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The Friends of Sligo Creek hope the success of an upcoming pilot program to plant stormwater-collecting rain gardens in Takoma Park will spark interest in a similar county-wide effort.

As part of a joint effort by the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the city of Takoma Park and Casa of Maryland, the FOSC hope to help plant roughly 10,000 of the water-conserving gardens in area homes along the creek from Wheaton down to Hyattsville, where the creek connects to the northwest branch of the Anacostia River, according to FOSC member Kit Gage.

A pilot of the program, which will be run by FOSC and Casa volunteers, was made possible by a $1,500 grant from the Takoma Foundation. If the pilot is successful in the city, county DEP workers and FOSC hope the effort will catch on county-wide.

"If we can get people with households all up and down the creek then we've made a tremendous difference," Gage said in a public interest meeting held by FOSC in the city community center Thursday.

A rain garden consists of a depression, usually 18 inches to 2 feet deep filled with a special absorbent soil and native plants that help collect runoff rainwater from roofs and other impervious surfaces. The rain water, left unchecked, can wash harmful pollutants into the creek.

"That rain is supposed to seep into the ground naturally but sidewalks and impervious surfaces don't allow that to happen," said Catherine Tunis, who chairs the city's Committee on the Environment.

In a heavy rain, runoff often picks up excess lawn-care chemicals, leaking fluids from cars on roadways, debris and other trash, carrying the toxins into local watersheds, eventually collecting in larger systems. Sligo Creek empties into the Anacostia River, which in turn flows into the Potomac River and finally the Chesapeake Bay.

The pilot will involve FOSC members training Casa volunteers to construct the gardens for interested area neighborhood associations. The city will provide the plants that will help collect the runoff, Gage said.

A number of residents expressed interest in taking part in the pilot, inviting FOSC to survey their neighborhoods to locate yards that could profit from a rain garden. Soil testing will be conducted by Casa volunteers once enough community groups have expressed interest in the project, Gage said.

"My backyard, like a lot of those in Takoma Park, backs up to a row of houses uphill," said Kathy Pruitt, who lives on Cedar Avenue in Takoma Park. "What happens is the water runs off of my neighbors' yards uphill. In a hard rain it's a lot of water and sometimes it can pool up in our basement."

Gage and Jenny Reed, another FOSC member, said the solution may lie in constructing a series of rain gardens between the two properties to collect the runoff.

"It might be that the neighbor uphill from you might want to put a rain garden in their yard to cut that water off," Gage said, adding that meeting with neighborhood associations was the first step toward addressing the problem.

"You want to catch it as close to the source as possible and get as much of it as you can," Reed explained.

Still other residents had questions about the eligibility requirements in the different neighborhoods, such as the impact trees would have on a runoff collection garden, or a big slope.

"Trees are a really big issue and slopes are an issue, as well," Reed said, explaining that trees can be adequate runoff collectors and steep slopes can make digging impossible. "Sometimes there's no point in doing a rain garden if it won't make that big of a difference."

City Department of Public Works Director Daryl Braithwaite told residents at the meeting that any substantial digging around certain trees might require a permit from the city arborist.

"If you're digging within 50 feet of a tree with a diameter of seven and five-eighths inches you should contact the city arborist because you may need a permit," she said.

Silver Spring resident Jennifer Locke said she was excited to get involved with the rain garden effort and was happy to learn that the effort will eventually target neighborhoods outside of the city.

"The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection will basically do the same thing [countywide]," she said. "I want them to come to try and come to my neighborhood association meeting in Seven Oaks."