Social Implications of Green Infrastructures (Rain Gardens)

By: Melissa, Tori, Stu

The social implications of creating rain gardens in Springfield could bring positive change to areas that have been experiencing an economic downturn and do not have the most optimistic view of the community around them. 

Rain gardens and other green infrastructures serve to both beautify areas by adding signs of life but they also can help to improve storm water and sewage flow. By minimizing overflowing sewers, the rain garden will not only help to improve the property value of homes because they are no longer in areas that have flooding problems but may also help to improve the image that the residents have for of their neighborhood. The vacant lot located off E. Auburn Avenue is located in a residential area that is surrounded by many homes with families.

 
(A Green Infrastructure. Source: Sierra Club)

Since green designs can help to minimize the need for large storm water drainage tunnels, it minimized the amount of construction that our town will have to experience. In many ways, heavy construction that can affect roadways is a huge social issue and if we can eliminate the need for the concrete tunnels, we will shorten road construction time associated with installing new tunnels for additional combined sewer capacity.

EPA. Green Infrastructures.
http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/index.cfm

a) Wetlands save places like Springfield a lot of money.  Building just one tunnel can be millions of dollars.  Wetlands also help against flood protection and pollution control.

b) Creating these wetlands gives greater opportunity to surrounding neighborhoods because it could potentially increase the value of many houses.  It also is more pleasing to the eye, rather than just a empty field.  Wetlands also create more opportunity for recreational activity, such as, parks.

c) Wetlands slows down the rain and water flow, that goes into the storm drain.  If all the rain and water flow goes straight to the storm drain, then there will be sewage backup, which is not good for the environment.  Wetlands store the water but also wetlands store important nutrients, giving the soil necessary structure.

Wetlands are connected to the critical zone through climate and human influences. With high precipitation rates becoming a trend in Ohio's climate it is essential to have buffers in order to preserve the storm drain systems from being over used. The wetlands also assist with human influences keeping pollution such as gas an oils from entering the storm drain

Sources
http://water.epa.gov/type/wetlands/outreach/upload/EconomicBenefits.pdf
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
dnr.state.mn.us



Satellite view of vacant lot in Springfield

Holes that were dug on the vacant lot to test the water infiltration levels.

Infiltration Test at Vacant Lot to Evaluate for Stormwater Detention

Wittenberg student, Melissa Sullivan, pours water into the hole she and Marley Tullis excavated.  The will determine how fast water infiltrates into the soil. From this evaluation, Geology of the Critical Zone students will be able to evaluate the potential for this vacant lot site in Springfield, Ohio to detain stormwater and reduce combined sewage overflow.  Sky Schelle, Springfield Stormwater Coordinator, is in the background.

Wittenberg Explores Soil Sustainability

For the last 2 weeks, my Geology of the Critical Zone class piloted the first NSF funded agricultural sustainability geoscience curriculum as a part  of InTeGrate. InTeGrate strives to create and widely disseminate interdisciplinary, student-centered (non-lecture) curriculum on sustainability.  Two other undergraduate cohorts at Virginia Tech (Dr. Hannah Scherer) and Santa Rosa Junior College (Martha Murphy) have and will pilot the same curriculum.  Our pilot goals are to identify improvements that will make our modules fit well with many institutional types and broadly illustrate the need for soil sustainability.  This week, after exploring soil properties that promote infiltration and reduce erosion,  we took a break and headed to Yellow Springs to visit the Antioch Organic Farm.  My class found that the tilled plot did not form surface aggregates (clumps) while the no-till plot did.  Only the water poured through the no-till soil remained clear and free of eroded soil.  This is not surprising. Globally, tillage contributes to erosion at rates that far exceed the production of soil and this disrupts the natural fertility of soil and ability to sustain our food and fiber resources. No till practices are one way to greatly reduce erosion rates. We are grateful to Marianthe Bickett, our gracious student tour guide at the Antioch Farm.  She showed us permaculture plots, where rotation of crops and animals is practiced, to reduce pests, improve nutrient management.  Food grown in the farm is part of the Antioch student's meal plan.  Thanks Marianthe!

