CITY OF RALEIGH

Urban Watersheds
Volunteers in Action
a quarterly publication produced by the City of Raleigh Stormwater Utility Spring 2010

Volume 10, Issue 1

Important Reminders
for Adopt-A-Stream
Groups:
• Walk your stream twice
a year and submit your
Field Data Sheets
• Perform at least one
stream clean-up activity
and submit your Field
Data Sheet
• Be sure to let us know
how much debris you
remove from your
adopted stream reach!
• Remember to call 996-
3940 if you see any illicit
discharges on your
stream walks!
Inside this issue:
Fire Stations 1-2
across Raleigh will
soon be
harvesting
rainwater!
Fire Stations across Raleigh will soon be harvesting rainwater!
Amy Hathaway, Project Engineer
The City of Raleigh has cisterns, also known as Six Forks Road near
initiated a new effort to rainwater harvesting North Hills installed a
green many of its fire systems. These projects green roof.
stations by are new
All of the rainwater
installing examples harvesting systems and
rainwater of green rain gardens will be
harvesting
systems and
rain gardens.
“ The use of these initiative
rainwater harvesting projects
systems will have spreading
installed this spring and
early summer.
Rainwater will be
Through a multiple benefits for across collected from existing
Raleigh
collaborative the local area. rooftops at each facility so
Fire
effort, it can be reused for
Stations.
Raleigh and outdoor uses at the fire
Wake County are Last year, Raleigh’s Fire stations.
excited to be partnering Station No. 15 on Spring
together, sponsoring Forest Road installed a Water records showed
eleven project locations solar hot water heater that individual fire stations
receiving a network of and Fire Station No. 9 on (Continued on page 2)
WaterFest is making another splash
Marti Gibson, WaterFest Coordinator

WaterFest is 1-2 Raleigh’s annual WaterFest is a

making another WaterFest will be held 3-day annual
splash May 18th, 19th and 20th at environmental
the E. M. Johnson Water fair organized by
Treatment Plant on Falls the City of
Calling New 3
of Neuse Road. Raleigh Public
Stream
Monitoring Utilities
WaterFest has been
Volunteers! Department to
held during the first full
educate students
week of May since its
to all aspects of Students enjoying some fire hydrant fun.
Want to Join Big 3 inception, but has shifted
water.
Sweep this Spring? a few weeks due to the
through middle school and
schedule of end of school Students ranging from
testing. elementary school grades (Continued on page 2)
Page 2
(Fire Stations, Continued from page 1)
can use as much as or more than
4,000 gallons of water each
month for training exercises and
washing equipment outdoors.
The goal of this program is to
replace this use of water from
the drinking water supply with
the harvested rainwater collected
in the cisterns.
The use of these rainwater
An example of what the cisterns will look like
at the fire stations (Image courtesy of NCSU).
Raleigh’s moving into a new website!
This spring, we’re getting a new website! The address will
remain the same, but your bookmarks will change. We’ll
email you as soon as it’s ready for you to see online!
www.raleighnc.gov
(WaterFest, Continued from page 1)
junior high school play water
games, dig fossils, take water and
hay rides, participate in lab
experiments and learn the
importance of conserving water
and protecting water quality.
Students are also exposed to
the process of drinking water
treatment and distribution as well
as wastewater collection and
Urban Watersheds: Volunteers in Action
harvesting systems will have
multiple benefits for the local
area.
• Harvesting rainwater will
reduce the demand on our
drinking water supply and
promote water conservation.
• Harvesting rainwater
decreases the volume of
stormwater runoff, which
prevents stream bank erosion One of 11 different fire stations receiving
and improves water quality
by reducing pollutant
loads in our streams.
• The project sites will
serve as educational and
demonstration
opportunities for residents
in the community.
Of the eleven project
locations, five are installing
rain gardens. Rain gardens,
also known as bioretention
devices, are mulched flower
beds that are designed to
treatment processes.
Students are encouraged to
take part in hands-on activities at
the many stations staffed by
representatives from different
businesses and agencies involved
with various aspects of water.
Stormwater Utility staff will have
an activity on benthic
macroinvertebrates (stream bugs)
and their importance for
rainwater harvesting systems this spring.
capture stormwater runoff that
would otherwise run off the site
to other areas downstream.
The water usually stays ponded
within the rain garden for 1-2 days
as it slowly drains through the soil
underneath the mulch. As the
water drains through the soil, it is
naturally filtered and cleaned
before draining through the
underground stormwater drainage
pipes into the nearest stream or
lake.
This project is funded by Wake
County and Raleigh’s Stormwater
Utility Fund. It also received
stimulus funds from the 2009
American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act and grant funds
from the North Carolina Clean
Water Management Trust Fund.
measuring a stream’s health at
this year’s WaterFest.
WaterFest brings the
community together while having
fun and learning about water.
Approximately 2100 students,
parents and teachers attended
WaterFest in 2009. If you would
like to participate in WaterFest
2010, call Marti Gibson at (919)
662-5700.
Volume 10, Issue 1 Page 3

Want to Join Big Sweep this Spring?

