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Environmental Initiatives

Middle School Quad - Drainage and Restoration Project
Flooding of Episcopal’s campus during heavy rains has been a major concern of the EHS community for many years. Knowing this, Episcopal’s Board of Trustees set aside funding for a “Drainage Project.” We’re delighted that our Master Plan offered a more holistic solution to the problem, recommending the construction of a rain garden, rather than merely laying drainpipe. The rain garden combines storm water mitigation with a much-needed restoration of the landscape in the Middle School Quad. Because of the natural contour in the EHS site, our informed theory is that resolving the drainage on this part of the campus will also help alleviate standing water in other parts of the campus. The Rain Garden was dedicated by Bishop Charles Jenkins on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 1:30 p.m.
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Drainage and Restoration Project
HELPFUL TERMS: Episcopal's Sustainable Inititatives
  • LEED: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
  • The rain garden is a landscape design that uses natural elements to capture, channel, divert, and take advantage of rain; rain gardens are particularly helpful in managing storm water in periods of heavy rainfall.
  • Bio-swales are shallow, long, low depressions in the ground, designed to collect stormwater run-off. Swales are typically a gentle slope, designed around natural landscape contours and vegetated channels. The aim is for them not to be permanently full of water, but to encourage accumulations of rainfall during storms and to hold it for a few hours as it infiltrates down into the soil.
  • Swale with drainage: If the swale becomes too full (18 inches), excess water will flow into EBR drain network through a raised storm drain.
  • A cistern is a storage container for rain water harvesting. Even a small roof can collect enormous amounts of water. Water from the proposed EHS cisterns will be used to irrigate the Middle School Quad in times of draught. Cisterns were commonly used in Louisiana to provide water in rural areas.
  • Maintenance of the rain garden: Rain gardens do not require extensive maintenance once a good vegetation cover is achieved.
  • In order to assure the best drainage, impervious surface (concrete) is not desirable.
  • Eco-Spec Paint contains low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) content compared to conventional paint. It also contributes to LEED-EB credits for Environmental Quality.
  • The linoleum flooring that was chosen has the following sustainable benefits:
    • Made with rapidly renewable US grown plant ingredients, reducing reliance on petroleum & fossil fuels.
    • 10% pre-consumer recycled content reducing use of virgin materials
    • Low VOC emissions
    • Contributes to LEED credits for Environmental Quality and Materials & Resources.
    • Exceeds performance criteria for other similar conventional floors
  • GREENGUARD Classroom furnishings meet California health-based indoor air-quality standards for children.
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