No. Contrary to common belief, they are two totally separate systems. A sanitary sewer collects waste from sinks, toilets, showers, and washing machines from our homes. This wastewater is carried through underground pipes to the city’s wastewater treatment facility where the wastewater is treated before the effluent is discharged to an area waterway.

Runoff from our roofs, streets, and parking lots are collected in a storm drain system. This is a system of collection basins and pipes that transport the water entering this system to a nearby lake, river, or wetland where it is discharged untreated along with any contaminants it has collected along the way.

Every time it rains, the stormwater runs across our lawns, driveways, and down our streets taking fertilizers, pesticides, trash, and other pollutants with it, and it goes down the nearest storm drain and eventually ends up polluting our nearby lakes and rivers. You can help reduce this runoff by planting a rain garden because a rain garden reduces pollution while giving you a garden that is easy to maintain. Planting a rain garden on your property is also one way to conserve water, reduce your monthly water bill, and protect our waterways all at the same time.

A rain garden receives runoff from roofs or other hard impervious surfaces such as driveways, parking lots, and sidewalks. The rain garden holds the water on the landscape so that it has time to soak into the ground instead of flowing into the street and down a storm drain. This infiltration is beneficial for recharging the groundwater. The plants, mulch, and soil in a rain garden combine their natural physical, biological and chemical processes to remove the pollutants from the runoff.