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Final Report: Civic Stormwater Gardens: An Ecological Solution for Cities with CSOs
EPA Grant Number: SU831826Title: Civic Stormwater Gardens: An Ecological Solution for Cities with CSOs
Investigators: Curran, Patrick , Lincoln, Rebecca
Institution: Harvard University
EPA Project Officer: Nolt-Helms, Cynthia
Project Period: September 30, 2004 through May 30, 2005
Project Amount: $10,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet (2004)
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development
Description:
Objective:Phase I will research and test the social, economic and environmental sustainability of civic stormwater gardens that reduce CSO events and purify runoff on a site in the Tanner Street District of Lowell, MA. The conclusions will serve as a model for later project phases and for improving public perception of post-industrial brownfield sites in both developed and developing countries by using cost-effective methods and materials for improving water runoff quality and creating new urban open spaces. The success of this experiment, assessed by the health of the vegetation, as well as by the level of community involvement and support, will inform larger scale applications of bioremediation gardens, which will have positive implications for people, prosperity and the planet. The project will serve as an educational tool for both the Harvard Design School and the School of Public Health through lectures, related courses and a project website. Lowell High School will also benefit from the P3 Award by working with Harvard students to document these experiments in film.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):Through this initial year of research, development and small installations, we assessed and recorded the scientific and technical capability of our soils, plant materials and design specifications in constructed stormwater gardens in two distinct locations: Lowell and Cambridge, MA. The stormwater garden in Cambridge allowed increased participation from nearby Harvard students while the Lowell installation served as an educational tool for local residents and students. In both gardens, we looked for the appearance of contaminants in the soil over time with the assumption that an increase in the concentration of a particular compound would indicate that the garden successfully filtered water flowing through it (Appendix B and C).
We did see some slight increases in the concentrations of some of the micronutrient metals. In the Cambridge garden, linear regression lines were fit to the K data, the slope of the regression line for the planted plot was less steep than that of the unplanted plot (Appendix D). This supports the idea that the planted stormwater garden vegetation Secale cereale or Winter Rye provided some phyto-stabilization of the soil. For both of the stormwater gardens, many of the parameters over the course of the winter in the garden remained constant. In addition, Winter Rye proved its hardiness by establishing itself successfully in the late fall and withstanding the frigid New England temperatures.
We performed calculations on the Tanner Street District as a whole to quantitatively compare the potential alternative futures. Using a Geographical Information Systems-based method used by Brewton and Senn we identified this amount of land needed for an effective stormwater gardens or other Best Management Practices. To absorb 100% of runoff in this area would require between approximately 27,000 and 107,000 ft2 of wetlands or stormwater terraces, assuming depths ranging from I to 4 feet. Therefore there are large areas of space potentially available for the installation of a future treatment garden to collect, hold and treat stormwater runoff in the Tanner Street District (Appendix G).
In Phase I we surveyed students at Harvard Design and Lowell High School to assess awareness of CSOs. Among the Harvard community surveyed, 85% understood that stormwater is conveyed to local wetlands, rivers and nearby water bodies, but only half could define CSOs. Survey results indicate that although there is great concern for clean water, there is a lack of awareness of the pollution sources such as CSOs. This knowledge gap must be bridged. In addition, we leveraged $11,500 of funding from three different sources to support the Lowell High School students Tanner Street District documentary film.
Conclusions:Although we were unable to find any clear accumulation of contaminants or nutrients in the soils over time, if this experiment were repeated with stormwater input from street runoff containing higher levels of contaminants, we believe an accumulation would be observed. Our Phase I research has shown that by using hardy plant material, such as Winter Rye, the vegetation can survive the winter and there is potential for it to function throughout the entire year, although with reduced effectiveness due to the frozen substrate and apparent leaching. Further testing is needed to determine an ideal soil mixture that would provide adequate nutrients and reduce the period of freezing during the winter.
Although our Lowell site in Phase I did not possess ideal run-off conditions, its highly visible location provided us with information about the potential for using the existing soils. In addition to providing a public face for the project through the visibility of the Lowell garden, we achieved great success in involving the local Lowell community in Phase I. This will be beneficial for future proposal phases. in the short-term, our initial pilot stormwater garden has enhanced the aesthetic quality of the Brady building parcel in which it is situated in the Tanner Street District. In the long-term, the visual improvements from the installation of civic stormwater gardens will not only raise the perceptions, but also the property value of residents and small business owners. In turn, this will financially benefit the city as a whole. if the City of Lowell continues their commitment of revitalizing the Tanner Street District being a testing ground for innovative green technologies, the feasibility of using constructed wetlands or terraces holds promise here.
Given the low-cost and relative ease of implementing such projects, civic stormwater gardens have the potential to bring about positive impacts in the movement towards a sustainable future for the entire planet. If implemented as civic spaces, such large-scale gardens would showcase such green principles in a public and palatable manner. Not only can stormwater gardens provide effective treatment, they can be economical and raise community awareness about issues of sustainability.
Proposed Phase II objectives and strategies:
Phase II of this P3 grant will engage in design development, implementation and monitoring of stormwater management initiatives on the Brady Site in Lowell, Massachusetts using the P3 Phase I results, and design recommendations of an EPA sponsored study called the Tanner Street Area Wide Pilot: The Brady Green Technology Center (EPA agreement number 97101701, $38,000 Award). The effort will research and test the social, economic and environmental sustainability of stormwater management initiatives that reduce CSO events and purify water. The results of Phase II, assessed by vegetation and soil health, water quality and quantity and public involvement will inform larger application of stormwater management initiatives in the vocabulary of green technologies at the Brady Site, the Tanner district as well as the planet as a whole. The project will serve as an educational tool for local Lowell Schools, The City of Lowell jurisdictions focused in community infrastructure, the Harvard Design School and the Harvard School of Public Health through lectures, related courses and a project website.
Supplemental Keywords:Stormwater, Combined Sewer Overflows, runoff,
,
Water, TREATMENT/CONTROL, Scientific Discipline, Wastewater, Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics, Water Pollution Control, Wet Weather Flows, Environmental Engineering, Urban and Regional Planning, wastewater treatment, civic stormwater gardens, control technologies, sewage, aqueous waste stream, storm water, aqueous waste, combined sewer overflows, stormwater, urban runoff, bioremediation, wastewater discharges
Relevant Websites:
http://projects.gsd.harvard.edu/cte/ 
http://projects.gsd.harvard.edu/cte/epap3/
http://www.stoss.net/tsi1.html
http://www.lowellma.gov/depts/dpd/services/econdev/brownfield/tanner
http://www.umass.edu/plsoils/soiltest.html
Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract