Learn more about natural drainage systems  

• On your block and in our neighborhoods 
• Around Puget Sound 
• Nationally 

On your block and in our neighborhoods

• Have you heard about Seattle's South Orcas Green St. (see video!), or the Pinehurst neighborhood or Broadview neighborhood Green Grids?
• "Industrial strength" natural drainage? Green Washington Award winner Markey Machinery was recognized for "developing the first bioswale system for a commercial site to collect and filter rain runoff." Seattle Business Magazine's awards program recognizes companies and individuals who hold our planet and its longevity in the highest regard and who are leading the way in sustainability and green business practices.

Around Puget Sound

• Learn about how the City of Shoreline's Aurora Corridor Project captures stormwater with these techniques (and take a look when you pass by on Aurora between N. 165th and N. 185th).
• Sightline Institute, Seattle is devoted to sharing success stories of “low impact development” techniques.
• Washington Environmental Council guest blogs about green stormwater solutions for Seattle's Climate Solutions.
• Rain gardens work! People For Puget Sound strongly supports the use of green infrastructure to reduce combined sewer overflows and stormwater pollution rather than relying on the traditional constructed engineered massive projects.
• Learn about green stormwater projects (video) in Kitsap County.
• Are there 12,000 raingardens in Puget Sound? Not yet, but we are well on the way! Washington State University and Stewardship Partners are leading a new groundbreaking campaign to install 12,000 rain gardens in the Seattle/Puget Sound Region by 2016.
• Sally Brown, a Research Associate Professor at the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington describes the benefits of biorentation systems (PDF).
• Now in its 4^th year, Puyallup's Rain Garden Program has educated hundreds of citizens on stormwater pollution prevention, green infrastructure techniques, and has disconnected over 1 million gallons of stormwater.

Nationally

White House Conference on Green Infrastructure: On Sept. 20, 2012, the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hosted a conference to explore pathways to more broadly implement green infrastructure.

Cities around the nation are increasingly turning to green stormwater infrastructure to successfully reduce pollution and improve water quality.

• Portland, Oregon's Tabor to the River partnership integrates hundreds of sewer, green stormwater management, tree planting and other watershed projects to improve sewer system reliability, stop sewer backups in basements and street flooding, control combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to the Willamette River, and restore watershed health.
• The City of Philadelphia Green Streets program incorporates various green stormwater infrastructure tools to capture stormwater runoff from streets and sidewalks and infiltrate the runoff into the soil to recharge groundwater and surface water, thereby reducing the amount of polluted stormwater runoff going into Philadelphia’s combined sewer system and reducing combined sewer overflow events (CSOs).
• The Brooklyn (New York) Waterfront Greenway is a key component in the city’s green infrastructure network. 
• The City of Lansing, Michigan’s rain gardens were recently chosen to be part of a new EPA case study.