Grantee Research Project Results

Final Report: Watershed Management at the Basin Scale at Duke University

EPA Grant Number: SU835156
Title: Watershed Management at the Basin Scale at Duke University
Investigators: Schaad, David
Institution: Duke University
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: II
Project Period: August 15, 2011 through August 14, 2013 (Extended to August 14, 2016)
Project Amount: $75,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet - Phase 2 (2011) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Awards , P3 Challenge Area - Safe and Sustainable Water Resources , Sustainable and Healthy Communities

Objective:

In order to effectively address the issues of surface water quality, especially in relation to urbanization, storm water management and ecological degradation of streams, this project fostered the creation of an environmental learning laboratory that had two distinct goals.  The first was to examine the optimum “scale” to deploy storm water best management practices (BMPs), implement low impact development (LID) strategies, and manage storm water quality and quantity.  The second goal was to equip and engage students in not only studying about water quality, but give them a chance to partner with a local engineering firm during the design phase and then implement their designs in cooperation with community partners (Eno River Association, Carteret County Schools, and Durham County).  

The impaired water quality and hydrology of most urban watersheds has significant impacts on human welfare and environmental sustainability.  In the case of Durham and the surrounding North Carolina area, many urban watersheds also supply the drinking water of nearby populations.  Water flowing off Duke’s campus to the south enters Sandy Creek and ultimately drains into Jordan Lake, a reservoir that provides drinking water to the Town of Cary and environs.  Similarly, water flowing north from Duke’s campus enters Ellerbee Creek, which drains to the Eno River, a tributary of the larger Neuse River and then Falls Lake, which is the City of Raleigh’s drinking water supply. The water entering North Carolina’s reservoirs typically suffers from heavy nutrient and sediment loads.  Nitrogen and phosphorous pollution stimulate eutrophic (nutrient-enriched) conditions, fueling algal blooms which ultimately deplete dissolved oxygen concentrations.  The heavy sediment loads and turbidity also block sunlight and smother benthic organisms.  Consequently, many of the state’s aquatic ecosystems can no longer support healthy biotic communities, requiring more extensive water treatment for human use and consumption, and constraining freshwater recreational activities.  In response to these issues, local governments have instituted Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and the recently enacted Falls Lake Rules for nutrient and sediment entering the reservoir, which will be enforced on a basin-wide level.  

An enormous challenge exists in collectively addressing these issues of watershed development, stormwater management, and stream and river ecosystems.  There currently exists a diversity of practices that target certain elements of these issues.  Most states and municipalities require implementation of stormwater best management practices (BMPs) with new construction and development.  The NC Division of Water Quality provides guidelines and design considerations for a variety of BMPs that reduce pollution in stormwater.  Ideally, a portfolio of BMPs will limit the pollutant concentrations and peak flows of stormwater leaving new developments to pre-development levels.  However, only a fraction of America’s urban areas have developed under effective BMPs, as most development occurred before BMPs were recommended or required.

Over the past year, this watershed management project has been woven into multiple courses to engage students in examining these multidisciplinary issues associated with sustainable water quality and surface water management.  Coupling these courses with ongoing and allied research, the goal of the project was to prototype a learning laboratory where basin wide water quality is being studied, and student efforts are coupled with practicing engineers and community partners to have projects conceptualized and designed by undergraduate and graduate engineering students and then built as part of a service-learning or civic engagement experiences.  Over the past year, these water quality restoration projects have provided an active foundation for an ecological hands-on learning laboratory.  

Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):

Developing a basin-wide management and restoration strategy has provided students with an opportunity to evaluate, modify, and develop new and current best practices.  However, the true innovation of the proposed project is its approach to the overall learning process.  Students from multiple disciplines have worked together to learn the interdependence of development activities, ecosystem health and human wellbeing in the context of storm water management, stream restoration and landscape sustainability.  Students developed integrated methodologies that should simultaneously restore watershed hydrology, water quality and stream ecosystem function.  

