Today I met Atlanta's old fourth-word park. This beautiful park was developed as part of the new urban green space that's being created along Atlanta's belt line. And you may never have seen a park that's quite like this. The main feature of the park is this large granite basin and it is designed to serve a special purpose. It fills up with water, but not just any kind of water, urban storm water. Cities by nature of their density have lots of hard services that prevent rain from soaking into the ground, forcing it to run off. And that runoff carries with it the pollutants from those surfaces. The floor of the wet retention area is planted with native plants and trees that tolerate or thrive in wet soil. The plants and trees provide biological filtration, helping remove pollutants from the water. They also provide great natural habitat. This basin will retain the water until it percolates back into the ground, a far better option than allowing it directly into local streams. One way to think of the park is like a large urban rain garden, just like the kind you can create in your own yard. One unique feature of the basin is that there are two levels of river rock embedded in the granite wall. This level represents the 100-year-storm event and this level represents the 500-year-storm event. So you can see just how deep it would get in here. The park also boasts of an amphitheater, which plays host to community events. A walking path, hard-scaping, and water features add to the aesthetics and functionality. Atlantis Old Fourth Ward Park is a great example of how a city can limit the negative impact of stormwater runoff on its ecosystem and create a beautiful public green space. Rainstorm water on this scale requires the resources of a city, but you can do your part by containing the rain that flows off your property, by installing a rain barrel or a rain garden. With every gallon of rainwater that is prevented from becoming runoff, we lessen its negative impact on water quality and the ecosystem. Plus, rainwater that we capture and use not only reduces our water consumption, it also saves us money. Managing urban runoff, that's just another easy way to be green. As always, our challenge to you, put your green on one leg at a time. Stay connected by becoming a fan of our Facebook page and help spread the green by sharing with your friends. The greenshorts.com that shorts with a Z.