Harrisonville Elementary School and the South Grand River Watershed Alliance anticipated that a rain garden would be completed at the Elementary School before the end of September. However, nature had other priorities. Heavy fall rains delayed site preparation and planting until October 20.

Volunteer parents of Harrisonville Elementary School students, members of the South Grand River Watershed Alliance, Community Conservationists with the Missouri Department of Conservation and staff with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources met early that morning to begin the work of spreading compost, arranging and planting about 525 plants. Thanks to the Cass County Commissioners, the site was prepared earlier in the week for the arrival of the compost donated by Town & Country Disposal, Inc. The Harrisonville Elementary School partnered with the South Grand River Watershed Alliance to implement the rain garden as a landscape feature to reduce nonpoint source water pollution. The rain garden will be used in the classroom curriculum to teach about nonpoint source pollution.

A rain garden is a depressed area with plants that can survive in very wet or dry conditions. It is located to capture runoff from impervious surfaces such as roofs and parking lots. By capturing runoff from areas such as these, rain gardens slow runoff, allowing the plants to aid in filtering the many nonpoint source pollutants in the runoff and infiltrate rainfall into the aquifer. Thus keeping the rain where it falls instead of rushing it along, with all the contaminants it carries, through the storm water system and into the nearest stream

The plants in the Harrisonville Elementary rain garden are all native to our area. Native plants are ideal for rain gardens and other landscaping because they have adapted to the local environment over thousands of years. Many have exceptionally long roots which make them especially effective in filtering and infiltrating storm water.

The planting of the school rain garden will be completed and mulch installed as soon as weather conditions permit. A sign explaining the function of the rain garden will also be installed.. A second rain garden is planned for the Mill Creek Upper Elementary School, Belton, Mo in the spring.

This project was made possible with grant funding awarded to the South Grand River Watershed Alliance through the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The $9,450 in federal funding was awarded for the construction of two community rain gardens and a nonpoint source educational curriculum and is provided by the Environment Protection Agency, Region 7, 319 Nonpoint Source Implementation Grant through the department’s Water Protection Program. For more information, contact Amanda Sappington, in the department’s Water Protection Program, at (573) 751-8728.