Leader
Lois Kraus
Location
21 W Church Street Milltown, NJ 08850
About the project
Help make us “Green and Envied”
This past fall, Joyce Kilmer’s 16 member "Science of Soil (SOS)" club evaluated soil quality on our campus. We were quite surprised to find the quality of soil as FAIR given the predominant “bald spots” on our fields. It turns out our problem is soil compaction! Given the field’s heavy use, and poor drainage, rain creates extended periods where students cannot use the field for gym or recess. Much of the precipitation ends up further eroding our sloping front yard and running off into the street where it pushes fertilizer and chemicals into the water basin.
We want to do our part to help sustain our piece of earth through a series of “Green with Envy” initiatives. Our first goal is focused on redirecting water in the front of the school back into our school garden. Specifically it would help in our dream to build a small but strategically placed rain garden. An analysis by Rutgers Cooperative Extension indicates that an 1,100 ft bio retention system placed in front of our school could redirect 110,631 gal of storm water captured and treated each year. A double win for Milltown’s storm basin as well as the students of Joyce Kilmer!
The Steps
- Rent tilling equipment and secure rain garden materials (rocks, piping, mulch, plants)
- Coordinate community volunteers to work with students to build garden
- Prepare signage campaign to redirect foot traffic
Why we‘re doing it
The primary cause of the pollution, flooding, and erosion problems is the quantity of impervious surfaces draining directly to local waterways. New Jersey is one of the most developed states in the country. Currently, the state has the highest percent of impervious cover in the country at 12.1% of its total area (Nowak & Greenfield, 2012).
Based upon the 2007 NJDEP land use/land cover data, approximately 40.9% of Milltown Borough has impervious cover!
Milltown Borough can reduce flooding and improve its waterways by better managing stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces. One relatively inexpensive step we can take is to build a strategically placed rain garden in front of Joyce Kilmer school. This impervious cover assessment is the first step toward better managing stormwater runoff. Will you help us?