“So many folks have stopped by to see the results that my staff have been calling me the ‘Carnival Man of LID’ as I’ve been out here with a hose demonstrating how it all works,” joked Art Castle, Executive Director of the HBA and project director for the non-profit 501 (c) (3) KHBF grant.

The project was made possible by a Puget Sound Action Team (PSAT) PIE grant, though it took a “village” of HBA members and staff, many businesses, community groups, individuals, local governments, and youth to pull it off.

The LID demonstration project was extremely ambitious in scope; incorporating multiple LID techniques including four types of pervious pavement — concrete, asphalt, porous pavers with aggregate storage beds — Ideal Turf, bioretention cells, amended soils, green roof on a built shed, rainwater harvesting for use as an irrigation system, while replanting the site with native vegetation and trees.

The City of Bremerton joined in the effort by installing pervious concrete sidewalks around the HBA’s site as part of its planned Auto Center Way widening project.

LID-designed sites have fewer impervious surfaces and use strategies that both distribute storm water runoff and collect rainwater through utilization/harvest, recycling, small-scale treatment techniques, managing flow and filtration using vegetation, healthy soils, small-scale storage, and dispersion and infiltration techniques to manage stormwater where it originates. This in turn reduces volumes municipalities will have to handle while improving the quality of the end products in that run-off saving taxpayer dollars as a result, by reducing the amount requiring treatment. Less stormwater contributing to pollute runoff, reduces the hydrologic impacts such as scoured streambed channels, in-stream sedimentation and loss of habitat.

One stormy Saturday, as crews from Kitsap County’s Juvenile Department and other volunteers toiled in the soil and pouring rain, Liberty Bay Foundation member Nick Barrantes commented, “This would normally be puddled in rain, but this is taking it all in without a drop of runoff.”

Castle also coordinates the LID implementation Department of Ecology EPA 319 grant efforts to adopt uniform LID standards, led by the KHBF, working with Kitsap County, and the four cities to develop and implement a uniform set of LID standards into local permitting processes while building the foundation to provide technical resources, education, and guidance for developers.

For more information about LID or to view photos documenting the process, go to www.KitsapLID.org. LID techniques can be found in the PSAT’s LID Technical Guidance Manual online at This PDF Link.