Creeks Are Coming Back Into the Light
Persistence is paying off as communities work to uncover America's buried streams.
By
Donna Gordon Blankinship
Patience can be a virtue in government work, especially when the project you want to complete is hidden from public view.
For 60 years, students and staff at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have been walking and driving over Rocky Branch Creek without being aware that a portion of the waterway was buried in the 1950s to maximize available land for building. A 1950s-era master plan called for culverting all of Rocky Branch, and for 20 years the university worked toward that goal. But the operation was expensive, and the community became more aware of the effects of culverting in the 1970s, so the creek was never completely buried underground.
Now, North Carolina Sea Grant (NCSG)—a partnership of various public agencies, including the university—is working to reverse that environmentally misguided plan and improve the campus's stormwater-management program at the same time. Barbara Doll, water-quality specialist for NCSG, says it has taken about 10 years to get the money to begin construction on the project, but discussion of the idea has been going on for many years.
Workers on this and other projects involving "daylighting"—uncovering buried waterways—say that although money for public works projects is as hard to come by as ever, government officials and environmental activists are finally finding ways to get their hands on some of the money needed to complete the creek daylighting projects they've been talking about for decades.
Doll says several strategies helped in obtaining the money for the mile-long Rocky Branch restoration. First, the project was divided into several small phases, which were easier to fund. Then, it became part of a very big construction plan (another master plan) for the entire campus. This helped bring the money to light, but added a new complication: construction timing. And the creek restoration is a very small part of a big construction plan.
"On this last phase, we expected to be in construction about a year earlier, but they're putting in sports fields right next to the creek at the same time, so there were space issues that really killed us on time," Doll says, adding that the final stage, expected to begin in 2005, will be competing with gym construction next door.
The daylighting part of the project will be stage three. Because final plans have yet to be approved for stage three, Doll notes the amount of creek that will actually be daylighted is not yet known, although it will range between 250 and 500 feet of the channel. The three-part project also includes expanding the floodplain, building a riparian buffer zone, and creating a walking path along the stream. Two-thirds of the $5 million project is being funded by the federal government and one-third by the State of North Carolina.
Part of Doll's job was to build collaborative networks among agencies and to find creative ways to fund the work. The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund has supplied a grant for stream restoration, installation of stormwater filtration systems to treat runoff into the creek, a system to monitor the creek's stability, and relocation of a sewer line. An EPA grant was used to repair the upstream portion of Rocky Branch, add an educational campus greenway, and perform some environmental surveys. Federal Emergency Management Association money from hurricane damage to the area also helped pay for the project. The state Department of Transportation helped pay for the greenway path and some roadwork. The last stage of funding depends on approval of plans to mitigate the loss of parking on campus. Doll says she is getting calls from universities all over the country asking for advice about her success at grant requests.
Other universities are also looking toward NC State for its leadership in stream-restoration projects. In a 2001 report as the project was just getting started, Charles Leffler, associate vice chancellor for facilities, noted, "This project is consistent with the mission of a land grant university—to lead the way for the nation in addressing major issues."
The stream-restoration project will both increase flood storage on campus and improve the surrounding environment. In 1978, the North Carolina Division of Water Quality classified Rocky Branch as the state's most polluted urban stream. Fifty years earlier, the creek and its banks were alive with fish, wildlife, flowers, and trees; it was a lively, deep creek heading toward a river that fed other waterways into the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition to building collaboration around funding of the project, NCSG also worked with a number of partners to design the restoration plan, which includes wetland ponds and rain gardens to filter stormwater runoff. Students have been involved in several phases, including some initial overall designs by architecture students and signage by NC State's College of Design students. The signs will explain concepts of natural channel design and identify flora and fauna along the greenway.
Hybrid Solutions
Collaboration has been a key element in other creek daylighting projects around the country, including the Thornton Creek project in North Seattle, WA. The creek is at a strategic location from a drainage standpoint, according to Miranda Maupin, senior planner for Seattle Public Utilities. It's at the base of a nearly 700-acre sub-basin. A gigantic mall parking lot and the water pipe underneath it has served as the area's stormwater "system" for years. Maupin says flooding has not been a problem here, but water quality has been an issue. The creek has been identified by the state Department of Ecology as "a water body in need of some water-quality improvements," Maupin says.
Development led to the creek being culverted under the parking lot, and development is part of the reason the creek is now being daylighted. For 15 years, stakeholders have debated the future of Thornton Creek, and development was stopped in the area until the problem could be resolved.
