Strategies for the Lowlands: Slow Streams

Summary

Today, the north/south rivers that empty into Nassau’s bay are crucial less for their natural or recreational functions and more for their capacity to drain and channel stormwater runoff. This runoff is a major contributor to the pollution of the bay, but it also causes flooding: when the rivers rise above the outflow pipes that channel the stormwater into the bay, as often happens in Nassau County, the pipes back up and cause flooding upland.