Hey everyone! I would’ve had this up earlier—but I left it on my home computer. So here it is, a little late in the day:

Last week, I visited Washington state for the “Water and Land Use in the Pacific Northwest: Integrating Communities and Watersheds” conference. I was very lucky that I got to go, and I learned a lot about what’s going on with water issues in another region of the country.

The first day of the conference was a field trip to sites in and around Portland related to water and land use (it was the coolest part of the conference, as far as I was concerned). Most of the attendees were more local, so I had a lot of opportunities to talk about how policies, practices, and awareness about water issues are far more advanced there than they are here.

We visited several places; I could expend far too much space and time describing all of the stops and the really cool things the people there are doing, but I’m going to confine myself to Turtle Place.

Turtle Place is an inventive synthesis of renovation to create a public space, environmentalism and art. Formerly a bus center, Turtle Place has gone from being a big ol’ impervious surface to a pretty, ecofriendly public space in the middle of a city.

A bright yellow mural on the building behind it declaring Turtle Place’s theme: “conserve, reuse, recycle.” And the designers really followed through:the lights are LED, slabs of the concrete have been dug up around the outsides of the plaza to create rain gardens, and some of these slabs reused as sculptures and benches. The runoff from parking lot next to the building behind the square also drains to a rain garden.

By far the most creative implementation of the theme is the fountain the middle of the plaza. The fountain serves as a rain garden for the run off from the roof of the building and reusing the run-off to run the fountain when it’s dry. It is made from recycled items you would normally find in a city, like a walk sign, fire hydrants, bike racks, bits of electric utilities, and the top of a streetlight.

The overarching idea I took away from the conference is that public awareness, education, and buy-in are crucial to increase efficiency and improve water quality. So that’s the plan here! Get out there and talk to people in St. Louis about stormwater issues, so rain gardens and barrels become familiar items, maybe even commonplace.

Hope everyone had a lovely October!