Like most environmental and water-quality projects in the Seattle area, Thornton Creek has gained a creative perspective from public involvement in the planning process. Instead of fully daylighting the creek, the city chose a hybrid solution. It will be restoring an open-channel with water flowing through it year-round, plus maintaining a belowground drainage pipe to prevent floodwaters from overwhelming the creek. "What's unique about this proposal is the stormwater pipe will stay underground," Maupin says. "We'll divert the more frequent flows—the smaller flows—to the surface channel. The big storms will stay in the pipe. We'll keep the old system and add a new one." The project will also include native plant landscaping and a pedestrian walkway.
"The other exciting thing is the community enthusiasm around this project. A lot of the ideas came from a grass-roots effort," Maupin notes. "There was interest for a long time on the part of some creek activists to daylight the creek. The hybrid solution provided the best of both worlds."
The project is estimated to cost $6.85 million, plus $375,000 to buy the land. The timeline for construction estimates a 2008 completion date. The project will be funded by property owners though drainage rates. Homeowners will pay about $100 a year for the project. Landscape architect Peg Gaynor, who recently won for Seattle a $100,000 Harvard University award for another stormwater project she did for the city, is designing the Thornton Creek project.
Developers interested in building housing and retail developments nearby can now start taking steps toward those projects. "This is the next step in the revitalization of Northgate, improving the economic vitality of the neighborhood and the environment at the same time," noted Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in a statement about the project.
About 670 acres of water currently drain through a pipe that is 20 to 25 feet under the parking lot, according to Maupin. The site is not really used for mall parking, but rather for special events like RV shows and giveaways from yardwaste bins. It's adjacent to a major bus station, so it would be an obvious site for mixed-use building.
Another hybrid daylighting project should be getting under way soon in Salt Lake City after about 20 years of discussion. Scott Stoddard, intermountain representative for the US Army Corps of Engineers, admits that funding for this project has been put on hold because of the Army's other big project right now: the war in Iraq. Stoddard says there's a good possibility, however, that in the new fiscal year there will be money in the budget for the City Creek project.
In 1910, 2 miles of City Creek were culverted in a pipe below North Temple Street in the central area of Salt Lake City. The culvert pipe was rebuilt in 1983 after a big flood that was beyond its capacity.
The area contains a 1.5-mile stretch of railroad right of way and rails that run through a mixed commercial and residential area that is described in a document about the project as being "in transition." The plan for City Creek, which will include moving the rails, daylighting the creek, and developing 12 acres of parkland and walkways, will be part of a city revitalization project, but it's being funded mostly by the federal government.
The City Creek project is being conducted by the Corps of Engineers under the authority of Section 206, Aquatic Ecosystem Restorationand Protection, of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996. Stoddard says planning of the project is in the feasibility stage, but he feels confident the project would go forward as soon as federal funds can be released. It is a joint project of the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. "We have our fingers and toes crossed that when the fiscal year starts that funding will be restored," Stoddard says.
Although some residents and business owners in the area were at first nervous about the open-channel proposal, Stoddard says they changed their minds when they learned more about the hybrid nature of the new flood control efforts and were assured that the city's old flood problems would not return.
Because community support for this project is very strong, he expects that if the federal funding does not come through as planned, local government officials might start lobbying their congressmen for assistance. The local delegation has expressed support for the project, but they haven't been asked to propose legislation to fund it.
Without the concrete box culvert, which is about 12 feet wide and 8 feet high and can carry hundreds of cubic feet of water per second, this creek would flood Salt Lake City nearly every year, according to Stoddard, who is a civil engineer. But just as in the Seattle project, the underground pipe is not going away; it's just being supplemented by an attractive and useful open channel. The aboveground channel will carry 3 to 5 cubic feet of water per second. "Most of the flow during high runoff times will stay in the pipe," Stoddard adds.
In addition to the environmental advantages of the project and the improvement in stormwater control, the project also has been a winner thanks to the way the government agencies carefully planned it to appeal to members of the public—another common feature among these daylighting projects.
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The City Creek project is adjacent to another EPA effort, the Brownfields Redevelopment Project on the east, and it has the Jordan River on its west end. The trail planned as part of the City Creek development will tie together all three natural sites and connect with the valley-wide Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
These three projects are but a small sample of the many creek daylighting efforts in various stages of production across the country. Although federal and local money remains tight, it seems like just a matter of time before some more of these projects mired in decades of planning will come to the surface.
Author's Bio: Seattle, WA–based author Donna Gordon Blankinship specializes in stormwater topics.
