As a regional leader in adapting to hydroclimatic change, the Société de Conservation et d’Aménagement des Bassins Versants de la Zone Châteauguay (SCABRIC) watershed management organization is organizing training sessions for municipalities interested in learning more about decentralized bioretention and stormwater management.
Climate projections for southern Quebec now predict an increase in extreme weather events, intense flooding, and severe periods of low water during the summer. Municipalities will have to adopt tools to better manage stormwater and limit the impacts of climate change.
Decentralized bioretention involves the creation of small, shallow, vegetated basins or ponds, like rain gardens, on different properties. The ponds work to capture runoff rainwater, allowing it to gradually sink into the soil. This helps to recharge the water table while reducing erosion.
Since 2017, SCABRIC has been part of a community of practice that includes municipalities and MRCs in the St-Régis River watershed, and Montreal’s École de Technologie Supérieure and the Lasalle NHC laboratory, which has developed a hydroclimatic change adaptation plan. The group has shown that decentralized bioretention is the most effective, economical, and easy-to-implement option for stormwater management that is applicable to neighbouring municipalities as well.
Last year, SCABRIC led a series of workshops on decentralized bioretention with the MRC de Roussillon and the MRC des Jardins-de-Napierville, the municipalities of Sainte-Catherine and Saint-Constant, as well as the Comité ZIP du Haut-Saint-Laurent and La Vigile Verte.
The workshops were funded through the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte Contre les Changements Climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs (MELCCFP), via the Soutien Régional aux Enjeux de l’Eau program (PSREE). They were developed in collaboration with numerous partners, including several Montreal-based organizations such as the École de Technologie Supérieure, the Lasalle | NHC Laboratory, Les Ateliers Ublo, the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre, and the Conseil Régional de l’Environnement de la Montérégie.
The participating municipalities and organizations received 32 hours of instruction related to decentralized bioretention methods and their implementation. Following the workshops, the municipalities were paired with the organizations to develop different pilot projects, which will serve as demonstration sites.
“Bioretention is more than necessary: we need to take action,” says SCABRIC director Geneviève Audet, who is also a biologist. “Water management is essential if we are to cope with the impacts of climate change. The OBV SCABRIC wants to play a leading role in Quebec in the sustainable management of this resource, and this training program is a first step,” she explains.
Last October, SCABRIC organized an exploratory visit to several decentralized bioretention installations, including projects at the Marché Public de Longueuil, in Pierre-Dansereau Park in Outremont, and the Ruelle Bleue-Verte du Sud-Ouest in Pointe-Saint-Charles. Three explanatory video vignettes were produced during the visits which can be viewed online at scabric.ca.
SCABRIC, along with the other members of the community of practice, envisions the implementation of thousands of decentralized bioretention systems over the next decade. A second round of workshops is now being planned, though the conservation society is waiting on funding. Interested municipalities can register to participate at scabric.ca/projet/formations-en-bioretention-decentralisee. (SR)