Permeable Pavers
The Creeks Division has installed permeable pavers in City-owned parking lots, sidewalks, streets, alleys, and parks in several locations, in order to allow storm water and urban runoff to infiltrate into the ground. These projects demonstrate a retrofit that complies with the City’s Storm Water Management Program (SWMP) requirement to detain and treat the volume of water generated from a one-inch, 24-hour storm event.
These projects are designed to capture and treat polluted storm water and incidental runoff, and allow it to soak slowly into the ground. This prevents pollutants in runoff from flowing into storm drains, which lead directly to our creeks and ocean untreated.
Water flows through gaps between the pavers and through layers of rock underneath, and then into the ground, where it will be naturally treated by microbes in the soil.
This infiltration prevents flashes of polluted runoff from leaving the site and allows it to soak into the ground where it is treated, made available to surrounding plants, and helps recharge groundwater that supports more stable creek flows throughout the year.
In all, the Creeks Division has replaced over 4.6 acres of impermeable asphalt with permeable pavers.