January-February 2005
Creeks Are Coming Back Into the Light
Persistence is paying off as communities work to uncover America's buried streams.
By
Donna Gordon Blankinship
Patience can be a virtue in government work, especially when the project you want to complete is hidden from public view.For 60 years, students and staff at North Carolina State University in Raleigh have been walking and driving over Rocky Branch Creek without being aware that a portion of the waterway was buried in the 1950s to maximize available land for building. A 1950s-era master plan called for culverting all of Rocky Branch, and for 20 years the university worked toward that goal. But the operation was expensive, and the community became more aware of the effects of culverting in the 1970s, so the creek was never completely buried underground.
Now, North Carolina Sea Grant (NCSG)—a partnership of various public agencies, including the university—is working to reverse that environmentally misguided plan and improve the campus's stormwater-management program at the same time. Barbara Doll, water-quality specialist for NCSG, says it has taken about 10 years to get the money to begin construction on the project, but discussion of the idea has been going on for many years.
Workers on this and other projects involving "daylighting"—uncovering buried waterways—say that although money for public works projects is as hard to come by as ever, government officials and environmental activists are finally finding ways to get their hands on some of the money needed to complete the creek daylighting projects they've been talking about for decades.
Doll says several strategies helped in obtaining the money for the mile-long Rocky Branch restoration. First, the project was divided into several small phases, which were easier to fund. Then, it became part of a very big construction plan (another master plan) for the entire campus. This helped bring the money to light, but added a new complication: construction timing. And the creek restoration is a very small part of a big construction plan.
"On this last phase, we expected to be in construction about a year earlier, but they're putting in sports fields right next to the creek at the same time, so there were space issues that really killed us on time," Doll says, adding that the final stage, expected to begin in 2005, will be competing with gym construction next door.
The daylighting part of the project will be stage three. Because final plans have yet to be approved for stage three, Doll notes the amount of creek that will actually be daylighted is not yet known, although it will range between 250 and 500 feet of the channel. The three-part project also includes expanding the floodplain, building a riparian buffer zone, and creating a walking path along the stream. Two-thirds of the $5 million project is being funded by the federal government and one-third by the State of North Carolina.
Part of Doll's job was to build collaborative networks among agencies and to find creative ways to fund the work. The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund has supplied a grant for stream restoration, installation of stormwater filtration systems to treat runoff into the creek, a system to monitor the creek's stability, and relocation of a sewer line. An EPA grant was used to repair the upstream portion of Rocky Branch, add an educational campus greenway, and perform some environmental surveys. Federal Emergency Management Association money from hurricane damage to the area also helped pay for the project. The state Department of Transportation helped pay for the greenway path and some roadwork. The last stage of funding depends on approval of plans to mitigate the loss of parking on campus. Doll says she is getting calls from universities all over the country asking for advice about her success at grant requests.
Other universities are also looking toward NC State for its leadership in stream-restoration projects. In a 2001 report as the project was just getting started, Charles Leffler, associate vice chancellor for facilities, noted, "This project is consistent with the mission of a land grant university—to lead the way for the nation in addressing major issues."
The stream-restoration project will both increase flood storage on campus and improve the surrounding environment. In 1978, the North Carolina Division of Water Quality classified Rocky Branch as the state's most polluted urban stream. Fifty years earlier, the creek and its banks were alive with fish, wildlife, flowers, and trees; it was a lively, deep creek heading toward a river that fed other waterways into the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition to building collaboration around funding of the project, NCSG also worked with a number of partners to design the restoration plan, which includes wetland ponds and rain gardens to filter stormwater runoff. Students have been involved in several phases, including some initial overall designs by architecture students and signage by NC State's College of Design students. The signs will explain concepts of natural channel design and identify flora and fauna along the greenway.
Hybrid Solutions
Collaboration has been a key element in other creek daylighting projects around the country, including the Thornton Creek project in North Seattle, WA. The creek is at a strategic location from a drainage standpoint, according to Miranda Maupin, senior planner for Seattle Public Utilities. It's at the base of a nearly 700-acre sub-basin. A gigantic mall parking lot and the water pipe underneath it has served as the area's stormwater "system" for years. Maupin says flooding has not been a problem here, but water quality has been an issue. The creek has been identified by the state Department of Ecology as "a water body in need of some water-quality improvements," Maupin says.
Development led to the creek being culverted under the parking lot, and development is part of the reason the creek is now being daylighted. For 15 years, stakeholders have debated the future of Thornton Creek, and development was stopped in the area until the problem could be resolved.
