Stormwater Expert Panel: What is the one thing that most homeowners can easily do to impact stormwater (and reduce) your Stormwater Utility Bill? What is the easiest stormwater pollutant for homeowners to reduce? 

The City of Madison Engineering Division is proud to take part in the statewide Wisconsin Stormwater Awareness Week 2026! Wisconsin Stormwater Week is a collaborative effort of organizations throughout the state that work to raise awareness about the sources of stormwater pollution. WI Governor Tony Evers signed a proclamation establishing September 19 – 27, as the 2026 WI Stormwater Week.  Each day this week, we're hosting a blog panel: focusing on one question, and answers from staff experts in stormwater in our agency. We asked our staff, and here's what they said: 

QUESTION: What is the one thing that most homeowners can easily do to impact stormwater (and reduce) your Stormwater Utility bill)? What is the easiest stormwater pollutant for homeowners to reduce?  

Jim Wolfe, City of Madison Engineering Division City Engineer 

"One thing homeowners can do to help reduce your SWU is to take advantage of our available rate credits, by, for example, installing a rain garden on your property to reduce the amount of stormwater, and the associated pollutants, from leaving your property and entering the public system. Probably the easiest, most effective thing individual residents can do is to manage leaves and make sure leaves stay out of the street gutter and either left in yards or entirely within the terrace for collection. This helps significantly reduce the amount of phosphorus that enters our waterways." 

Greg Fries, City of Madison Engineering Division, Deputy City Engineer – Stormwater and Sanitary Sewer Design   

"Take advantage of the new rain garden grant program.  Most rain gardens can be built by a homeowner with limited tools and city engineering staff can provide some technical assistance to design it if you ask.  The rain garden grant program will reimburse you up to $500 and you can also submit a request to reduce your swu bill after it is built. The best way to reduce a pollutant is to not use it to begin with and the easiest thing not to use or to limit your use of is salt in the winter.  Often people use salt for convenience not realizing the negative impacts of salt on the receiving waters.  Putting in the extra effort to limit salt use on private property is a big win." 

Janet Schmidt, City of Madison Engineering Division, Principal Engineer and Section Manager for Stormwater Design Section 

“Oversalting is a huge issue that can easily be remedied if you understand the salt use recommendations and practice good winter maintenance.  Same with overuse of lawn chemicals.   Also, installing a Rain Gardens on your property is a great way to get some reductions to your monthly municipal bill." 

Phil Gaebler, City of Madison Engineering Division, Stormwater Resource Engineer  

“Rake leaves out the curb line before it rains in the fall. Leaf management is hands down the most impactful thing a homeowner can do. Sign up for reminders on Dane County's Ripple Effects website."

Check back tomorrow for a new question, and new answers from our stormwater expert panel. To learn more about what we're up to this week, learn more in our Engineering blog.