CFE rain garden - HorryCountySchools

Carolina Forest Elementary School to install rain garden

(posted on May 12, 2010)

With the help of a $4,000 grant from the Wal-Mart at Carolina Forest, a campus rain garden will be installed at Carolina Forest Elementary School on May 19 at 9:30 a.m. Coordinated by Coastal Carolina University, this is the ninth rain garden project established through the Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium (CWSEC). Students will plant native, coastal South Carolina plants and also spread mulch throughout the garden.

The rain garden is a type of stormwater best management practice designed to collect runoff water from impervious surfaces. The rain garden will be constructed by the Horry County Stormwater Department and located in the front of the school.

The project is funded through regional Wal-Mart stores, with the majority of the award going toward educational resources for the school, such as a weather station, water quality monitoring equipment and other hands-on activities associated with teaching the importance of watersheds and human impacts on local water bodies. CWSEC partners will continue to provide information on watersheds and stormwater pollution to be incorporated into the school’s curriculum.

For more information, contact Karen Fuss, coordinator of the CWSEC and environmental educator with CCU's Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, at 843-349-4058 or e-mail kfuss@coastal.edu.