Raleigh is planning to offer incentives for homeowners who use rainwater catchment devices and drought resistant landscape solutions. City Council has moved forward with steps to introduce a program next year. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, but this is an important step for the city in encouraging homeowners to implement environmentally conscious tools.
Raleigh should take notes from cities like Austin where, in addition to the city having its own SMART Housing program to encourage responsible development and the city-owned utility provider offering many rebates for homeowners who retrofit with green building measures, water fixture rebates have been in place for some time.
Our stormwater system eventually flows out to the Neuse River, which was named the 8th most endangered river in the US by American Rivers just two years ago. The threat cited: “poorly planned development.” Through sedimentation, stormwater carries all of the yucky stuff that we humans leave in our streets and lawns into the river system which contributes to higher pollutant levels, fish kills, algae blooms, generally lowers the water quality in our freshwater bodies while increasing pressure on natural ecosystems. Rainwater catchment and storage helps conserve our water supply resources by utilizing rainwater for home irrigation and lowers the amount of stormwater that flows into rivers and streams.
Welcome to New Raleigh. We welcome your participation in the ongoing discussion. Before posting we ask that you read our Comment Policy and we invite you to register with our site. If you want to keep up with the news on our blog, subscribe to the RSS feed or get emailed every time we post.