Impervious surfaces are among the most important combatants to the health of the Chesapeake Bay, gathering and flushing point source pollution from the entire watershed into the Bay. Urbanization is the greatest engine behind the increase in impervious surfaces (more people = more roads, more houses, more lifeless inner-city baseball fields) and, at the rate the American population is currently growing, won’t likely  help the Bay any time soon.

So it’s no wonder  that environmentalists are showing keen interest in a new kind of porous concrete  known as PERVIOUS (a.k.a. NOT impervious) pavement. As the lady in blue demonstrates in this video, the pervious pavement may help trees in proximity to paved areas “breathe” ……………

But what we care about is this: the potential capability to slash point source runoff by, essentially, chopping apart these massive drainage and runoff systems throughout urban areas within the watershed. I think this video of 1,500 gallons of water being dumped in a matter of five minutes through a pad of this stuff will say more, by itself, than I could (WARNING: May be unsuitable for H2O conservationists).

This concept of increased pervious surfaces in urban areas is not only relevant to watershed natives either; California is seeking similar cures to mudslides and erosion, both of which this pavement could dent due to its ability to allow small plants (and roots) to survive beneath the surface.

I will look further into this technology as we go along, as well as how expensive it would be to replace the impervious surfaces within the watershed.