Garden is new flood control

NEW CITY - Developed areas such as Rockland get a lot more than just rain when a storm hits.
 
Because there is so much impervious surface - roofs, roads, sidewalks, patios, driveways and parking lots - water tends to rush off rather than slowly seep into soil.
 
The situation causes flooding and erosion, while also preventing the adequate replenishment of aquifers.
 
The New York state Department of Environmental Conservation has stepped up efforts recently to require communities to find ways to retain water on property.
 
The traditional practice has been for homeowners or developers to install pipes to quickly carry water off site, typically into the nearest woods, stream, lake or even the ocean.
 
A popular new way to help manage stormwater is the rain garden.

Thanks to the efforts of Daniel Israel of Boy Scout Troop 97 of New City, Rockland - and the Lower Hudson Valley - now has its first such public demonstration garden.
 
Located at Kennedy-Dells County Park, off Zukor Road in New City, the garden was officially dedicated this week.
 
Israel took on the project as he works to obtain his Eagle Scout ranking. He is quick to acknowledge other members of his troop, and the county agencies, nonprofit organizations and nursery that assisted him in getting it built.
 
"A few years back, I heard about rain gardens," Israel said. "I learned it was a depression that collects runoff from impervious surfaces like rooftops and parking lots."
 
Israel didn't have to look far to learn about the importance of protecting our water.
 
In fact, his father, Richard, works to do just that as the New York water sentinel for the Sierra Club. Richard Israel is a regular at roadside and waterway cleanups, and has taken volunteers out in canoes to haul trash out of the Ramapo River.
 
The younger Israel began planning the garden in spring, with a lot of help from master gardener Chris Shankar, he said. Shankar helped him decide which plants would be good choices for the garden, among other details.
 

The new garden is a few feet from the edge of the upper parking lot at the park, where even in October, the impact of stormwater runoff was clear; the grass had been browned out by the road salt washed onto it by snowmelt and rain.
 
The slope of the garden was designed to capture the runoff from the parking lot.
 
The garden includes several native plants, such as variegated red twig dogwood and cardinal flower, which have much deeper roots than grass and therefore help to hold onto water so it can slowly seep into the ground.
 
But who wants parking lot runoff in their drinking water?
 
Such runoff carries more than plain old water with it. It also carries whatever was on the road or roof into the retention area, including pesticides, fertilizers, gasoline, oil, dirt and a lot of other potentially harmful pollutants.
 
The rain garden's plants, it turns out, serve as both a sponge and natural filter, capturing many of the pollutants.
 
Barbara Kendall, who helps oversee the DEC's Hudson River Estuary Stormwater Program, visited the garden this week.
 
"It's an on-site stormwater treatment and we'd like to see more of it," Kendall said. "They have been shown to remove up to 80 to 90 percent of pollution, so it's very beneficial."
 
She said the new garden was the first public demonstration garden of its kind in the region.
 
Mary Hegarty, environmental management assistant for the county Division of Environmental Resources, said a new brochure about rain gardens would be published in about a month.
 
It will explain what a rain garden is and how to build one. The gardens can be easily created by homeowners.
 
The 16-year-old Israel, who is a junior at Clarkstown South High School, said it took his team of volunteers three days to build the garden.
 
"We took the sod up easily," Israel said. "After that it was rock and clay. Oh, it was tough."
 
Nah, it's just Rockland - emphasis on the rock.
 
Reach Laura Incalcaterra at lincalca@lohud.com or 845-578-2486.