Stormwater Education and Outreach

The drainage crew, housed within Public Works’ Stormwater Division, is a team of four dedicated staff members who help maintain the Town’s stormwater infrastructure and four major creeks and oversee street sweeping on Town roads.

Earlier this summer, Public Works’ Streets staff noticed a sinkhole on a road in a neighborhood less than half a mile from Booker Creek. While this is a specific issue in one neighborhood, it represents a problem that can happen anywhere. Reports of potential issues, whether they’re from staff or community members, help Town staff to respond promptly.

In this case, the Streets and Stormwater crews were out at the site of the sinkhole early the next morning to repair the broken stormwater pipe and make sure the road was safe.

We all play a role in stormwater management here in Chapel Hill. Our crew sees a lot when they are out around Town, but you know your neighborhood best. If you see a potential stormwater issue, let us know! You can email us at stormwater@chapelhillnc.gov, call us at 919-969-RAIN (7246), or report the issue on Resident Reporter by visiting chapelhillnc.gov/residentreporter.

Here are a few signs to watch for in your neighborhood:

• Water pooling or backing up where it should be flowing. This can be a sign of a blocked gutter, storm drain, ditch or stream.
• New or worsening dips in the road, particularly if you notice the asphalt cracking near a storm drain. Sometimes this is a sign that there’s a sinkhole forming.
• Debris or large objects in the path of flowing water. Tree branches, leaf piles, and trash roll carts can all become drainage blockages.

During May and June, Stormwater and Housing partnered on community cleanups in all 12 of Chapel Hill’s public housing neighborhoods. Twenty-four volunteers joined us to collect over 90 bags of trash! We look forward to continuing the partnership between Town departments and working to properly dispose of waste and keep trash out of our waterways.

If you are interested in hosting a community cleanup in your neighborhood, Stormwater can help! Contact us on this page by submitting a “Question,” or send an email to Merrill Robinson at mrobinson2@chapelhillnc.gov to get started.

On June 16, we hosted two stormwater open houses. 64 people attended the sessions and 15 people provided written feedback.

Community members still have time to participate online by reviewing the posters and sharing their ideas in the coming weeks. We’ll collect all comments and questions from both the open houses and our online engagement site survey and share that information with the Town Council in the fall.

We're excited to share our work with you next week!
Our Stormwater team is hosting two sessions at the library on Tuesday, June 16: one session from 12 to 2 p.m. and one session from 6 to 8 p.m. Come meet our team, provide feedback, and ask us questions. Here's what you can come learn about:

• Stormwater basics
• Water Pollution
• Stormwater and development
• Flooding
• Volunteer opportunities

Join us at one of our two open-house sessions to learn about what our Stormwater team has been up to.

Learn about our Stormwater Management Plan, find out what stormwater projects are happening around town, and share your ideas.

Date: Tuesday, June 16th

Time: 12 to 2:00 p.m. or 6 to 8 p.m.

Location: Chapel Hill Public Library, 100 Library Dr. Room B

On Saturday, April 25th, our we made Caddisfly Cases with children at the Magical Hill event at the Chapel Hill Community Center.

Caddisflies are insects that live in creeks as larvae. They're important, both as food for fish and also as indicators of good water quality. They can't live in polluted water, so when we find them in our streams, we know the water quality is good.

There are several types that live here in Chapel Hill, and some of them use a sticky silk substance (imagine spider silk combined with double sided tape) to build themselves protective cases out of whatever is around them in the stream. They use pebbles and bits of sticks and anything else they can find.

At Magical Hill, we made the Caddisfly Cases out of colorful construction paper, and everyone got a caddisfly larva on a wooden craft stick to "live" inside the case they made. We decorated the cases with things like spare buttons, puzzle pieces, pom poms, rhinestones, and colorful tissue paper, as if the caddisfly larva had built its case out of what it could find around us.