French drains and dry wells are the oldest “green” groundwater removal systems known to man.
French drains are all about the speed and degree to which the groundwater, just minutes before rain water, is vented.
French drains existed long before the term “green” was ever created.
Putting the groundwater back into the ground, rather than sending it down the storm sewer line, is environmentally sound.
Perking groundwater with dry wells restores the groundwater table below us, and keeps our wells pumping clean water.
It also does not overflow the sanitary sewer system, flushing human waste into the Willamette River.
The city of Portland has been disconnecting downspouts on southeast and northeast Portland homes, to name a few areas, in the past few years, to stop the amount of roof water from rain drain discharges on homes in those and other areas from overflowing the sanitary sewer system, flushing contaminants to the Willamette river.
The city of Portland presently has a multi-million dollar project under construction that will some day stop the storm sewers from overflowing the sanitary sewers.
Until then, and probably after as well, it is up to us to dispose of the roof water with dry wells, or daylight the groundwater, in areas where that is appropriate, allowing it to saturate, and perk back into the ground, where it would have gone had it not been collected on the roof of the home instead of falling to the ground.
Do your part. Homeowners should hand excavated french drains and dry wells for the venting of roof water.
Green science protects our environment.
Perking rainwater into the ground with dry wells replaces groundwater below grade with water that would have normally been flushed into storm sewers.
Too many paved and permanent surfaces, as well as roofs, steal rain water from our soils, and flush it out to sea through storm sewers that vent to rivers, that flow to the ocean.
Do your part to create green groundwater removal knowledge among your neighbors.
Think “Green” groundwater removal, and hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems to vent groundwater from heavy rains away from your home prior to it saturating your homes foundation and causing leaking into crawl spaces and basements that resembles a spring, but is groundwater, first rain water, saturated against the foundation for days.
Restore the groundwater to our planets’ normal water storage areas below grade, where we pump our well water. The water table.