Monday, September 05, 2005

Wet Weather Flow Workshop

It's Labour Day and summer's over (yikes!). But for the Don that means that fall events will start soon. Already the Task Force has published its schedule of planting events and walking tours. One event in particular that I feel needs to be highlighted is a workshop that we are organizing. It is called the Wet Weather Flow Management Workshop. Through a grant from the Toronto Conservation Authority (TRCA), we are offering a seminar on how home owners can do their bit to reduce wet weather flow by retaining water on their property.

Easy solutions are available but more education is needed. Did you know that interlocking brick is as impermeable as concrete if not installed properly? Did you know that grass lawn does not hold much water? The seminar hopes to answer some of these questions. Participants should leave with a greater awareness of the wet weather flow problem and some useful ideas that they can use reduce runoff from their property.

The workshop is being held on Oct 1 at Todmorden Mills. Starting at 12:30 PM, participants will be led through a series of seminars talking about a variety of topics. After the workshops there will be a native wildflower planting in the neighbouring nature preserve.

You can register by email at donworkshops@hotmail.com.


3 comments:

Ferdzy said...

This is starting to get widespread attention... I just got my copy of Canadian Roofing Contractor & Design, and they have an article on "green" roofs. One of the points of planting on roofs is to retain and slow the flow of water. They can be rather lovely too.

Donwatcher said...

The concept has been around for awhile. In Toronto Mountain Equipment Co-op has installed a green roof on their store at King and Spadina. The concept is in wide use in parts of Europe. The main reason is due to tax incentives. Imagine installing a green roof and getting a reduction in your property taxes! Green roofs will pretty much remain a novelty like MEC's demonstration project until governments here realize the benefit of controlling runoff from buildings.

Anonymous said...

I've heard of the possibility of Storm Pools being created to collect wet weather runoff in hopes of curbing the high volume of water that washes off of urbanized land cover. I'm a supporter of green roofing and think the innovation merits much more attention.

I was wondering if you had any information on these storm pools... i'm beginning a project on the innovation, but can't seem to recal where i've first heard it... or its proper name!

Thank you for your time.
I can be contacted via e-mail at:
ntowsley@uoguelph.ca