[Southern California Permaculture] Large BioSwale Project In Ojai/Worth a Visit

Sat Mar 5 14:21:11 PST 2016

Hi Everyone,

  We attended this ribbon cutting ceremony 
yesterday for the new Happy Valley Bioswale on 
the Ojai Meadows Preserve in Ojai.  It was a 
fantastic group of committed people from city, 
county & state, agencies, coming together for 
this remarkable project.   And all using language 
that just a few years ago would have been 
considered "permaculture speak", and now being 
used by all as if it were their first 
language.  Ventura County officials sounded 
positively enlightened, as did the State official 
who managed the grant for the project.

It is definitely worth a visit, and, as an extra 
bonus, looks like the wildflowers will be in 
bloom soon on this beautiful piece of land that 
was preserved by committed citizens through the Ojai Land Conservancy.

Bioswales in landscaping capture water, filter out pollutants

Dave Laak in the Ventura Country STAR on February 27th, 2016

<http://media.jrn.com/images/V0012894079--66069.JPG>
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO A ribbon-cutting for this bioswale in Meiners

Have you ever attended a ribbon-cutting for a 
bioswale? Do you wonder what in the world a bioswale is?

You can learn more about the Ventura County 
Public Works Agency Watershed Protection 
District's recently completed Happy 
Valley  Bioswale project at the ribbon-cutting on 
Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Ojai Valley Land 
Conservancy's Ojai Meadows Preserve, 380 South Lomita Ave., Meiners Oaks.

Bioswales are landscape elements designed to 
remove sediment and pollution from stormwater or 
street runoff water. They typically consist of a 
long, channeled depression (swale) with gently 
sloped sides. Within the bioswale, grasses, 
flowering shrubs or organic matter such as mulch 
slow down the water, allowing infiltration into 
soil and resulting in natural filtering of 
pollutants. There are many examples of bioswales 
around Ventura County, as they are becoming a 
common requirement for new projects throughout 
the area, helping clean and infiltrate runoff.

The Happy Valley Bioswale was made possible due 
to collaboration of the County of Ventura and 
Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. The State Water 
Resources Control Board awarded Proposition 84 
funding for the project. Construction began in 
August and was completed within four months.

The project treats the Meiners Oaks stormwater 
runoff that flows along South Lomita Avenue to 
the Happy Valley Drain, a Ventura River 
tributary. Runoff from 37 acres  or 40 percent 
of the residential and commercial area of Meiners 
Oaks  is treated by the bioswale.

To meet stringent Clean Water Act requirements, 
the vegetated  swale has a baffle box for removal 
of trash, sediment, nitrogen and other common 
stormwater pollutants. The completed project also 
includes a diversion structure to intercept flows 
from the storm drain system into the swale to 
slow down and spread stormwater for additional 
treatment and biodegradation of pollutants before 
water returns to the storm drain system.

The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy is the owner of 
the project site and will take over the ownership 
and long-term maintenance of the Happy Valley Bioswale's vegetation.

Especially during this time of drought, 
stormwater is a valuable resource to capture and 
reuse or infiltrate into the ground. The phrase 
"Slow it! Spread it! Sink it!" refers to slowing 
down the runoff from impervious surfaces such as 
driveways, sidewalks and rooftops, allowing this 
runoff to naturally spread out over vegetated 
areas, infiltrate into the ground while watering 
plants, filter out pollutants and recharge 
groundwater supplies. The pollutants picked up 
off hard surfaces by stormwater commonly include 
trash, oil and grease, nutrients and bacteria.

Although the Happy Valley Bioswale is a highly 
engineered project to reduce stormwater pollution 
draining from a large urban area, the average 
homeowner can do simple things to achieve the 
same benefits on a smaller scale. By simply 
redirecting your rain downspouts to shallow 
vegetated areas or to a garden area that has been 
slightly graded to keep and infiltrate the water 
on-site, you can reduce pollutants coming from 
your own property and depend less on irrigation 
water for your plants and trees.

As a part of the Happy Valley Bioswale project, 
the county, in collaboration with Surfrider 
Foundation, will offer free seminars and hands-on 
workshops this fall in Meiners Oaks on how to 
design and implement simple stormwater-capture features in residential yards.

By keeping your eye on the environment and 
implementing small changes at home to "Slow it, 
Spread it, Sink it" we can all do our part in 
keeping our watersheds and waterways clean.

Dave Laak is a water quality planner with the 
Ventura County Public Works Agency.

Santa Babara Permaculture Network Logo

(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

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