Vancouver can’t stop the rain, but it can control where it ends up

When the rainclouds burst over Vancouver one grey day this past winter, Lon LaClaire was delighted to see floodwater streaming into newly terraced pools on the side of a steep hill in an east-side neighbourhood.

Mr. LaClaire, Vancouver’s chief engineer, is part of a team that has been working to ensure much of the city’s abundant rain does not end up flooding through the sewer system, sweeping everything from road debris and toxic chemicals into surrounding waterways – False Creek, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River – along with it.