Our Community Partner for Clean Streams (CPCS) members are eligible for a free landscape design if they would like to plant a native garden, rain garden, or shoreline buffer strip. Some of these designs are for large spaces, others are for small gardens. Community Partners for Clean Streams (CPCS) is a voluntary, cooperative effort between the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner's Office and Washtenaw County businesses, institutional landowners, and multi-family residential complexes. The goal of the program is to help identify practical, cost-effective ways to protect Washtenaw County waterways through pollution prevention. CPCS is a cost-free initiative that provides information, technical advice, and recognition to participants.
The Community Partners for Clean Streams Program works with Partners on the following activities to find cost-effective ways to prevent pollution:
- Education
- Fats, Oils and Grease Disposal for Food Service Providers
- Housekeeping Practices
- Maintaining Buildings and Pavement
- Maintaining Engineered Stormwater Controls
- Maintaining Equipment and Vehicles
- Maintaining Landscapes
- Managing Waste
- Site Design and Construction
We created a landscape design for one of our partners, 410 N 1st Condos to help them with their goal of planting more native plants. The condo is adjacent to one of our public rain gardens, Kingsley and 1st in downtown Ann Arbor. The Condo's Homeowner's Association would like to remove all their turf grass and replant the entire space with native plants to match the adjacent rain garden. This new native plant garden will be full of showy, colorful plants that will capture more stormwater where it lands and provide wildlife habitat.
A rain garden design was created for our partner, Cambridge Condos, to replant an existing rain garden that is in need of more native plants. This rain garden is between the Condos and the sidewalk so we chose shorter, neat-looking plants that will provide a splash of color in the growing season.
We are looking forward to seeing these designs come to life!
The Community Partners for Clean Streams program is available to businesses, institutions, municipalities, and multi-family residential complexes in Washtenaw County. We have approximately 130 active partnerships throughout Washtenaw County. Becoming a Community Partner is customer-friendly. Our staff helps you complete all of the paperwork and provides partners with free assistance and technical advice to protect water quality. As a CPCS member, you are eligible to apply for a mini-sponsorship to support a project. Awards are typically around $1,000 and are given to projects that help improve water quality. In the past, projects have included building rain gardens, restoring old rain gardens, building a worm composting system, and more!
To find our more or to become a Community Partner for Clean Streams partner visit https://www.washtenaw.org/409/Community-Partners-for-Clean-Streams