This 1,200 square foot rain garden captures and treats water that runs off hard surfaces from the Vadnais Heights Fire Department building, parking lot, and Ramsey County compost collection area. The rain garden features:
- Trap rock at the inlet of the rain garden to reduce erosion and capture sediment, debris, and trash before it enters the rain garden.
- An overflow over land to direct water to the City's storm sewer system if a large rain event fills the rain garden.
- A wooden fence and interpretive signage to serve as an educational opportunity and demonstrate the rain garden is an intentional, natural garden.
- Native plants including big bluestem, rattlesnake master, Pennsylvania sedge, white indigo, ninebark, compass plant, rosinweed, swamp milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, and New England aster.
This project was a partnership between Vadnais Heights Rotary Club, Vadnais Heights Lions Club, the City of Vadnais Heights, VLAWMO, and many volunteers such as AFSA High School students. Funding was provided by VLAWMO's Community Blue grant program.
The rain garden was built to reduce water runoff, nutrients, and sediment from draining into nearby wetlands and eventually into East Vadnais Lake. East Vadnais Lake is the primary drinking water reservoir for Saint Paul Regional Water Services, which provides drinking water to over 450,000 people. It was also selected due to its highly visible location, which serves as a demonstration rain garden for others to learn about rain gardens and why they are important.
This rain garden is estimated to annually capture 191,449 gallons of water runoff. That's equivalent to just over half of a football field covered with 1 foot of water. It also removes 208 pounds of total suspended solids and 0.35 pounds of total phosphorus from water runoff per year.
