This fall, seventh and eighth grade students at Hinesburg Community School investigated how excess stormwater affects homes, businesses, and ecosystems in Hinesburg and Vermont watersheds. They were able to show their learning through slideshow presentations or articles sent to the newspapers. Students created multiple strategies to mitigate these impacts, including rain gardens, permeable pavements, and enhanced wetland preservation. Here are a few reports from students about what they learned and solutions town members could take!
Runoff and Flood Solutions in Hinesburg
By HCS 7th Grade Student
What Is Runoff?
We all remember the notorious Vermont flood of 2023. It had a major impact on many people’s homes and work commutes, and it also put many people in rough financial situations. Then it happened again this past July, on the same day. Who’d have thought that we would have that kind of luck?
One of the biggest reasons that those floods were so damaging was because of stormwater runoff. Stormwater runoff is what happens when there is so much rain that the bodies of water and flood mitigation tools in the area can’t handle it. So, water floods into homes and roads, which causes major damage to lawns and house foundations.
As a resident of Hinesburg, over these past rainy summers I have seen many streets and meadows covered by stormwater runoff. Roads such as Beecher Hill are still closed, and have been closed since July. The river on Bean Road rose to an alarming height. Many people’s homes were flooded as well, especially in basements and ground floors.
Hinesburg may be a small town, but we are part of the basin of Lake Champlain. According to the Lake Champlain Basin Program, “For every square mile of water on Lake Champlain, 18 square miles of land in the Lake Champlain Basin deliver water to the lake and contribute sediment, nutrients, and other potential pollutants. By comparison, the Great Lakes have only 1.5 to 3.4 times as much land-to-lake surface area. The relatively high land-to-lake area ratio for Lake Champlain poses a significant challenge in limiting nutrient pollution.”
This is an issue because when it comes to the Great Lakes, they only have a small or equivalent amount of land in their land-to-lake ratio, so the nutrients and pollutants only have a small patch of land to accumulate. Lake Champlain, on the other hand, has a large land-to-lake ratio, so there is much more space for the pollutants to go. When it comes to polluting water, runoff can have major adverse effects on the water quality.
Learning more about things that are weakening the ecosystems in our community is important, and a good way to make a difference.
What Are We Doing About It?
I bet you are now wondering how can I change this? How am I, just a resident of a small Vermont town, able to make a difference? Well, it just so happens that this past week, engineers from the Lewis Creek Association came and visited my seventh-grade classroom to talk about what they are planning to do to reduce the impacts of stormwater runoff. They discussed a variety of different ways to prevent stormwater runoff and how it is not beneficial to the environment. The engineers said that the best way to prevent stormwater runoff at Hinesburg Community School is a gravel rain garden. A gravel rain garden is a garden specially designed to take in water (runoff) that would end up in the wrong place, like in closed roads and flooded basements. By consulting experts like the engineers from the Lewis Creek Association, we can at least attempt to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff in Hinesburg. Every effort we make to reduce this problem is a benefit.
Without stormwater runoff flooding into or out of lakes, rivers, and streams, the levels of these bodies of water would go back to and remain at normal levels. If you have ever seen a road flooded with water, that is because of stormwater runoff. So if the runoff could go somewhere else, there would be less of a chance that roads would close or be impassable, and less of a chance lakes and rivers would overflow.
What Can I Do About It?
On a smaller scale, you can do your part to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff, right at your own homes. One of the easiest things to do from the comfort of your own home is to make a rain garden.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that collects rainwater from a roof, driveway, or street and allows it to soak into the ground… Rain gardens can be a cost effective and beautiful way to reduce runoff from your property.” As long as you plant native plants, such as the swamp milkweed plant, your rain garden is sure to make a big difference in your home, and possibly your entire town.
Another way to reduce storm water runoff is a flower garden located on the roof of a building, sometimes called a “green roof.” Now, these green roofs are probably not available for most people’s homes, but there are green roofs located in public locations in Vermont. You can find one on the roof of the University of Vermont Davis Center, located in Burlington; and another at the Earth House in Guilford, Vermont.
The overall goal is to benefit HCS and the town of Hinesburg. The hope is also to educate residents and get them involved in making their community a better place during floods and other natural disasters.
I am still working to convince my family and friends, plus residents of our town, to do what they can to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff in Hinesburg, a town that means a lot to me and everyone in it. We can all do our part to plant our fair share of rain gardens, and we can all at least try to be compassionate to the environment.
Stormwater runoff has negative effects on all of us. Not just in Vermont. Because of all the floods the U.S. has been having, runoff-based floods have impacted the entire country. But these floods will have less of an impact if we all work together to create stormwater runoff solutions wherever and whenever we can.
