County of Grande Prairie

By Liam Verster

Community

The County is hosting open houses to discuss bioswales at Clairmont Lake

Oct 20, 2019 | 7:00 AM

The County of Grande Prairie is holding two open houses on Tuesday, where the topic of bioswales will be discussed.

Bioswales are green infrastructure, designed to filter out pollutants from rainwater runoff, including heavy metals, oils, fertilizers, and road salts. The County plans on building more bioswales in Clairmont, to stop the pollutants from making their way into Clairmont Lake.

Jill Henry, Rural Extension Officer for the County of Grande Prairie, says the bioswales in Clairmont are built with a lot of technical infrastructure below ground, and vegetation growing up top.

“The vegetation acts as a filter, so when the runoff comes off the pavement or the sidewalk, it will drain through the vegetation, where the plants will remove all the pollutants, and then the water will go through and enter the lake.”

The open houses will offer the public a chance to learn about bioswales as well as ways to promote water pollutant filtering at home.

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“[People] can, for example, plant deep-rooted plants, they can put in rain barrels, they can plant flower beds, kind of mimic nature a little bit. That will also reduce the runoff that is going into the lake.”

Along with educating the public, the County will be gathering information on how to make the bioswales appealing, such as by using native plants or vegetation that matches the neighbourhoods.

The open house sessions run Tuesday, October 22, from 1 pm to 3 pm at the Lakeview Senior Housing complex and from 6 pm to 9 pm at the Wellington Resource Centre.