City of Madison Engineering v. Nature

It is unbelievable just how unimaginative engineers are. The latest show of ignorance right here in 4 Lakes City regards the health of our streams. Indeed, the level of ignorance about the hydrologic cycle is astounding; from the linked article above:

As for rain gardens, Coleman [a city sanitary and storm water engineer] says, “Residential rain gardens are good things, but they only handle flows during a small rain event. We have to design for large events.”

Um, yeah. She needs to come inspect my four rain gardens during a major stormwater event. Not even the record 3.5″+ rain storm of a couple of weeks ago could overtop my raingardens (which handle the entirety of the water coming off of my roof, and a large part of that which comes off of my yard). Typical of the engineer’s mindset, she ignores the power of the “bio” in the bio-infiltration power of the raingarden. Even during the winter these things work. But raingardens just don’t fit into the “sheet & pipe” ideology of the engineer.

Raingardens probably wouldn’t do much to boost the ever-bloating budget of City of Madison Engineering either.

The city could do its part by installing raingarden swales along each and every curb terrace and median. They could easily form bioswales in public properties throughout the city to significantly a) increase infiltration and b) reduce stormwater surges. They could provide incentives for residents to create their own raingardens.

Instead, we get monster engineering projects like this: