Lot 7 Infiltrating Bioswale
At this site, a little-noticed strip of grass was converted into a working stormwater BMP. Watch out for traffic in the lot if you decide to take a closer look.
Bioswale
Originally, this was a narrow strip of lawn bordering the street. To create the bioswale, the grass and underlying soil were removed and the ground was reshaped to form a shallow ditch that conveys the water to a new drain inlet. Creating entry points for directing the runoff into the bioswale involved simply cutting the existing curb so no street grading was needed.
In most bioswales, the presence of plants slows the flow, which causes pollutant particles to be removed by settling and filtration. In this bioswale, the soil was replaced with a permeable soil/compost mix (see diagram below). This allows runoff to infiltrate into the ground, thus reducing runoff volumes. Water that does enter the drain inlet at this site flows to the campus drainage system and is pumped into the American River near the Guy West Bridge (see later stop on the tour).
Want more details? https://www.owp.csus.edu/csus-lid/
Improving the Landscape
Before the bioswale installation, this site was a curbside strip of lawn (see photo below) elevated above the street surface. This kind of landscaping requires regular mowing and irrigation and cannot collect stormwater runoff. In times of drought, reduced irrigation causes the lawn to turn brown. The LID goal is to use the landscape to reduce stormwater runoff and improve its quality. One option is to depress the lawn below the street level where it can act as a bioswale that treats the runoff. The option used on this site replaced the lawn with drought-tolerant vegetation that can go for extended periods of time without watering. Besides treating stormwater, this approach aims to reduce maintenance and provide a more interesting landscape than an area of grass.
These are the plants at this BMP Site:
Featured plant
Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis Indica)
Rhaphiolepis Indica: Image by: Stan Shebs (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
Berkeley Sedge (Carex Divulsa)
Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium Bellum)
California Coffee Berry (Rhamnus Californica)
California Fuchsia (Epilobium Californicum)
Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia Rigens)
Lomandra (Lomandra Longfolia 'Breeze')
Maritime Ceanothus (Ceanothus Maritimus 'Valley Violet')
Spreading Rush (Juncus Patens 'Elk Blue')
Want more details? https://www.owp.csus.edu/csus-lid/
Bioswale
Originally, this was a narrow strip of lawn bordering the street. To create the bioswale, the grass and underlying soil were removed and the ground was reshaped to form a shallow ditch that conveys the water to a new drain inlet. Creating entry points for directing the runoff into the bioswale involved simply cutting the existing curb so no street grading was needed.
In most bioswales, the presence of plants slows the flow, which causes pollutant particles to be removed by settling and filtration. In this bioswale, the soil was replaced with a permeable soil/compost mix (see diagram below). This allows runoff to infiltrate into the ground, thus reducing runoff volumes. Water that does enter the drain inlet at this site flows to the campus drainage system and is pumped into the American River near the Guy West Bridge (see later stop on the tour).
Want more details? https://www.owp.csus.edu/csus-lid/
Improving the Landscape
Before the bioswale installation, this site was a curbside strip of lawn (see photo below) elevated above the street surface. This kind of landscaping requires regular mowing and irrigation and cannot collect stormwater runoff. In times of drought, reduced irrigation causes the lawn to turn brown. The LID goal is to use the landscape to reduce stormwater runoff and improve its quality. One option is to depress the lawn below the street level where it can act as a bioswale that treats the runoff. The option used on this site replaced the lawn with drought-tolerant vegetation that can go for extended periods of time without watering. Besides treating stormwater, this approach aims to reduce maintenance and provide a more interesting landscape than an area of grass.
These are the plants at this BMP Site:
Featured plant
Indian Hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis Indica)
Rhaphiolepis Indica: Image by: Stan Shebs (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)
Berkeley Sedge (Carex Divulsa)
Blue Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium Bellum)
California Coffee Berry (Rhamnus Californica)
California Fuchsia (Epilobium Californicum)
Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia Rigens)
Lomandra (Lomandra Longfolia 'Breeze')
Maritime Ceanothus (Ceanothus Maritimus 'Valley Violet')
Spreading Rush (Juncus Patens 'Elk Blue')
Want more details? https://www.owp.csus.edu/csus-lid/