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Jack and Bonnie Waide are the first homeowners in the town of Onalaska to obtain a credit against their stormwater bill for reducing stormwater runoff, soil erosion and sediment being absorbed into streams from their four rain gardens. The Waides recently bought an Energy Star home on Brice Prairie that came complete with rain gardens to control stormwater.
The credit cut their town stormwater utility fee in half, although it’s not as exciting as it sounds. They saved $10, but the Waides are more concerned about doing the right thing for the environment than saving a few bucks.
Rain gardens are a way of keeping rainwater from running off one’s property and into storm sewers and/or area waterways where contaminants picked up by the water can harm ecosystems. Rain gardens also can prevent stormwater from running off and creating soil erosion problems in sloped areas.
The basic idea of a rain garden is to make a depression where rain and snowmelt will collect and plant deep-rooting wetlands plants there that will help contain the water.
One of the four rain gardens at the Waide home is lined with landscape cloth underneath landscape rocks. The other three gardens are depressions in the terrain.
Waide said 60 percent of the roof runoff goes through the rain gardens from two downspouts on the house. Those downspouts drain directly into the gardens, where water percolate into the ground.
The Waides moved here from Louisiana after Jack landed a job as deputy director of the Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center on French Island.
Environmental stewardship is important to the Waides, and it’s important to the town as well. “We are providing the stormwater credit to promote the process of reduction of sediment and soil erosion,” Town Chairman Dave Paudler said.
Some municipalities have opted not to offer credits against stormwater bills. Holmen only offers credits for commercial property. According to Public Works Director Bob Haines, it would cost the village too much money to inspect, approve and re-inspect every year if residential properties were included.
“If every homeowner wanted a credit, we would be out inspecting 3,500 homes every year and we just can’t do that,” Haines said.
The only Holmen applicant for the stormwater credit is Fairway Painting in the industrial park. The company built retention ponds on its 4.5 property and qualified for a 5 percent credit. To get the full 50 percent credit allowed by law, a pond must be able to hold the volume of water resulting from a 100-year storm.
Paudler would like to see more people do rain gardens. “It’s a nice thing done by citizens to promote sediment reduction. It reduces flooding,” he said. “It’s not a huge credit. But any way you can reduce water pollution, erosion or flooding, I view as a good thing.”
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