Like most environmental and water-quality projects in the Seattle area, Thornton Creek has gained a creative perspective from public involvement in the planning process. Instead of fully daylighting the creek, the city chose a hybrid solution. It will be restoring an open-channel with water flowing through it year-round, plus maintaining a belowground drainage pipe to prevent floodwaters from overwhelming the creek. "What's unique about this proposal is the stormwater pipe will stay underground," Maupin says. "We'll divert the more frequent flows—the smaller flows—to the surface channel. The big storms will stay in the pipe. We'll keep the old system and add a new one." The project will also include native plant landscaping and a pedestrian walkway.
"The other exciting thing is the community enthusiasm around this project. A lot of the ideas came from a grass-roots effort," Maupin notes. "There was interest for a long time on the part of some creek activists to daylight the creek. The hybrid solution provided the best of both worlds."
The project is estimated to cost $6.85 million, plus $375,000 to buy the land. The timeline for construction estimates a 2008 completion date. The project will be funded by property owners though drainage rates. Homeowners will pay about $100 a year for the project. Landscape architect Peg Gaynor, who recently won for Seattle a $100,000 Harvard University award for another stormwater project she did for the city, is designing the Thornton Creek project.
Developers interested in building housing and retail developments nearby can now start taking steps toward those projects. "This is the next step in the revitalization of Northgate, improving the economic vitality of the neighborhood and the environment at the same time," noted Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels in a statement about the project.
About 670 acres of water currently drain through a pipe that is 20 to 25 feet under the parking lot, according to Maupin. The site is not really used for mall parking, but rather for special events like RV shows and giveaways from yardwaste bins. It's adjacent to a major bus station, so it would be an obvious site for mixed-use building.
Another hybrid daylighting project should be getting under way soon in Salt Lake City after about 20 years of discussion. Scott Stoddard, intermountain representative for the US Army Corps of Engineers, admits that funding for this project has been put on hold because of the Army's other big project right now: the war in Iraq. Stoddard says there's a good possibility, however, that in the new fiscal year there will be money in the budget for the City Creek project.
In 1910, 2 miles of City Creek were culverted in a pipe below North Temple Street in the central area of Salt Lake City. The culvert pipe was rebuilt in 1983 after a big flood that was beyond its capacity.
The area contains a 1.5-mile stretch of railroad right of way and rails that run through a mixed commercial and residential area that is described in a document about the project as being "in transition." The plan for City Creek, which will include moving the rails, daylighting the creek, and developing 12 acres of parkland and walkways, will be part of a city revitalization project, but it's being funded mostly by the federal government.
The City Creek project is being conducted by the Corps of Engineers under the authority of Section 206, Aquatic Ecosystem Restorationand Protection, of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996. Stoddard says planning of the project is in the feasibility stage, but he feels confident the project would go forward as soon as federal funds can be released. It is a joint project of the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers. "We have our fingers and toes crossed that when the fiscal year starts that funding will be restored," Stoddard says.
Although some residents and business owners in the area were at first nervous about the open-channel proposal, Stoddard says they changed their minds when they learned more about the hybrid nature of the new flood control efforts and were assured that the city's old flood problems would not return.
Because community support for this project is very strong, he expects that if the federal funding does not come through as planned, local government officials might start lobbying their congressmen for assistance. The local delegation has expressed support for the project, but they haven't been asked to propose legislation to fund it.
Without the concrete box culvert, which is about 12 feet wide and 8 feet high and can carry hundreds of cubic feet of water per second, this creek would flood Salt Lake City nearly every year, according to Stoddard, who is a civil engineer. But just as in the Seattle project, the underground pipe is not going away; it's just being supplemented by an attractive and useful open channel. The aboveground channel will carry 3 to 5 cubic feet of water per second. "Most of the flow during high runoff times will stay in the pipe," Stoddard adds.
In addition to the environmental advantages of the project and the improvement in stormwater control, the project also has been a winner thanks to the way the government agencies carefully planned it to appeal to members of the public—another common feature among these daylighting projects.
The City Creek project is adjacent to another EPA effort, the Brownfields Redevelopment Project on the east, and it has the Jordan River on its west end. The trail planned as part of the City Creek development will tie together all three natural sites and connect with the valley-wide Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
These three projects are but a small sample of the many creek daylighting efforts in various stages of production across the country. Although federal and local money remains tight, it seems like just a matter of time before some more of these projects mired in decades of planning will come to the surface.