Rain Garden in Lakewood

Rain Garden located at 21st and Iris Street in Lakewood

The Mile High Flood District (MHFD) partnered with the City of Lakewood and the Urban Watershed Research Institute to construct a new rain garden. The project, completed in April 2011, satisfied multiple objectives including providing stormwater quality treatment, field testing of MHFD’s new rain garden growing media, and fixing a nuisance drainage problem. The site is located within an older residential neighborhood in Lakewood. The original drainage plans consisted of a series of grass swales and driveway culverts. The swales were not protected from vehicle traffic and some culverts became buried over time. The result was nuisance flooding and muddy areas on the side of the road. The rain garden finished construction in April 2011. After construction, MHFD started monitoring water quality of the influent and effluent as well as runoff flow and volume. The rain garden is now fully vegetated with a drought tolerant seed mixture and assorted plantings. Residents provide irrigation. MHFD plans to continue monitoring water quality and runoff peak flow and volume for the next several years. MHFD submits all water quality data to the International Stormwater BMP database.