Downspout Redirection

What are the benefits of downspout redirection?

Relieves Overtaxed Municipal Sewer Systems

In some municipalities throughout the state, particularly in urban settings, sewer systems handle not only stormwater but also residential sewage and industrial wastewater. Known as combined sewers, these systems can easily be overwhelmed during large storms, which results in raw sewage flowing untreated into our waterways. 

While not a direct solution, downspout disconnection addresses this problem by reducing the amount of stormwater that enters the sewer system. This reduces the volume of water that these systems are required to handle, decreasing the frequency and intensity of CSO events and protecting our water quality.

Irrigates Your Garden Beds / Yard
As we mentioned earlier, even small rainfall events can generate hundreds of gallons of stormwater on the average property. If your downspouts discharge onto impervious surfaces or into standpipes, you’re losing lots of free water that could be used to water your yard.

One way to utilize this water is to redirect your downspouts to an adjacent garden bed. This way, your plants will receive deep watering during rain storms. Another way you can utilize this water is by attaching a rain barrel to one of your downspouts. Check out our rain barrel page for more information on this.

Helps Protect Water Quality
By redirecting stormwater to landscaped areas and lawns, downspout redirection can prevent stormwater from traveling over impervious surfaces and picking up pollutants like sediment, motor oil, fertilizer, pet waste, heavy metals, and more.

This way, we can prevent these harmful substances from entering our local streams. In addition, stormwater infiltration on your property can help recharge groundwater resources, which supply water to rivers in times of drought and irrigation to farmers who grow our food.