Manchester Stormwater Park

Manchester Stormwater Park is Puget Sound’s first stormwater park, providing water quality treatment for an entire community’s stormwater in just one small park. The project supports Kitsap County’s efforts to meet the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act in an innovative and cost-effective way.

A previously abandoned Brownfields site in Manchester now does double duty as a community space and as a workhorse to clean polluted runoff before it reaches the Puget Sound. The Stormwater Park uses innovative, green stormwater solutions to treat dirty water flowing off 100 urban acres of roads, parking lots, commercial property, and residential areas. The treated water meets today’s strict water quality standards.

Runoff is collected and channeled to the Stormwater Park, where treatment cells containing an engineered filter media work along with flood-tolerant plants to clean the runoff by using filtration and absorption processes. Treated water is discharged to an outfall at the beach.

The treatment process removes about 91 percent of pollutants from the runoff. What was once described as one of the dirtiest beaches in Washington will enjoy a new reputation as the home of an innovative, community-driven project that uses natural infrastructure to address stormwater challenges in a big way.

The Stormwater Park project is a community resource that demonstrates social, economic, and environmentally sustainable benefits. Small developed areas throughout Puget Sound and elsewhere could benefit from using a similar approach to stormwater treatment.

Funding Sources: