A continued decrease in the quality of urban surface waters has directed many municipalities to question the influence of vegetation type and corresponding management practices on water quality. In some cases, plantings of prairie plants are being encouraged as they are viewed as producing less runoff than mowed turf. A field study was conducted to determine the effect of buffer strip size and vegetation type to mitigate nutrient leachate and runoff pollution from paved surfaces. Kentucky bluegrass turf was compared with a commercially available urban prairie mixture of forbs and grasses. Plots were seeded in November 2002 using three impervious to pervious surface ratios of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:4 in a randomized complete block design. Total runoff volumes were compared as well as sediment amounts. Multiple forms of phosphorus (P) in runoff were analyzed including total P plus organic and inorganic P from sediment and soluble fractions. Leachate volumes, soluble P, and total N were also determined. Three years of data demonstrate that as much as 95 percent of annual runoff may occur over frozen ground. Significantly greater amounts of total P and sediment occurred from the prairie buffer strips during the growing seasons of the first two years of the study. Based upon two years of data, turfgrass buffer strips may function as well as prairie buffer strips in preventing nutrient and sediment loss from urban locations. Multiple years of data will be presented discussing the effects of vegetation, soil, and management practices on the water coming from these urban locations.