Sheila Jones, Wake County Big Sweep Coordinator
This spring’s Big Sweep is scheduling several different watershed clean-ups in
Wake County. Below is a summary of the clean-ups scheduled in Raleigh; please
visit http://www.wakegov.com/swcd/events/bigsweep.htm for more information.

Date Time Location Pre-Registration Contacts

Lake Wheeler Park

Saturday, March 20* 9-11am Lake Wheeler Park
at (919) 662-5704
8:30- Ross Andrews
Saturday, March 27 Walnut Creek Wetland Center
11:30am at Ross.Andrews@ci.raleigh.nc.us
Marsh Creek at Brentwood Liz Lord
Saturday, April 10 9:30am start
Elementary at (919) 872-8387 or buffylrd@yahoo.com
Marsh Creek between Stoney- Parnell Bell
Saturday, April 10 11am-1pm
brook Dr. & Skycrest Dr. at (919) 878-5122
Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation
Saturday, April 10 8am-1pm Neuse River
at www.neuseriver.org
*An exciting update for this spring is NC Big Sweep’s partnership with Disney
parks to give a free ticket as a reward for each volunteer who pre-registers and
participates in the March 20th clean up event as a reward for their community ser-
vice! You have to register online at this Disney website before volunteering for
Big Sweep. http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/
WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=Give-A-Day-Get-A-Disney-Day

Calling New Stream Monitoring Volunteers! Raleigh’s Environmental

Mac Smith, Volunteer Coordinator
Through the
Volunteer Stream
Monitoring
Program, residents
can monitor a
stream’s health by
analyzing for specific
water quality
parameters throughout
a one year period.
Volunteers need to attend a
half day orientation workshop to
become familiar with the water
quality monitoring kits and macro
invertebrate sampling tools
before joining the program.
Monitoring kits provide
volunteers with equipment to
measure water quality in streams.
Awards Ceremony
Macro invertebrate sampling
equipment enables
volunteers to sample
various stream habitats for
the larval forms of insects
living in the stream, which
serve as a measure of water
quality in streams.
The next orientation workshop
for new volunteers is scheduled
for Saturday morning, June 5th.
At least 10 participants will need
to register before May 14, 2010,
otherwise the workshop will be
rescheduled so that more
participants can attend.
To register, please contact Mac Free to the Public | Marbles Kids Museum
Smith at (919) 996-3940 or Earth Day, April 22, 2010
mac.smith@ci.raleigh.nc.us. www.raleighnc.gov/environmentalawards
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Stormwater Utility
222 West Hargett Street, Room 301
PO Box 590
Raleigh, NC 27602-0590

Phone: (919) 996-3940

Fax: (919) 996-7633

Stormwater Management Division Staff Contacts

Volunteer Coordinator ...................................................... Mac Smith (mac.smith@ci.raleigh.nc.us)

Illicit Discharge Response ............................................... Pete Duffy (peter.duffy@ci.raleigh.nc.us)
Sedimentation and Erosion Control ............... Jeanette Powell (jeanette.powell@ci.raleigh.nc.us)
Floodplain Inquiries......................................................... Ben Brown (ben.brown@ci.raleigh.nc.us)
Stormwater Utility Information........................... Zayda Esquivel (zayda.esquivel@ci.raleigh.nc.us)
Drainage Complaints on Private Property.. Veronica Barrett (veronica.barret@ci.raleigh.nc.us)
Drainage Complaints in the Street ............................................................................. (919) 996-6446
Stormwater Utility Division .......................................................................................... (919) 996-3940

Websites of Interest

City of Raleigh Stormwater Management Division .................... www.raleighnc.gov/stormwater

City of Raleigh Adopt-A-Stream Volunteer Program .............www.raleighnc.gov/adopt-a-stream
City of Raleigh Drain Marking Volunteer Program ...................www.raleighnc.gov/drainmarking
City of Raleigh Water Pollution ................................................www.raleighnc.gov/waterpollution
City of Raleigh Flood Information........................................................www.raleighnc.gov/floodinfo

Clean Water Education Partnership .............................................................www.nccleanwater.org

North Carolina Stormwater and Runoff Pollution .....................................www.ncstormwater.org
Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation ..........................................................................www.neuseriver.org