Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner's Office

Mission: To provide for the health, safety and welfare of Washtenaw County citizens and the protection of surface water and the environment.

The Water Resources Commissioner’s Office is a county department of the local government in charge of streams, rivers and lakes. We aim to promote the long term environmental and economic sustainability of Washtenaw County by providing storm water management, flood control, development review and water quality programs. The Water Resources Commissioner’s Office and the City of Ann Arbor care for the public rain gardens throughout our community.

The Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner is charged with:

• Design, construction, and operation and maintenance of over 500 storm water management and flood control systems (County Drains)
• Emergency flood response
• Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control
• Public Works programs
• Watershed plan development and implementation
• Public education and involvement programs, including the Community Partners for Clean Streams Program, RiverSafe Homes Program, and Rain Garden Program.
• And so much more!

We have many education and outreach programs to keep the water clean – one of which focuses on rain gardens. We teach homeowners to build rain gardens on their property. These gardens capture runoff from impervious surfaces (roofs, driveways, parking lots) and send it though the garden “filter” to be cleaned before the water replenishes the ground water. Stormwater runoff is the number one source of pollution in our rivers.

We teach the Master Rain Gardener class to train homeowners to design and install rain gardens on their property. The result is residents all over the county are happy with their new gardens, while the Huron River receives less fertilizers, chemicals and other harmful runoff.

We work with volunteers in our Master Rain Gardener training program, Adopt a Rain Garden program and Schoolyard Rain Garden program. We keep these rain gardens looking beautiful throughout the year by weeding, planting, transplanting and monitoring. Volunteers help with all of this work.