Learn About Stormwater: 

What is stormwater:

Water, anything from rain to the sprinklers in your lawn, that discharges directly into a body of water. In the Town of Clayton stormwater ends up in the Neuse River and its tributaries.

Common pollutants and their sources:

Sediment (erosion cause by improper bank maintenance or lack of vegetation), nitrogen (animal waste, fertilizer), phosphorus (household products), oil (cars), etc.

As the Town of Clayton undergoes population growth, it is accompanied by increased development including houses, businesses, pathways, and parking lots. Each new development contributes to the total area of impervious surfaces. Without an alternative path, stormwater will travel over these surfaces collecting all kinds of harmful pollutants. These pollutants will then be deposited directly into streams and rivers causing shifts in local ecosystems and potentially harming not only the local wildlife, but the wildlife inhabiting parent rivers and even the Atlantic Ocean. Stormwater infrastructure is implemented to provide an alternative path for stormwater and mitigate potential damages.

Types of stormwater infrastructure and how to recognize them:

• Bioretention pond: A grassy indention in the ground with or without vegetation.
• Key Structures: Inflow/outflow pipes, overflow riser, trash rack.
• Wetland: Similar to a bioretention pond, except with what is called a permanent pool. Both wetlands and bioretention ponds should be planted with native plants and kept free of cattails which are invasive and provide desirable habitat for mosquitoes.
• Wet pond: Similar to a wetland with lower retention requirements.
• Permeable Pavement: Can take on different forms.
• Green roof: Vegetation planted on rooftops that can absorb some of the water from rainfall events and therefore reduce the volume of stormwater runoff.

Benefits to the environment/economy:

• prevents erosion
• maintain healthy ecosystems and wildlife
• flood control
• aesthetic value
• protecting property
• biogeochemical processes in the soil transform pollutants into less harmful forms

Learn more:

Clean Water Education Program