News

Northern Nash High School is the latest school to get a stormwater update through Sound Rivers’ Campus Stormwater Program.

With funding from Sound Rivers’ partner Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant, two rain gardens, a bioswale enhancement and a constructed wetland are being built to collect and treat the school’s stormwater runoff.

The two rain gardens — one completed; the other in the works — sit at opposite ends of a sloped parking lot. At the elevated end, rooftop runoff is directed away from the building into the rain garden. At the lower end, stormwater runoff flowing down the hill will be directed into a rain garden situated on a parking lot island. Both rain gardens will be planted with native species to absorb runoff.

“They plan to cut the curb in two or three places, so water coming down the paved hill of the parking lot — water that normally flows all the way down the hill along the curb to a drain at the bottom of the parking lot — will be redirected into the rain garden,” said Sound Rivers Program Director Clay Barber.

Overflow from the lower rain garden will also be redirected, this time into a pipe that runs beneath a driveway to a newly reshaped bioswale, which will then carry it into a constructed wetland.

“It’s a bit of a water-treatment train,” Clay said.

The goal of green stormwater infrastructure is to slow water down, spread it out and allow it to soak in, which can be challenging on a campus with hills.

“Fast-moving runoff combined with low, trimmed lawn grass and soils that don’t drain well is asking for erosion,” Clay said. “The combination of these stormwater projects will prevent that from happening and let a lot of that water pool up and filter through the soil, basically cleaning the water of pollutants.”

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