When it pours rain in Kingston, aging and overburdened sewers often send raw sewage into the city’s water ways. That’s a foul reality that one organization seeks to change.

Hearthmakers Energy Cooperative is a Kingston-based nonprofit organization that largely focuses on energy audits and educational initiatives.

Throughout the summer, they are running a series of free workshops about reducing storm water runoff from residential properties.

The first of the workshops will offer advice on how to create rain gardens, Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at 1211 John Counter Blvd.

“This is the first time we’ve eve r done anything like this,” Hearthmakers program coordinator Liz Cooper said.

Rain gardens are built using water-loving and drought resistant plants. They are planted in a slightly depressed area, or under a roof’s downspout, to collect excess water runoff.

Cooper said this prevents the water from being carried into the storm drains in urban areas.

Kingston’s aging infrastructure and combined sewers can’t handle excess water. Cooper said that in the event of heavy rainstorms, raw sewage is bypassed into the Cataraqui River and other surrounding water areas.

Though other Canadian cities are catching on to this rain gardens, Cooper said this is the first time workshops like these have appeared in Kingston.

“If every downtown resident … had a rain garden … that would make a huge difference in the pollution (being dis-charged),” she said.

Subsequent workshops, all of which will be held at 99 York St., will examine building a pet waste composter (Aug. 13); rainscaping at home (Aug. 20) and building a rain barrel (Aug. 27).

For more information about these workshops, email Cooper at csr@hearthmakers.org.