Each week, we profile a BMP—short for Best Management Practices—to demonstrate how local businesses, organizations and neighbors are helping to keep our streams and rivers clean by managing stormwater on their property.
Multiple BMPs at Waterview Recreation Center in East Germantown make this site a study in the different approaches to urban stormwater management. The porous concrete sidewalk in front of the recreation center allows for infiltration of stormwater. Where porous concrete did not replace traditional impervious sidewalk, stormwater tree trenches planted with turf grass and street trees also help capture stormwater.
The porous concrete/tree trench system is also connected to modified inlets, which convey runoff from the street into the infiltration beds. And finally, two flow-through planters (pictured above) collect stormwater from the main building’s roof; water flows from the partially disconnected roof leader to a concrete splash block, then into the waterproofed planter boxes landscaped with native plants. Any overflow is directed back into the city’s sewer system.
PWD partnered with Meliora Environmental Design and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for the Waterview Recreation Center project, a demonstration of how green infrastructure can work even with limited space and funding.
Learn more about this stormwater BMP project, find it on a map and view photos at the Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative project page.
