Save the Rain is a county initiative to clean up Onondaga Lake by
reducing the amount of rainwater flowing into waste water treatment
plants. As in many cities across the US, stormwater flows into the same
treatment facilities as sewage water from homes and businesses, called a
combined sewer system. This causes issues in large rain events when the
system overloads and releases the combined sanitary flow and stormwater
into local tributaries, including Harbor Brook and Onondaga Creek both
of which flow into Onondaga Lake. Such an event is known as a Combined
Sewer Overflow (CSO). When combined stormwater and sewer systems
overflow during major storm events the water quality in each local
tributary as well as Onondaga Lake is impacted.
To reduce the
number of overflow events, Onondaga County implemented many projects to
capture rain water. Some projects are traditional ‘grey’ projects such
as upgrading a treatment plant, building cisterns and sewer separation
projects. Additionally, the county has decided to implement a number of
green infrastructure projects such as:
- constructing a wetland
- planting trees throughout the City of Syracuse
- installing porous pavement on roads, parking lots, basketball courts and sidewalks
- installing rain gardens, green roofs, bioswales, and rain barrels
- installing below ground infiltration trenches