​Creek Smart® is a way of thinking about the amount of stormwater that falls on your property, and the ways we can mitigate your stormwater footprint.​

Take the Ellerbe Creek watershed, for example. It's an urban watershed that runs through downtown Durham, North Carolina. It's very polluted.

In the natural water cycle, water that falls to the Earth either evaporates into the air or infiltrates into the ground. Very little becomes runoff that enters the creek.

However, the urban water cycle is different. Impervious surfaces such as roads, sidewalks, and buildings, mean that water cannot infiltrate into the ground. Most rainwater becomes polluted runoff that ends up in the creek.

By installing Creek Smart® practices like rain gardens, cisterns, and permeable pavement, we can mimic the natural water cycle in an urban environment, and begin to infiltrate rainwater into the ground. This greatly reduces the amount of polluted runoff that enters a creek.

Consider, for example, SEEDS, a local business in Durham, North Carolina. We used the Falls/Jordan Nutrient Load Accounting tool to show the amount of water running off their property during a one-inch rainstorm.

Here they are again, with a large number of Creek Smart® practices installed. They prevented nearly 24,000 gallons of water per year from running off their property, and saved the creek from becoming polluted!

Becoming Creek Smart® is easy. All you have to do is install a Creek Smart® practice on your property. It can be as easy as disconnecting a downspout to let it flow over your lawn or installing a rain garden to capture water. Click one of the links below to get started.
Downspout Disconnection
​Rain Gardens
Cisterns