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MINNEAPOLIS — Where there once were floods at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, now there will be weddings.
The congregation of the south Minneapolis church dealt with an expensive water runoff problem by putting in three rain gardens last summer and setting them off with a courtyard that can be used for outdoor services.
"There was a lot of excitement in the congregation about this," said the Rev. Jay Carlson. And there still is; with the early arrival of winter last fall, church members barely had time to step back and admire the area before it was buried under snow. This summer will be their first chance to enjoy it.
Holy Trinity is one of a growing number of churches looking at ways to deal with rainwater runoff. Although churches are exempt from property taxes in places like Minneapolis, they are not excused from city fees, including ones for dealing with stormwater.
Those charges can add up in a hurry. Stacy Anderson, president of the Minneapolis landscape company Earth Wizards, has consulted with churches that are paying upward of $10,000 a year.
"These fees can be very expensive for nonprofits," she said.
So expensive that dealing with the runoff has become a hot topic for nonprofits and commercial ventures alike. In a little over five years, Earth Wizards has gone from the launch of its first such project to having stormwater mitigation make up half of its total business, Anderson said.
Holy Trinity was being billed $4,000 a year by the city for its rainwater runoff, and with its parking lot and adjacent alley prone to flooding, some of the water was being sent down the sanitary sewer. That practice was common when the church was built in the 1920s but is no longer tolerated by the city.
The first step is education.
"People know about the pollutants, including a lot of phosphorous, in the water coming off parking lots," said Anderson. "But most of them don't realize that the water coming off the roofs can be just as bad, especially if tar has been used in the roofing, in which case the water is laced with petroleum."
Churches usually attack the runoff problem with two goals in mind. The first is tied to the Biblical calling to be good stewards of the Earth. In 2007, Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis installed wildflower rain gardens adjacent to a new Sunday school wing at the behest of its Caring for Creation Committee.
"We want to be good citizens," said Tom Anderson, a committee member.
Interest in protecting the environment also tends to increase with awareness through Earth Day, which was Friday.
The second motivation, of course, is economic. Plymouth's gardens save the church $1,500 a year in city fees.
There are three ways to reduce those fees: Delay the water so the storm sewer doesn't get overloaded in a bad storm, reduce the amount of water being dumped into the sewer or clean the water before it reaches the sewer.
Most rain garden systems do all three.
"Just filtering the water does a tremendous amount of good," Anderson said. "This water can carry a lot of bad stuff with it."
The rain garden at St. Albert the Great Catholic Church has an additional function: It serves as a tribute to a young member of the Minneapolis parish who died.
"It's dedicated to the memory of Jeff Fridlund, who died two years ago, and serves as a gathering place for groups, including the youth group of which Jeff was a member," said Robin Harry, director of music and liturgy.
The rain garden, which surrounds a gazebo near the parish center's office, was put in by members of the congregation and friends of the Fridlund family. They used native plants to keep costs down.
That's a great way to save money, Anderson said.
"You don't need expensive plantings. You can get native-plant plugs for as little as $1 apiece."
Plus, you know they're going to be able to tolerate the extremes of your local climate.
The cost of putting in a rain garden varies depending on multiple factors, including the square footage of the area producing the runoff water, soil quality and the amount of landscape regrading necessary to direct runoff to the rain gardens.
St. Albert's and Plymouth Congregational installed their rain gardens entirely with volunteers. On the other hand, Holy Trinity's project, which also included permeable paving, cost $90,000. But $50,000 of that was covered by grants, which are offered by some watershed districts, several cities and various ecological organizations.
As good as it feels to know they are helping the environment and as nice as it is to cut their stormwater fees, for the folks at Holy Trinity, the ultimate benefit of their rain gardens will come when they start holding some of their Sunday morning worship services in the adjacent courtyard.
"Our first one is scheduled for July," Carlson said. "We're really looking forward to that."
