SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – In a city-private partnership, Santa Fe recently installed new rain garden basins, part of a new stormwater infrastructure, in an effort to create more GSI in the city. In an effort to curb flooding on Siringo, over the last couple of weeks, the City of Santa Fe and a private company called The Rain Catcher installed five rain garden basins along the flood-prone road.
“Siringo Road definitely floods a lot,” The Rain Catcher’s Owner, Reese Baker, said. “It’s like a river in the middle of the street.”
So Baker and the city came together to come up with a solution with a goal to better understand how water moves through soil, and create more green stormwater infrastructure systems in the city. “What this is designed to do is capture that stormwater that’s flowing along the curb, trap it inside, and move that water back into the earth,” Baker said.
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Once it’s inside the basin, that’s where the real data comes in. The system has a device to measure the soil temperature and moisture to see how long it holds onto the water.
“It allows us to better understand how these facilities take on water and holds onto the water and how runoff moves through the system,” City of Santa Fe River and Watershed Manager Zoe Isaacson said.
This also helps them understand what kind of vegetation can survive in these basins before they plant anything. “To see how much soil moisture are we keeping in the ground and how are we recharging these aquifers,” Baker said. “Do we have enough soil and moisture in these areas to grow trees and shrubs without having to use any form of supplemental water. We have so much water when it rains, we’re just not using it right.”
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The purpose of the study is to help with flooding on major roadways, create more greenery along highly used sidewalks, and cut down on irrigation needs by using the water collected from the street. “Once we’ve completed the study and we have the data put together, that yes, we have much more soil moisture here than in our standard roadside verge, then we’ll begin to plant these,” Baker said.
The city says this will also help take the pressure off the current system. “Our stormwater system has gotten inundated and at times is operating at capacity or over capacity,” Isaacson said. “We’ve outgrown the capacity of these systems to be able to properly move and convey stormwater.”
Project leaders say they plan on installing more of these around the city once this study is complete. The city says they have a new program called Runoff to Roots in which the community can identify areas where they want to see green stormwater infrastructure, and if it’s appropriate, they’ll build it.
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