Stormwater Education and Outreach

Stormwater staff attend the Haunted Hill trunk-or-treat

Our stormwater division provides programs, projects, and services to improve stormwater quality and manage stormwater quantity.

Education and Outreach are essential to our work because increased public awareness of stormwater promotes community practices that help us better manage stormwater in Chapel Hill.

Our work is guided by a few key documents that can be found on our website:

Stormwater Management Plan: requirement of the federal and state government, which we update routinely as part of our National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit
Stormwater Master Plan: strategic document built from extensive community engagement and adopted by Council in 2014
Subwatershed Studies: one of many initiatives called for in the Master Plan and adopted by Council to help move us toward our goals

This page highlights what we do and provides information on educational and volunteer opportunities, serving as one way the community can learn about our work and share feedback with us.

Our stormwater division provides programs, projects, and services to improve stormwater quality and manage stormwater quantity.

Education and Outreach are essential to our work because increased public awareness of stormwater promotes community practices that help us better manage stormwater in Chapel Hill.

Our work is guided by a few key documents that can be found on our website:

Stormwater Management Plan: requirement of the federal and state government, which we update routinely as part of our National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit
Stormwater Master Plan: strategic document built from extensive community engagement and adopted by Council in 2014
Subwatershed Studies: one of many initiatives called for in the Master Plan and adopted by Council to help move us toward our goals

This page highlights what we do and provides information on educational and volunteer opportunities, serving as one way the community can learn about our work and share feedback with us.

Open House: Thank you for your feedback!

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Our Stormwater Open House survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who provided comments! We will compile and analyze the feedback we received and post an update in early August with what we heard from you and how we will use your feedback.
You can still contact us any time by sending an email to stormwater@chapelhillnc.gov or by submitting a question on this page.
Our Stormwater Open House survey is now closed. Thank you to everyone who provided comments! We will compile and analyze the feedback we received and post an update in early August with what we heard from you and how we will use your feedback.
You can still contact us any time by sending an email to stormwater@chapelhillnc.gov or by submitting a question on this page.
Open House Recap

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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.

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.
Open House Next Week

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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
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 for a Stormwater Open House

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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
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
Crafts with the Stormwater team!

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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.
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.