Bioswale

On Friday I thought I'd post something about the bioswales at Manzanita village that I briefly mentioned in class. However I couldn't actually find any particularly good links online.

Today I open 93106, the weekly faculty and staff newspaper to find an article about the restoration project and the bioswales - Restoration Project Provides Model for Future Environmental Efforts.

The principal challenge of the restoration was creating an ecologically functional habitat in such close proximity to an urban environment. If untreated, fertilizers from the courtyard lawns and seagull guano from the residence hall roofs are washed into the ocean and nearby lagoon during rainstorms. This can cause algal blooms that are unsightly and can smother the fish.

CCBER used the excess nutrients in the water to its advantage by creating bioswales — vegetated channels that use plants to purify water runoff before it flows into the nearby lagoon. More than 1,300 feet of bioswales treat some 75 percent of Manzanita’s storm water runoff.