Published On: September 15th, 2014

Stormwater RunoffIf your home has a roof, a lawn, or a driveway, chances are your property creates stormwater. Property owners can play a role in improving water quality by soaking up stormwater to prevent it from reaching nearby lakes, streams, and other waters.  What you do in your own back yard can impact the entire watershed, including the health of lakes, streams, and other waters in your neighborhood and beyond. Click on the image to link to the SOAK New Hampshire website to learn more.

What is Stormwater?

Stormwater is water from rain or melting snow that doesn’t soak into the ground.  Instead, it flows over the land surface, picks up pollutants in its path, and flows untreated into nearby bodies of water.  Stormwater can pollute lakes, ponds, streams, and coastal waters, making them unsafe for swimming and an unsafe habitat for fish and other animals.  Stormwater can cause other problems such as flooding and erosion. In fact, stormwater contributes to over 90% of the water quality problems in New Hampshire.

The recently updated homeowner’s guide to stormwater management is now available by clicking here.

GMCG  participates at Camp Robin Hood Summer of 2014

Camp Robin Hood Kicks Off "Soak up the Rain" Program

Camp Robin Hood Kicks Off “Soak up the Rain” Program

Camp Robin Hood, which is on Broad Bay in Freedom, outdid themselves by installing 5 water bars and 4 infiltrations steps this summer as part of DES’ Soak Up the Rain Program.

These kids worked hard all day digging, shoveling, moving stone and sand, filling trenches and hammering in the hot August sun! Their work ethic, professionalism and skills were very impressive. They even decided that they were up to the challenge of installing 5 water bars instead of 3 because all the heavy rain that we have been experiencing lately. Please check out the photo album to get the full understanding of their incredible accomplishments. GMCG has joined SOAK as part of the ongoing Ossipee Watershed Management Plan. Best Management Practices (BMPs) include projects like this as well as rain gardens, dripline infiltration trenches, dry wells and rain barrels, that help runoff soak into the ground keeping polluted runoff from entering surface water.

These amazing campers are the first to assist GMCG with SOAK (read more) and there are many more projects to come.

Contact GMCG at (603) 539-1859 to learn more about SOAK and stormwater management on your property. You can also find more info about SOAK at http://soaknh.org/ .