[two_fifth background_image=”https://www.allianceforthebay.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/osprey-landing-in-nest-with-fish_credit-paul-warren-2007_become-a-part-of-our-work_1.jpg” ] Mount Pleasant Baptist Church parking lot surface before pervious pavers were installedThe 2015 RiverSmart Bloomingdale Rebate Program came to a close on September 30th, marking another successful year of capturing stormwater runoff from residential properties in Washington, D.C. and preventing polluted stormwater from entering local streams and rivers.  For two years, the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the Washington D.C Department of Energy & Environment have worked with property owners to install stormwater management practices through a targeted rebate program in the Bloomingdale Sewershed, an area that faces both a heightened risk of flooding and a higher percentage of impervious surfaces than other parts of the city.

Providing $10 per square foot for impervious surface replaced with pervious pavers and $5 per square foot for impervious surface replaced with vegetation, the Bloomingdale Rebate Program is one of the highest stormwater incentive programs offered to property owners in Washington, D.C.  This year, the program also offered an added bonus of free pervious pavers (valued at $5 per square foot) in four different colors.  The results yielded 16 projects, $143,802.50 in rebates, and 9,710.5 square feet of impervious area converted to pervious surface.

September 30th also marked the completion of the program’s largest project to date.  The 5,000 square foot impervious gravel parking lot at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, a historic Bloomingdale church established in 1918, was retrofitted into a 4,869 square foot pervious paver lot, with a small cutout for native plants.  An additional 3,000 square feet of stormwater drain into the pervious surface from the roof, generating a total treatment area of 7,869 square feet.[two_fifth background_image=”https://www.allianceforthebay.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/osprey-landing-in-nest-with-fish_credit-paul-warren-2007_become-a-part-of-our-work_1.jpg” ] Mount Pleasant Baptist Church parking lot surface after pervious pavers were installed by First Impression HardscapesThroughout 2014, the Alliance and DOEE reached out to several institutions within the Bloomingdale Sewershed, eventually partnering with Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and First Impression Hardscapes to replace an old parking lot located on the church’s property. The parking lot project was designed, reviewed, permitted, approved and completed by the end of the fiscal year, and included a long-term maintenance plan for the church to implement as needed. This year’s final project is a great example of a public-private-civil society partnership, benefiting all three and ultimately contributing to the good of the Bloomingdale community and the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.For more information on the Bloomingdale Rebate Program and other RiverSmart Homes Programs throughout the District, please contact Sarah Davidson: sdavidson@allianceforthebay.org.