Rainwater Management in Seattle: City's Mayor aiming high on green infrastructure
Rain garden in Seattle’s Ravenna neighborhood manages about 80,000 US gallons of rainwater annually. (Photo credit: Bellamy Pailthorp, Radio Station KPLU)
The Goal: Six-Fold Increase in Volume Diversion by 2025
“When you look around the streets of Seattle, you can expect to see less concrete and more greenery being put in over the next 12 years,” reported Bellamy Pailthorp, environmental reporter with radio station KPLU in Seattle.
“Seattle has pioneered the use of green infrastructure – things like rain gardens and green roofs – to catch the rain as it runs off, slow it down and filter it naturally, much as a forest ecosystem would. But so far, these innovations aren’t widely used.”
“So now the city has set an ambitious goal: treating 1,000 gallons of stormwater per resident with green infrastructure by the year 2025. To visualize that, they said what’s needed is about six square feet of raingardens, per person.”
To Learn More:
To listen to the broadcast by Bellamy Pailthorp on radio station KPLU, click on Seattle Mayor aiming high on green infrastructure for stormwater. To download a transcript, click here.
Also, click on Setting a new goal for Seattle’s stormwater management for the Mayor of Seattle’s perspective on his executive order .