Stormwater Flood Solutions
By HCS 8th Grade Student
What The Problem Is:
Hinesburg Community School has started to take action on the noticeable amount of rain we are getting, causing flooding at our school and in our community. Stormwater runoff occurs when it rains a lot, and the water has nowhere to go. Stormwater runoff may not sound important but after the past two July storms you can tell that it is by all the damage that it has caused.
What Is Happening:
The benefits to less flooding are homes, businesses, and more don’t get destroyed in these big storms that are becoming more frequent. The state is trying to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and clean up Lake Champlain. The state is starting with schools.
Why This Is Important:
We live in the Champlain Basin and are responsible for what goes in it. During these big storms, a lot of other chemicals from farms, roads, and oils make their way to Lake Champlain, like phosphorus. These chemicals in the lake can endanger wildlife and can poison the water for all. Over 164,000 people get water from Lake Champlain.
Solutions To Runoff:
Easy ways to help with runoff are rain barrels, rain gardens, and just less impermeable surfaces. Ways the school is thinking of doing to help runoff are impermeable pavement, rain gardens, jellyfish filter, and roof gardens.
About The School:
HCS seventh and eighth graders learned about runoff and the problems with it. They even talked to some engineers about solutions for runoff on the HCS property. The seventh and eighth graders brainstormed their own solutions for our school. Then they will present their solutions to faculty and engineers. We are doing this for our community’s school and as members of the community. This is impactful to not just me but to our whole community.
Vermont Stormwater Runoff
By HCS 8th grade student
Did you know that Vermont sewers can overflow just from your stormwater runoff? Stormwater runoff is stormwater that comes from the main source like your roof or your driveway that travels elsewhere. You could be swimming in sewage water from your stormwater runoff. Well, let me tell you how you can help.
Problems with stormwater runoff
There are many reasons for reducing your stormwater runoff on your property. Reducing stormwater runoff can help with flooding on your property. Also, it can help water quality which can carry many pollutants like sediment, nutrients, road salt, oil, grease, and many more. Another thing you can help with is streambank erosion which is stormwater that unnaturally increases stream water, putting your home and roads at risk. And sewer overflows, which is a mix of sewage water and stormwater runoff which can be very harmful to humans and the environment. Reducing your stormwater runoff can help stop these harmful things from harming the environment.
Ways of reducing stormwater runoff
Ways to reduce your stormwater is using infiltration, which is how water on ground surface enters the soil; evapotranspiration is how water transfers from the ground into the air; and store and use is capturing stormwater runoff. Ways of using infiltration is an infiltration trench which filters the runoff in existing runoff pathways. Another way of infiltration is a dry well: a sand- or gravel-filled hole that filters your runoff. A way of using evapotranspiration is planting a tree. Planting a tree requires a little maintenance, but it is a great way to slowly improve your runoff. Another way of evapotranspiration is a rain garden, which is another great way of reducing your stormwater runoff. A rain garden will catch your runoff from areas like your roof and driveway. Store and use is a great way of getting rid of your runoff with many benefits. For example, store and use can be a rain barrel. A rain barrel captures runoff in a barrel and is used, for example, for watering your garden or washing your car. Using these methods can help you get rid of your stormwater runoff.
How To Reduce Stormwater Runoff
There are ways of reducing your stormwater runoff. The way to make an infiltration trench is to find the area where runoff flows and to dig that area deep enough and put fabric and stone or gravel. To make a dry well is to locate your drywell area and dig the hole deep enough and a little wider and put fabric and stone. How to plant a tree is to find a great area to dig a hole and plant your seed. Make sure to be watering your tree often. Making a rain garden, you need to find a good area on your property where your runoff goes and plant plants that tolerate wetter conditions. Also, to make a rain barrel you need a barrel that can hold about 400 pounds of rain and connect your downspout. Depending on how big your roof is, you might need a bigger barrel to collect your stormwater. These are the ways to reduce your stormwater runoff.
Take Action
In conclusion, stormwater runoff is runoff that comes from the main source like your roof or your driveway that makes it to somewhere else. Problems you might face are flooding on your property, streambank erosion, the water quality, and sewer overflows. Reducing the amount of stormwater runoff can get rid of your flooded backyards and more.
I believe you should take action to start getting rid of your stormwater runoff. It’s important to save the environment from this stormwater runoff to save Vermont from things like sewer overflows and many more things that can be harmful to the environment. And stopping your runoff from getting to Lake Champlain and harming Lake Champlain with pollutants. Save our waterway systems and help save Vermont.