 Storm to Shade: Revitalizing Iron Horse Park with Storm Runoff
Iron Horse Park, located in the Iron Horse neighborhood a few blocks east of Historic Fourth Avenue, recently received significant improvements, including a new dog park, playground, lighting, and more—all funded by voter-approved Proposition 407: Tucson Delivers Better Parks and Connections. But that’s not all!
Apart from a well-loved community garden and basketball court, the lower level of the park along 10th Street was barren, save for a few mesquite trees, and had experienced a series of crimes.
Enter Storm to Shade (S2S).
S2S is Tucson Water’s green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) program, charged with building and maintaining GSI throughout the city. S2S transforms public property using stormwater runoff as the primary irrigation resource to grow native trees and vegetation that provide shade, improve air and water quality, and beautify neighborhoods. S2S also maintains these landscapes, keeping them safe, beautiful, and functional. The program is funded by a fee of 13 cents per CCf* of water consumed by both residential and commercial Tucson Water customers located within the city.
To date, S2S has constructed eight projects on Tucson Water well sites, city streets, neighborhood centers, and city parks, like Iron Horse. The program also maintains more than 420 sites where stormwater is being harvested. Stroll down 10th Street between First and Third Avenues and you’ll find a thriving and inviting Sonoran Desert landscape teeming with color and life, supported by stormwater runoff collected off adjacent streets and directed into vegetated basins.
S2S doesn’t do it alone! The program partners with City of Tucson Parks and Recreation, Transportation and Mobility, and Housing and Community Development to add GSI features to improvement projects already in the works. S2S also collaborates with Tucson’s six ward offices, as well as Pima County Regional Flood Control District to identify, build, and maintain GSI.
Local nonprofits, like Tucson Clean and Beautiful, Tucson Audubon Society, Primavera Works, and local GSI experts help keep Tucson’s GSI in proper working order to provide the cooling and beautification Tucsonans need.
S2S is part of the City of Tucson’s Climate Action Plan. For more information about the program, including a map of completed and planned projects and a comprehensive asset inventory, visit climateaction.tucsonaz.gov and look for Storm to Shade.
*One CCf—or centum cubic feet—is equivalent to 748 gallons of water
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