Sky Schelle's Visit! By: Ashley, Jordan & Alex

During  the city Stormwater Coordinator, Sky Schelle, visited our class in preparation for our evaluation of a vacant lot for a potential stormwater detention area. We learned that stormwater is a bath for the surface of the earth that flows into our storm system where it is combined with our sewage system (i.e a combined sewer). Depending on the age of the city sanitary waste and stormwater waste are either combined in the same underground pipe, or kept separate. Many older, impoverished areas have combined systems  that contribute storm overflow waste directly into rivers.  This is the case for Springfied, that contributes combined sewage overflow directly into Buck Creek during many storms. Stormwater treatment at plants is extremely expensive for cities to compensate. In Springfield, it might total $150 million to bury tunnels to hold excess water until treatment plants able to handle additional capacity. Fortunately, vacant lots might be a place where stormwater can be detained and landscapes restored.   Water health only improves if we treat water for wastes before it is released into local runoff spots including creaks, ponds, lakes.. One of Sky's purpose as a stormwater coordinator is to consider ways to reduce sewage overflow. One way to reduce the need for buried tunnel capacity, is to is to restore vacant landscapes to detain stormwater runoff. Land might be re-purposed in community beautification project and creating catch basins, such as rain gardens or wetlands, to catch storm water until it has time to be properly treated.

Source: Watershed Coalition River des Peres, Missouri

Caption: This is a depiction of dry vs. wet weather flow of wastewater and the treatment of combined sewer pollution.

Source: Street Stormwater Drainage Project

Caption: This image serves as a improvement method example for cities to implement community beautification projects to provide basins for excess storm water. 

* This post has been edited by Dr. Fortner.

Stormwater Wetlands! By: Carli, Marley, & Melissa

Stormwater wetlands are created to slow down the movement of water during storms or snow melt and to reduce the flooding in the surrounding areas. These wetlands, although they contain less biodiversity than natural wetlands, are capable of removing pollutants that contaminate the stormwater. Pollutants removed include: heavy metals, pesticides, fertilizer, oils. This is important because it reduces contamination to nearby water. Nutrient removal is especially important because, nutrient pollution in ponds, lakes, or rivers creates excess algae growth.  The  death and decay of excess algae can reduce oxygen and create dad zones where many stream organisms die.

Sources: Department of Ecology State of Washington 

 

Source: Carli, Marley, Melissa

Captions:  Picture of Experimental Wetland 1 at Olentangy River Wetland Research Park. 

 

Source: Stefanik, Kay C., Mitsch, William J. Science Direct: Ecological Engineering. Volume 39, February 2012.

This chart shows a few different wetlands and the relationship between their levels of diversity and their productivity. As you can see, the Olentangy River Wetlands are one of the highest functioning wetland habitats that have a high level of diversity and productivity.

Source: Marley, Melissa, Carli Swartz

Caption: View of an wetland outflow at the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park.  

Olentangy Experimental Wetland Park Trip

On Wednesday, September 11th, 2013 we visited the Olentangy Experimental Wetland Park, at the Ohio State University Campus.  There we thought more about the function and services of wetlands (their ability to remove sediment and nutrients) and we saw some of the research plots and equipment that have been used at this site for over 2 decades.  This trip gave us a glimpse at the potential for water quality improvement in our own watershed, Buck Creek, with possible urban wetlands in vacant lots.

Experimental plot of 'mini' wetlands that can be used for reproducibility studies

The inflow to the experimental wetlands in the Olentangy River (powered by solar).

Lowhead dam looking down at the flooded woodlands that have been restored.  The dam is below the inflow into the experimental wetland and impairs water quality (traps sediment, lowers oxygen)

Eddy flux tower to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in the experimental wetlands.

This 'dock' is actually the way to measure sediments that accumulation.  

Brave Geology of the Critical Zone students walking out over the narrow walkway.