STEP THREE: SLOW IT, SINK IT, SPREAD IT

Do your part: make your property act like a healthy watershed by
“slowing, sinking, and spreading” water run-off.

This tool measures how effectively your property functions as compared to the Watershed Targets for your neighbourhood. Because rainwater runs off your property’s hard surfaces (like your roof, driveway and other paved areas), this tool allows you to explore options to slow it down, sink it or spread it in ways that protect your home, replenish aquifers, streams and rivers and help restore the natural balance of the region’s water.

The Stream Health dial tells you whether the slow-release options you are choosing will get the job done. The 1-2-3 sequence of steps for adding Gray-Blue-Green blocks is described below. Adding the first GRAY block enables the stream health dial. Don’t forget to save your session so you can go back and fine-tune it as you play with the tool. At the end of your session you will be able to print out your results for your records.

• Step 1: Drag GRAY blocks into the SITE PLAN box below to represent the buildings and hard surfaces on your site.
• Step 2: Drag BLUE blocks into the SITE PLAN box to represent the various rainwater slow-release options you want to explore for your site.
• Step 3: Drag GREEN blocks into the SITE PLAN box to represent the different kinds of landscaping (absorbent surfaces) on your site.