Going with the Flow
Storm water management is an important part of the planning of a master-planned community. Here at Easton Park, we’ve blended functionality with beauty, making our neighborhood’s Green Infrastructure as attractive as it is useful. By using native plants and grasses to make our drainage facilities look like beautiful ponds and play lawns, you might not even know they are doing double duty as storm water storage!
For example, the pond at Union Park East is a gorgeous place to run, walk, and relax, but did you know it’s also helping to keep our water clean? Rainwater collects in the pond, and if there are any tiny pollutants in the water, they are captured in the sand filtration bed at the bottom. This retention pond is just one part of Easton Park’s comprehensive storm water management system designed to prevent flooding throughout the community and ensure runoff rainwater goes where it needs to.
The good kind of detention…
Fun fact: while retention ponds are designed to hold water all the time, detention ponds only hold water after it rains. You can see a detention pond at the southeast corner of Apogee Blvd. and Hillock Terrace. These special ponds help our neighborhood by holding rainwater and runoff from our streets and rooftops, preventing large volumes of storm water from flooding into our creeks all at once and destroying their natural environments. As the water trickles out of the pond, it flows through layers of boulders, sand, and plants. These layers filter many contaminants and improve the quality of the water that heads downstream to our regional waterways.
A pond disguised as a play lawn
The big lawn at Discovery Park isn’t just a great place to play — it also helps prevent erosion and cleans the water entering Northfork Creek. When it rains, this lawn is designed to become a temporary pond that can hold runoff rainwater. The water is meant to slowly trickle through the spillway at the far end of the park. The water can then be filtered by layers of boulders, sand, and plants — the technical name for it is a stacked bio-filtration pond. This improves the water quality of the water that heads downstream.
Have you seen a rain garden?
Along William Cannon, you’ll find landscaped areas called rain gardens. These decorative pockets serve an important purpose by helping to manage and treat storm water from rooftops, driveways, and sidewalks. By capturing and absorbing rainwater, rain gardens help water soak into the soil and help prevent localized flooding and erosion. When it rains, the native plants and soil act as natural filters, removing pollutants (things like sediment, nutrients, and heavy metals) from the water running off the street. This helps to improve the quality of the water in nearby streams, rivers, and lakes.
Want to live in a neighborhood where you can enjoy beautiful landscaping that helps the environment? Come find your dream home here in Easton Park.
