Community Stormwater Management

New Northeast Iowa Urban Stormwater Demonstration Site Now Open

By |2019-08-07T16:24:36-05:00September 28th, 2018|Categories: Community Stormwater Management, Flood Mitigation, Uncategorized|

This summer, construction of several innovative urban stormwater conservation practices was completed as a part of a new Regional Urban Stormwater Demonstration Site at Northeast Iowa RC&D. The site, across from City Hall in Postville, Iowa, provides real-life examples of several different urban stormwater conservation practices, which were installed as a part of a partnership between [...]

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Rain Gardens: Beautiful and Beneficial

By |2021-01-11T11:24:19-05:00October 2nd, 2017|Categories: Clean Water, Community Stormwater Management, Flood Mitigation, Uncategorized|

Rain gardens utilize good soil and deep-rooted plants to infiltrate runoff from a smaller area, such as a roof, driveway, or a section of street or parking lot. Often rain gardens are beautifully landscaped with brightly colored flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators. Properly constructed rain gardens are in the natural path of runoff and [...]

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Bioswales: Not your grandmother’s storm sewer

By |2017-09-25T10:35:05-05:00September 25th, 2017|Categories: Clean Water, Community Stormwater Management, Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management|

A bioswale can be used in place of a traditional storm sewer. Planted with deep-rooted native grasses, flowers, and shrubs, bioswales beautify while helping water filter and infiltrate. Bioswales work best when they are placed in existing drainage areas. By design, bioswales infiltrate frequent smaller rain events and convey heavy rains in a non-erosive manner. They [...]

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The Wapsipinicon River

The Wapsipinicon River stretches over 290 miles from the Iowa/Minnesota border all the way to the Mississippi River near Clinton, Iowa. Although it only extends two miles into Minnesota, the Wapsipinicon River is the fifth largest Iowa tributary of the Mississippi, being surpassed in length only by the Des Moines, Cedar, Iowa, and Skunk rivers. It is a long narrow watershed that for 180 miles averages barely more than 15 miles wide and thus it has no major tributary.

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Even though it is narrow, this watershed covers 4.5% of Iowa. The Wapsipinicon River boasts the longest, continuous stretch of natural and scenic river corridor in the Iowan Surface Region of Iowa. Much of that river corridor is in public ownership and dominated by wooded wetlands and riparian forests that provide habitat for birds, reptiles and other animal species, as well as birders, boaters, paddlers and anglers.

The Upper Wapsi

The Upper Wapsipinicon River, or Upper Wapsi, is a section that includes the 270 miles of river above Anamosa, Iowa. The Upper Wapsi Watershed drains over 1 million acres and encompasses all or portions of 11 counties, 27 communities, 17 unincorporated villages, 120 lakes and 8 major rivers and streams totaling over 2,000 river miles.

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