Feature story
Installing a rain garden is just one of several ways you can slow down and control the rate of water runoff that leaves your property and ends up in the Ottawa River. From now, until October 20, you can enter to win a rain garden of your own through this simple contest with Rain Ready Ottawa.
To be eligible to Win a Rain Garden, visit ottawa.ca/rain and complete an application form. You’ll have to do some work, like share a photo online about how rainwater is managed on your property right now, but that’s the only price to pay towards having a chance to win a customized rain garden designed and installed at your property.
But wait, there are two prizes! The second prize is a custom landscape design for your property.
To be eligible for either prize you must live in one of the priority or secondary areas identified as significant to the health of the Ottawa River. Residents of the priority areas are also eligible for funding year-round for rainwater management projects.
Rain Ready Ottawa is a pilot program that encourages and supports residents to take action on their property to reduce the harmful impacts of rainwater runoff. When rain falls on buildings, streets and parking lots, it moves quickly into storm sewers that drain straight into our streams and rivers, picking up pollutants along the way. This can cause problems like:
- Poor water quality in creeks and rivers
- Increased risks of flooding and erosion
- Habitat degradation
- Beach closures
The City is working to reduce the impact of both combined sewage overflows and storm water on the Ottawa River. Projects that homeowners can install on their properties to limit the impact of rainfall on their home and to help us achieve our goals include:
- Downspout redirections and extensions
- Rain barrels
- Rain gardens
- Soakaway pits
- Permeable pavement
