| "Some people get upset because they think it looks weedy." | |
| Nancy Minich, NAM Planning and Design, LLC |
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You can create an award-winning nonpoint source pollution project, but you can’t make all residents appreciate it. This is the lesson one Pennsylvania township has learned after completing an almost technically perfect planting project to improve water quality that has some residents threatening to haul out their lawn mowers.
What has raised the ire of some residents in Lower Southampton Township outside Philadelphia was the establishment of a vegetative buffer that was designed as a “meadow” of native wildflowers and grasses around three drainage basins.
“Some people get upset because they think it looks weedy,” says Nancy Minich, the project’s designer and principal of NAM Planning and Design, LLC. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
While community education and involvement were components of the Sweetwater Farms In-Line Detention Basin Planting and Infiltration Trench project, Minich and the township manager agree that more needed to have been done to engage and educate nearby residents before the project was completed.
The promise that the project would encourage a gaggle of about 100 aggressive geese to find new nesting sites also has not met some residents’ expectations, says Township Manager Susanne McKeon.
“Residents like to come to their government for immediate help,” notes McKeon. “It’s difficult to convey sometimes that patience is required.”
An Outmoded System
The project site is a 10.9-acre township-owned open space, which is located in the middle of a 25-year-old residential development. When the development was built, three in-line stormwater detention basins were constructed in nearby Turkey Run stream, which is in the Neshaminy Creek Watershed.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Neshaminy Creek is one of four Philadelphia regional watersheds with the worst overall water quality scores. Nonpoint source pollution is cited as being the biggest problem.
The basins “would be totally outlawed now,” notes Minich. “It’s the worst thing you could do” because it did not allow for sediments and the nonpoint source pollution from roads, cars, and residents’ fertilized lawns to drop out before entering the stream.
Instead, it captured and held the sediment and pollution, which eventually moved downstream. Compounding the problem was the township’s regular mowing of the land right down to the water’s edge.
A Gaggle of Geese
The well-mown landscape and two-and-a-half acres of accessible water also made it “geese heaven,” Minich says.
The open space supported “100-plus geese that were reproducing year after year,” she says. “These were the most aggressive geese you have ever seen. They would bite you if you came near them.”
Minich notes that the geese also were a “huge source” of pollution because their nitrogen-rich droppings washed right into the stream.
While residents complained to the township about the aggressive geese and the “messy droppings in their yards, they did not understand that acres of mown grass were actually attracting the geese,” Minich says. “Geese don’t like tall grass.”
A Change in Plan
In 2002, the township contracted with Minich to develop a plan to decrease downstream flooding, stop nonpoint source pollution from going right into the basins, and diminish the ideal habitat for the geese.
Instead of retrofitting the physical function of the three basins, Minich proposed a more cost-effective strategy of changing how the surrounding land was managed. This included restoring the riparian buffer along the basins with native plants, creating a natural meadow.
The project was funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Coastal Zone Management and was designed to comply with Phase II of the EPA’s new stormwater management regulations.
The meadow was developed by a “stop mowing method,” Minich says. The unmown area was lightly overseeded with a mix of native wildflower and grass seed. Meandering paths were mowed throughout to give residents and visitors access to the water for fishing and other recreational activities.
An infiltration trench was designed to capture fast-moving stormwater on a steep slope to keep it from flowing directly into the basins. Minich notes that this helps decrease nonpoint source pollution and reduces downstream flooding.
Reaching Out
Minich and the township included public outreach as part of the project. Public meetings were held to explain the project to residents, and an educational sign was erected at the site. A brochure and informational CD-ROM were produced and distributed to residents.
Training on best management practices was provided to the township’s public works staff, and area school groups participated in planting and baseline water quality testing projects.
Area residents also were encouraged to participate in a planting day, but only a handful of interested people participated, Minich says.
Accolades
Technically, Minich says, the project was “textbook perfect. It’s a model site to demonstrate the effectiveness of riparian buffers in decreasing nonpoint source pollution.”
This technical success has resulted in the project being featured in an Audubon book, and getting the prestigious 2005 Planning and Analysis Merit Award from the Pennsylvania/Delaware Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Residents’ appreciation of the project, however, has been more mixed. While Township Manager McKeon notes that many are pleased with the project, some continue to complain about the attractiveness of the native vegetation and believe it is lowering their property values. Others complain about geese having moved into their well-mown yards.
“The geese have lived there a long time,” explains Minich. “They aren’t going to go away overnight.”
To help address community concerns, the township has increased the area where it is mowing. “We did make some compromises in certain areas,” acknowledges McKeon.
Hindsight
Both Minich and McKeon say that more community education and involvement would have helped prepare residents for the long-term nature of the project and garnered more support. Minich in particular would like to see more public funding for outreach and education components of nonpoint source projects.
While McKeon describes the project as a “mixed success,” she notes that the township has “no plans to do anything to reverse what we have worked on. If it continues to be successful for the environment, we will simply try to win over the folks who have a problem.”
Minich notes, “You are never going to get a project that is a total 100 percent success. You can be very successful with techniques and technology. The people are always the challenge.”
For more information on the Sweetwater Farms In-Line Detention Basin Planting and Infiltration Trench project, contact Nancy Minich at (215) 297-0681, or nminich6575@comcast.net. You also may contact Susanne McKeon at (215) 357-7300, or lstwpmgr@nni.com.
