BOB STONE (left),an architect with NUVIS, explains how water capture features at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove are helping to fight drought (Orange County Tribune photo).

The old saying is that “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

Well, at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove, they are doing something about the weather in the form of the continuing shortage of rain by acting to capture more of the wet stuff when it does fall – however infrequently – from the sky.

On Monday, the Garden Grove Unified School District showcased efforts at Bolsa, Los Amigos and Santiago high schools at water conservation. Using the Westminster Avenue campus as an example, the GGUSD highlighted the use of drought-tolerant plants and water-capture “swales” which will allow rainwater to percolate down to the underground aquifer instead of letting it run off to storm drains and then into the Bolsa Chica wetlands where it might be contaminated by litter and pollution.

The renovations were funded by a $1.99 million grant from the State Water Resources Control Board’s Drought Response Outreach Program for Schools.

On hand at the event were students and teachers from the three high schools, district administrators and project partners including Orange County Coastkeeper and Climate Resolve.

The GGUSD serves most of Garden Grove and parts of Anaheim, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Stanton and Westminster.