The Southwest Michigan Planning Commission is preparing to construct some new rain gardens around Benton Township.
Commission Senior Planner Marcy Hamilton tells us these projects are coming up as part of the effort to restore Ox Creek, noting the rain garden built at Meijer in 2022 has been helping to clean some of the runoff that goes into the creek. It especially helps when there’s a big rain event.
“What we’re trying to do there is filter that water, slow it down, soak it in so that it’s being filtered and reaches the creek more slowly,” Hamilton said. “And that way it has a chance to be filtered out and cleaner and slow down so it’s not blowing out that habitat.”
Hamilton says Ox Creek gets a lot of runoff from the area by Meijer, Walmart, and Home Depot. The Meijer rain garden has intercepted hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to filter it out before it winds up in the waterway. So, she says the planning commission wants to work on more rain gardens.
“So we’re trying to do more of those projects out there. We’re working with Walmart to actually hoping to do some similar rain gardens on their property. We’re also hoping to do some stuff at Home Depot to do that.”
Hamilton says when considering the health of a waterway, you have to look at the land around it because water there will eventually wind up in the nearest waterway. These rain gardens are another part of the Ox Creek restoration project, in addition to the removal of debris that’s been taking place farther downstream.
Work on a new rain garden could start this fall.
Photo: the Meijer rain garden when it was still under construction.
