Sustainable Landscaping

Improving Water Quality

Arden Hills is known for its beautiful landscape. Home to six lakes, plus the 300-acre Marsden March on the AHATS property, there is a lot to enjoy about the city's scenery. Keeping all that water clean and usable for future generations is a priority.

When rain falls on land and impervious areas, such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, it can wash away sediments, oil, grease, chemicals, nutrients, metals, litter and pathogens. Left unmanaged, these pollutants enter our lakes and streams via the storm sewer system, significantly contributing to the degradation of these important resources. Another source of water pollution is the phosphorus from lawn fertilizer. This nutrient turns lakes and rivers green with algae.

What You Can Do

There are lots of things individual home owners can do to improve the quality of Arden Hills lakes, even if you don't live right on the lake. Consider building a rain garden filled with native plants, or installing rain barrels to capture and collect the rain water that falls on your roof. The city offers resources to assist home owners in creating a more sustainable landscape for the community. Explore the links to the left for more information.

About the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD)

Arden Hills is within the Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD). RCWD reviews and issues permits for large scale land alteration activity within the City in order to ensure that new projects comply with stormwater management standards.