Rain Garden Will Help Keep Pollutants from Waterways
By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
 John Bauer, of Ocean Grove, plants a magnolia tree at the new rain garden being installed at Memorial Park in Neptune City. Bauer is a Monmouth County Master Gardener. |
Even though the new rain garden being planted at Memorial Park in Neptune City is only partially done, it has already begun doing its job.
Kim Corbo Nuccio, a Monmouth County Master Gardener, who initiated and designed the project, said the part of the rain garden that was installed last week collected rain water from the past weekends storm.
It already started working, this past rain, runoff that would have gone into the storm drains went there instant gratification, she said. This went as good as a municipal project could have gone.
It was a perfect storm of a corporate sponsored municipal project. The mayor is a landscaper and he is very green-minded.
 Kim Corbo Nuccio, of Brielle, works on the rain garden at Memorial Park. Nuccio is a Master Gardener. |
On Tuesday Nuccio and other volunteers including Irene Allegro of Allegro Agency Realtors and Philip Allegro joined workers from the department of public works to install trees and shrubs around the circular path at the entrance to the park.
The project will take several stages to complete, but is being formally unveiled at the boroughs Memorial Day parade.
Nuccio said at a previous planting the group ran into an unexpected obstacle when 12 inches into the ground they hit concrete.
She said Wayne Edwards of public works reacted immediately bringing in jackhammers and breaking up the concrete.
I didnt have to ask, it happened so fast. They got the jackhammers, Nuccio said. They let nothing get in their way.
She said the concrete had probably been there for decades.
The plants were dying and nobody knew why, she said.
The project is the result of a partnership developed between Rutgers Cooperative Extension (RCE), the Master Gardener program and Neptune City to address the complex problem of storm water management.
An informal view of the Rain Garden will be unveiled during Shark River Cleanup Coalitions annual Shark River Cleanup Day May 10.
All of the greenery being planted is native to the area.
Nuccio explains, that years ago, before current levels of local development, rain water fell on permeable surfaces, soaking into ground surfaces and slowly filtering through soil and other materials found beneath the earths surface.
This movement of water, or percolation, through these materials provided a number of benefits acting as a natural filter, providing flood control, and adding to the amount of water contained in area streams and aquifers.
As development increased, so have impermeable surfaces, as rooftops, driveways and street surfaces replaced fields and forests.
Rain water now drains in a more direct fashion to our streams, estuaries and oceans, carrying sediments and other pollutants with it.
The Memorial Park Rain Garden will decrease runoff from the road surfaces surrounding Memorial Park at Riverview and Myron Avenues in Neptune City to the Shark River.
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This garden will intercept runoff before it reaches the storm drain within the circle, allowing water containing petrochemicals, sediments and other pollutants to infiltrate into the base of the garden, providing water to rain garden plants while preventing pollutants from flowing directly to the Shark River.
The design concept for the garden underscores the memorial theme, with plantings of perennials, shrubs, trees, and evergreens in reds, whites and blues.
An exhibit detailing the rain garden is on display in Borough Hall.
For information on RCEs Municipal Rain Garden program, contact Vivian Quinn at RCE 732-431-7273.
Contact Joanne Papaianni at joanne@thecoaster.net.
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