Homeowners offered money for ‘rain gardens’ through local organization

The Seine Rat Roseau Watershed District (SRRWD) is encouraging homeowners to plant rain gardens with a $500 incentive.

The SRRWD an organization that aims to increase the longevity of land and water resources with programs for field erosion control, livestock, soil health, water retention, and more.

For people who live in urban areas, they also offer funding for rain gardens. 

Rain gardens are perennial gardens planted in a shallow depression designed to capture water that may otherwise runoff.  

Joey Pankiw, Manager at SRRWD, says rain gardens make water infiltrate into the ground to avoid standing pools of water.

“Water that will be running off either your roof or your property, we try to direct that flow into a central region on your property,” he says. “And in that area, we're going to change the soil composition to make it a little bit more friendly for water infiltration. We'll plant a whole bunch of plants around that area that absorb a lot of water, so when the water comes off, that water is staying on your property and not going onto the streets.” 

SRRWD provides grants of $500 to homeowners who build a rain garden on their property. 

He also says they can provide funding if you have an abandoned well on your property that needs to be sealed up.

“Or if you have a wellhead that is currently in a position where it might have contamination via surface water,” he says. “We have a program to do some wellhead remediation, which is raising the wellhead up off the ground and then making sure that we have no possibility of groundwater penetrating your well.”