Public education about the water cycle and the benefit of rain gardens

Mount Vernon Community School PTA proposes to create and install a sign or series of signs to educate the public about the water cycle, how it relates to the health of our environment and how they can help keep our groundwater clean. The sign(s) will be placed on school property along Mount Vernon Avenue, near the new rain garden area of Mount Vernon Community School playground. The sign(s) will explain how rain garden plants are being grown to sustain the water table and clear it of contaminants, and will relate these benefits to both the recharge of underground aquifers and the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay.  Specifically, the sign(s) will educate readers about how rain gardens serve to re-create the natural water cycle and reduce water quality problems. A rain garden is a shallow, landscaped basin that pools stormwater runoff on its surface allowing it to slowly infiltrate into the soil. Infiltration through the soil removes solid and dissolved pollutants. Some of the filtered stormwater recharges the groundwater while some is held in the pore spaces between the soil particles and rocks. Both groundwater and the pore space water are available to growing plants.  Presenting information in both English and Spanish, the sign(s) will be written to be understandable to a young audience and will be accessible for anyone walking down Mount Vernon Avenue, on the public sidewalk that borders our school. In addition to educating about the water cycle, this project will inform passersby of what they can do in their own garden or yard to promote the health of the water system.  We anticipate design, production and installation of the signs to cost approximately $2,000 and to be completed no later than spring 2016. The beneficiaries will be the students of MVCS as well as members of the community, since the signs will be accessible to all.