Stormwater Runoff Improvement along the Clearwater River

Stormwater along the Clearwater River add sediment, nutrients and organic material to this important tributary of the Red River of the North. Turbidity impairments caused by those sediments contribute to several environmental and economic problems including interfering with spawning habitat critical to Lake Sturgeon recovery in the Red River Watershed and increasing drinking water treatment costs for the city of East Grand Forks.
The Stormwater Runoff Improvement Project will be designed to manage the stormwater runoff from an impervious parking lot runoff, and roof runoff from a local church administration building and the church itself. Roof runoff from the administration building will be addressed through the installation of gutters and an outlet into a vegetated swale that improves water quality by infiltrating the first flush of storm water runoff and filtering the large storm flows they convey. The majority of annual precipitation comes from smaller rain events and the value of the swale comes from the filtrating and infiltrating nearly all of the stormwater runoff. A rain garden will treat the runoff from the parking lot and roof.