Flooding and closed beaches due to storm water runoff is becoming more and more of a problem that municipalities have to deal with here in Connecticut.
In older cities like Bridgeport, Hartford and New Haven storm water often combine with sewer systems that causes over capacity and dump age of sewage into local rivers and Long Island Sound which results in closing of beaches and shellfish beds.
Runoff from surfaces such as roofs and pavement are causing flooding, accumulation of pollutants such as greases, salts, fertilizers and pesticides that run into our streams, rivers and waterways.
There are numerous ways that Connecticut homeowners and businesses can stop rain water runoff from carrying pollutant’s and pesticides into our waterways.
Save the Sound, a program of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment has launched a new green infrastructure website, ReduceRunoff.org, to help homeowners and business to implement ways to reduce their runoff.
Installing simple green infrastructures are common sense solutions such as:
- Rain gardens
- Rain barrels
- Permeable pavements
- Green roofs
- Downspout disconnections
Can help manage storm water runoff and allow the soil to absorb the rain water.
David Popoff is a Connecticut license real estate agent in lower Fairfield County and is a designated “Green” Realtor at William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in Darien, Ct