Video: Cedar Rapids group issues a “Million Gallon Challenge” to Iowa watersheds

Senator Rob Hogg answers questions about rain barrels at a press conference where he promoted a "Million Gallon Challenge" to minimize future flood damage in Iowa.

To prevent future flood damage, Iowans are considering at actions at both the household and state government level. State Senator Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids and a group of Cedar Rapids citizens issued a “Million Gallon Challenge” to the residents of Iowa’s watersheds. The group is challenging Iowans to use rain barrels and rain gardens, install permeable paving, and plant native wildflowers or low-mow lawns in a state-wide effore to keep one million gallons of rainwater from becoming floodwater in local watersheds.

“Two years ago, Cedar Rapids and other eastern Iowa cities were devastated by flooding. This year, the prospect of new flooding in Iowa is greater than in 2008,” said Senator Hogg, chair of the Senate Rebuild Iowa Committee. And in 2009, flooding destroyed two bike trail bridges along Indian Creek on the east side of Cedar Rapids. “While we work to address the problems at the state level,” said Hogg, “the Indian Creek Nature Center is showing how individuals can make an important difference in preventing flood damage.” Leaders from the organization are working to place a thousand rain barrels to capture runoff from the roofs of individual homes this year.

“If our system of rain barrels had been in place along Indian Creek, it is possible we would have prevented the loss of those two bridges,” said Jean Wiedenheft: Land Steward for the Indian Creek Nature Center. “Preventing flood damage doesn’t just mean building levee systems that cost hundreds of millions. Individual Iowans, working together, can prevent flood damage, save millions of dollars in losses, and improve the quality of our rivers and lakes, ” said Jean

The Iowa Legislation has approved several long-term measures to improve planning, protect and encourage wetlands, and take other steps to slow the runoff of rain. This year Senator Hogg is working on legislation to create local “watershed management authorities which will facilitate the cooperative efforts of cities, counties and soil and water conservation districts to reduce future flood damage and improve water quality.

The Nature Center is initiating the “Million Gallon Challenge” as an Earth Day Project.  Their goal is to have 1,000 rain barrels put in place between April 22 (the 40^th anniversary of Earth Day) and June 13 (the second anniversary of the flood). For more information about the rain barrels, or to purchase a rain barrel, visit the Indian Creek Nature Center web site. 

What you can do: Watch where rain collects on your property during a storm. Anywhere the water pools is an opportunity to decrease runoff.

1. Install a rain barrel

- Rain barrels reduce runoff, reduce pressure on aquifers for watering a garden, and they can reduce a water usage bill or electric usage bill (city or well).

2. Plant a rain garden

- Rain gardens reduce runoff, provide beauty and wildlife, and ensure less lawn area to mow.

3. Install permeable paving (grasspave, gravelpave, concrete, asphalt, pavers)

- Permeable paving depends on a clean rock subbase to retain the water under the pavement, where water can percolate slowly into the surrounding soil.

4. Plant native wildflowers and shrubs

- Native plants have deep roots that decrease watering needs and increase an area’s natural beauty, interest, and wildlife habitat. Plating wildlife also leads to less area to mow and reduced energy usage.

5. Plant low-mow lawns

- Low-mow lawns have deeper root systems that hold water well and therefore require less watering.

The Indian Creek Nature Center would like to issue the following challenge to Iowans:

Earth Day 2010 Project: Million Gallon Challenge

“Our goal is to have 1,000 new rain barrels in the Indian Creek Watershed between April 22, 2010 (the 40th anniversary of earth day) and the 2nd Anniversary of the June 13, 2008 flood.

This will prevent approximately one million gallons of water from entering the watershed. But the Indian Creek Nature Center is also in the Red Cedar River watershed, and all of you are in different watersheds across the state.

We challenge you to take this earth day project home to your community. If we, as a state, were comprehensibly controlling the rain pouring off of roofs and other impermeable surfaces in June of 2008, imagine the position we could be in today. Instead of negotiating with FEMA and figuring our how to rebuild devastated communities, we could be focused on making our communities better.

After the flood of 2008, the Army Corps of Engineers studied whether a levee in Cedar Rapids would be prudent. They have decided it is not cost effective, but a watershed approach would be. A watershed approach means everyone in the watershed participating, including governments, businesses, and homeowners. Because we all contributed to the flooding.

It does take more than just a rain barrel. It will take more than 1,000 rain barrels. But 1,000 rain barrels in the Indian Creek watershed last summer may have been enough to prevent the flood damage we suffered in 2009. And rain barrels are a step, a real step, that individuals can make on their own. It does not take legislation, though legislative support can help the project reach many more people than the Nature Center can alone. 1,000 rainbarrels is a lot, when you look at a small nonprofit nature center sitting on the banks of a creek. The 65 gallons of water sitting in a rainbarrel is a lot, when you’re a homeowner looking to water your garden. It is a drop in the bucket when you look at the watersheds, communities and individuals across the state that could rise to the challenge of reducing the runoff they produce. Rainbarrels can be one part of the solution.”

In case you missed it, here’s a video of the press conference with Senator Hogg:

Please note that any ads in the video are inserted by Ustream and the Senate Democrats neither profit from nor endorse them.