Transcript:
When it rains in Newton, Massachusetts, water rushes off roads, down asphalt gullies, and into Cheesecake Brook – a small stream that was converted many years ago into a narrow channel lined with masonry walls.
During downpours, more water is shunted to the brook than it can hold.
Rome: “Basically, what we’ve designed is a system that is almost perfectly set up to create flooding.”
Max Rome is with the nonprofit Charles River Watershed Association.
As climate change causes heavier downpours, the brook is more likely to flood nearby roads and yards.
So Rome’s group is working with the city of Newton to restore a section of the brook and reduce those risks.
Instead of sending stormwater to the brook, they’re diverting it into underground tanks. The stormwater will then be able to slowly trickle out of the gravel-lined tanks and into the ground.
They’re also removing the brook’s masonry walls, and planting native vegetation along its banks that will help slow and filter runoff.
Rome: “There’s going to be a lot of really beautiful plants, a lot of flowering, interesting species that are going to be attracting pollinators, attracting birds.”
So the project will benefit wildlife and help prevent flooding.
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media