At the entrance to the Overbrook ravine park and neighborhood right in the northern heart of Columbus, Ohio lies one of many rain gardens C-bus has installed throughout its Clintonville neighborhood. I wanted to go visit, in that it's a mature example and has been carefully studied for a number of years now. It has basic signage explaining how the rain garden works and that it's a no-mow area, but it is otherwise easy to overlook.
At the home level, C-bus has a fantastic program trying to modernize water management and prevent sanitary sewer overflows called "BluePrint Columbus." It provides incentives and sump pumps to homeowners and helps with redirecting water using green infrastructure methodologies. There are some additional rain garden reimbursements through the city and through the amazing Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation district community backyards program. All of this came a result of the EPA telling C-bus to clean up its act water-wise.
High Street is the former northern trolley line that bisects the city. It's a four lane major thoroughfare at the point where High and Overbrook intersect. The rain garden was City constructed to intercept road run off before it drained to the sensitive urban ravine carved out by Adena Brook ( named for the Adena moundbuilders culture here in Ohio.) The brook drains into the Olentangy River, one of the two major rivers that come together here in C-bus.
This article from back in 2019 discusses some of the research being done:
"Martin said his team has a contract with the city to monitor water quantity and quality from rain gardens and determine whether the project is creating new habitats with different types of birds and insects and how the neighborhoods are affected by the gardens, including home values.
"They put monitors in Adena Brook that have microphones in them," said Laura Fay of the nonprofit Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed, which is hosting the meeting. "They're listening to insects and birds.""
It's also been used as one of a number of rain gardens as a teaching example for Ohio State University engineering students.
There's a bit of history about the rain gardens in this 2007 publication for the Ravine communities, and this newsletter from the Friends of the Lower Olentangy (FLOW) mentions another portion of the Adena Brook project trying to prevent sewage overflows (see page 3.)
The Adena Brook rain garden at High street has grown in, making it difficult to see the water level, but I was able to sight the inflow, outflow, and the deepest portion, signified by the sword like leaves of the Irises (not in bloom yet.)
This past Winter I took the Washtenaw County (Michigan) Master Rain Gardener certification program online in preparation for some of the work I'm doing on my site, in that rain gardens are a major component of my water system PDC design. It's the same program Franklin County (C-bus) here in Ohio uses.
I've visited a number of rain gardens, but I thought Adena Brook made for a really interesting example.
