Mitigation Matters

In New York, we rely on shared infrastructure to mitigate and manage stormwater, including storm drains, sewer pipes, and outfalls. 

When these systems are functioning well, it’s easy to forget they exist. 

But as we experience increasingly frequent and extreme rain events, we are confronted with the reality that they are easily overwhelmed, resulting in dangerous flood conditions and serious damage.

What We Can Do

An important goal of our stormwater work is to promote awareness about the ways in which backyard and garden-based alternative mitigation systems – rain gardens, bioswales, trench drains, gravel pits, dry wells – can reduce pressure on our shared infrastructure, helping to

a) promote efficient drainage

b) manage stormwater overflow and

c) reduce flooding (both outdoors and indoors)

during intensive storms.

In other words, your garden might be the key to changing the risk of flooding in your home.

This is Personal to Us

Our workshop and design studio is on Douglass Street between 3rd and 4th avenues – just a block from the head of the Gowanus Canal, and squarely within the overburdened, combined sewer overflow (CSO) outfall RH-034. This means that our neighborhood is vulnerable to flooding and polluting overflow events when just half an inch of rain falls in the area.

We see this vulnerability as a call to action, a chance to engage with our neighbors and use our unique skills and experience to give back to the block.