Summitview rain garden will serve two purposes
By Tyler Miller and Denise Bonura The Record Herald
Published: Friday, June 15, 2007 10:19 AM CDT
Summitview rain garden will serve two purposes
By Tyler Miller and Denise Bonura The Record Herald
Published: Friday, June 15, 2007 10:19 AM CDT
 |
|
WAYNESBORO - A rain garden envisioned as both a teaching facility for Waynesboro students and a stormwater runoff basin will soon be constructed on the grounds of Summitview Elementary School.
With the push of a spade Thursday morning, representatives of the Antietam Watershed Association, Borough of Waynesboro and Franklin County Conservation District celebrated the start of the $25,000 project.
“What we hope to do is basically build the thing this summer while school is out,” said AWA president Stephen Rettig. “In the fall, when it's cooler for planting, we'll draw on students and science teachers - make it into a school project.”
The garden will hold the first 2 or 3 inches of rain from any given storm and is intended to delay sediment- and pollutant-laden runoff from heading straight into nearby aquifers and waterways.
Civil engineer Merle Holsinger, who designed the garden, said the initial runoff is typically the dirtiest water.
“The objective is to catch a large portion of the dirt that accumulates on the surface and filter it out before it carries it to the stream,” said Holsinger.
The area encompassing the school district campus, YMCA and Waynesboro Mall is an “obvious point of high impact because of impermeable surfaces (such as parking lots),” Rettig said.
“We want to catch that initial pollution that gets washed off with the first rush of water,” he explained. “The garden is meant to collect big, initial downpours.”
“People are now becoming environmentally concerned,” Holsinger added. “They are trying to take precautions to minimize the impact that storm water and runoff has on downstream bodies of water.”
The rain garden is expected to draw runoff from more than 60 acres - as far away as the Waynesboro Area Middle School and East Main Street in front of the Waynesboro Area YMCA.
Paying for it
Two years ago, the association applied for and received a $100,000 Legacy Grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund an assessment of the east branch of Antietam Creek.
The assessment identified several hot spots that would be effective locations for projects that mitigate rainwater runoff, including the Summitview area.
And because the association was efficient with its grant, money was left over to complete a project.
Dialogue was established in 2006 between the association and then-WASD maintenance supervisor Paul Gyurisin about a garden at Summitview Elementary School.
“The more we dialogued and asked questions, the more favorable of a response we got from the school district,” said Rettig.
“The school district makes every effort to participate and support activities that enrich the students' opportunities to learn how to support the environment in a positive way,” said WASD Superintendent Barry Dallara. “This project obviously will be a very good opportunity for students.”
Holsinger prepared the plans for the rain garden; the association solicited bids and chose the most reasonable - $25,000, which was $10,000 more than AWA had available.
But local businesses and a municipality pulled through and donated $10,000 in money, materials and labor, according to Rettig.
Among the donors were Washington Township, Green Arbor, Mohn's Lumber Co., B&D Landscaping, Valley Quarries and L/B Water Co.
Jeff Adams, maintenance supervisor with the Waynesboro Area School District, said the district is “happy to help the Antietam Watershed Association as much as we can.”