Reducing runoff one—privately owned—acre at a time

While PWD has been making great strides in greening hundreds of formerly impervious publicly owned surfaces, most of the land and structures in the city are in private hands. The real impact on diverting stormwater from streams and rivers can only happen if we can get private landowners to reduce runoff on their properties.

To do this, we offer $5 million each year in stormwater grants to provide non-residential PWD customers with financial incentives to manage stormwater runoff with the added incentive of reducing their stormwater bill. This year—the second year for the program—we awarded $4.7 million to 17 projects that will capture runoff totaling 77 greened acres. Non-residential customers in Special Services Districts can also apply collectively for additional funding through Business Improvement District Grants.

Our plan for the coming fiscal year is to continue to increase awareness of this program among non-residential PWD customers so we can exceed the 77 acres from the past year.

For residential customers, we continue to offer our Rain Check program, which includes a free stormwater property assessment, guidance in picking stormwater tools, and a subsidy for purchasing and installing downspout planters, porous paving and other tools.