installation
Permeable pavement installation

This March 2010 photo shows the interlocking pavers being installed in our parking lot. While not pervious, they are graded to direct storm water into the central bioswale for filtering and detention.

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Did you know?

  • Humber River watershed

    The Earth Rangers Centre sits in the middle of the Humber River watershed. This 126 km river drains into Lake Ontario, and runs through some heavily developed areas. With only 32% of the drained area remaining natural, this development and land use is impacting the quality of the water in the river.

    Three target species have been identified in the Humber River Fisheries Management plan, including the redside dace, brook trout and rainbow darter. The dace is considered endangered under the Provincial Species Act.

    This sensitive habitat being directly affected by the material selection and hardscape management of buildings and roads, and provides good reason to manage stormwater on a building site. This is called low-impact development (LID), and you can see this in action with our pervious pavers, bioswale, rainwater capture, engineered wetland and vegetated green roofs .

  • Stormwater strategies

    The many varied hard surfaces around the grounds of the ERC handle stormwater volumes in different ways.

    Our 310,000 liter cistern can capture up to 60,000 Liters of rain or melted snow from the roof, preventing this water from running off the site and taking surface debris like salt, sand, oil and other contaminants in the Humber River. This water is filtered and reused in our toilets and urinals, and the remaining tank volume is kept in reserve for possible firefighting needs.

    Pervious pavers and bioswales retain at least 45% of the water that hits their surface. Compare that to asphalt, which allows 95% of the storm volumes to runoff, allowing 5% to evaporate. The green roof areas capture and retain approximately 50% of the volume that hits their surface.

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