Madison Township Stormwater Retrofit

Finished permeable pavement

Administration Building Stormwater Retrofit

In the spring of 2016, the Madison Township administration building parking lot was renovated to clean and reduce stormwater runoff to Church Creek and Lake Erie.  The newly renovated lot includes two bioretention cells and 2,760 square feet of permeable pavement.  These systems help the parking lot behave more like a natural landscape, mimicking natural processes to help water soak into the ground where it’s absorbed and filtered by soil, gravel, and plant roots. This keeps rainwater out of storm sewers, prevents sewer backups and flooding, and reduces pollution that would otherwise flow to unprotected waterways.  Chagrin River Watershed Partners, Inc. and Lake County Stormwater Management Department assisted the Township with this project.

 

Bioretention Cells

Rain and snowmelt runoff from the parking lot flows into the two bioretention cells through gaps in the curbs. The bioretention cells are designed to pond at least 6 inches of water on top of the mulch. The plants were chosen to tolerate periods of standing water.  Within 24 hours, the water drains from the surface and travels through layers of sandy soil and gravel that clean and filter the water as it slowly percolates down.  Some water is taken up by plants and some soaks into the ground. What’s left is slowly released to a perforated underdrain pipe that carries it to a storm sewer that drains to Church Creek and eventually to Lake Erie.

 

Permeable Pavement

Rain and snowmelt runoff from the asphalt parking lot drains to 2,760 square feet of pavers and passes through the spaces in between and into layers of underlying stone.  The water slows down as it flows through the layers of stone, and pollutants are removed.  Some of this water soaks into the ground beneath the stone, and some is slowly released to a perforated pipe underdrain that carries it to a storm sewer that drains to Church Creek. In summer, heated water entering our streams directly from conventional pavement can harm aquatic life and habitat. Reducing this thermal loading improves overall stream health. In winter, drainage of snowmelt through the pavers could reduce the amount of salt needed, also leading to improved water quality.

 

This project was financed in part or totally through a grant from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of the Surface Water Improvement Fund.

 

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