Students enrolled in:CE24:  Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science, CEE315/PPS211/ENV365:  Engin. Sustainable Design and the Global Community, and CE469: Integrated Environmental Design (the senior Env. Eng. capstone class)  all participated in some aspect of the design (or evaluation) of the basin wide management approach.  By focusing on the issue of sustainable storm water management, these students examined some of the facets related to water quality and  sustainable restoration practices as well as the process involved in such an endeavor. The students in the classes, who had wide academic interests, all made different contributions and also learned the importance of an interdisciplinary approach. Along with the apparent educational benefit obtained by those directly involved in the class, the projects, some of which have already been constructed, will have a broader educational impact in raising awareness about sustainable practices, especially with respect to stormwater management. 

The actual construction process of the project resulted in an ever further reach of individuals who reap the educational benefits by means of increased awareness. Selected students had the opportunity to work through the complete design process with personnel from the Facilities Management Department and a local environmental consulting firm.  Such interactions have greatly enhanced the skill set developed by students involved in the project by providing them a tangible experience of the actions needed to execute the design. For some members of the team, they were supported by the DukeEngage program to spend eight weeks during the summer of 2011 constructing the projects.

This coordinated effort has provided students the opportunity to evaluate and build upon current industry practices while also creating their own site-specific solutions.  As an outgrowth of this, students have evaluated the basins on campus, collaborated with practicing engineers, and then developed water quality enhancement projects to be implemented on campus as well as community partner project sites within the same larger watershed basin

Demonstration Projects

Dimmock’s Mill Riparian Enhancement in Cooperation with the Eno River Association

The Dimmock’s Mill project site is located north of the Eno River and south of the Town of Hillsborough on a parcel owned by the Eno River Association.  The property formerly was occupied by mill housing, but remnants of the community have faded into the re-vegetated landscaped.  The watershed draining into the tributary which flows across the property drains a predominantly impervious area and the stream section is showing signs of incision, which is typical of surface streams in an urban setting.  Prior to recent work efforts by community volunteers associated with the Eno River Association, invasive species had choked out the natural riparian vegetation in the area.  The plan for this parcel was to improve ecological function, enhance hydrological performance, and re-vegetate this area with native species.  At the conclusion of the student designed and implemented project, offline stormwater impoundments had been constructed and more than 500 native plants had been planted to revegetate the area with native species.

East Carteret High School Constructed Wetland

Teaming with students, faculty and staff at East Carteret High School, undergraduate students designed and constructed a wetland to treat stormflows from impervious structures at the high school (buildings and parking lots) as well as fertilized playing fields.  The project was designed to treat water prior to it discharging to tidally controlled surface water features, which eventually flow into estuary waters near Beaufort, North Carolina.  This project will be monitored by high school students to expand the learning window vertically to engage them in the concepts of water quality and sustainability. The signage posted at the site which explains the entire process/project is attached as the last page of this summary report. 

Figure 1. Durhan County Building Green Roof Concept Sketch

Green Roof Project, Durham County Building Working in collaboration with:  Wildlands Engineering, Living Roofs, Inc., Durham County Soil & Water Conservation District, CESI, Durham City/County Sustainability Office, Downtown Durham, Inc., and the City of Durham Public Works Department, students are designing and will install an extensive green roof on the Durham County Agricultural Building.  The layout for the proposed roof is shown to the right.

Stormwater Impoundment

Working in conjunction with the Facilities Management Department, the final project with basinwide impact is the design and installation of a 5-acre retention pond on the West Campus of Duke University.  While still in the design phase, this project has the dual purpose of retaining stormwater (which reduces downstream nutrient and flow loads) and serves as a redundant water supply for the chilled water plant which serves the entire campus.  Depictions of the proposed pond are displayed below:

Figure 2a. Depictions of the proposed pond 

 

Figure 2b. Depictions of the proposed pond 

All of these projects provide curricular linkages between learning about the engineering and environmental principles associated with ecological restoration and implementing the designed remedy.  They are perfect projects for students interested in a more “hands-on”/construction experience and funnels nicely to a DukeEngage immersive civic engagement experience. All of these projects have (or will) tangibly improve the water quality in the partnering communities, which is critically important in these surface water systems.  By working with the identified community partner and interested stakeholders, these projects benefit a variety of scales, ranging from both the immediate neighborhood up to the basin-wide watershed.  

Conclusions:

By working together to generate a vibrant learning laboratory, Duke University, along with their community partners and collaborating professionals have demonstrated how basin-wide management is an effective technique for managing stormwater and is moving to implement student designed, sustainable, riparian enhancement, stormwater management projects (some as part of DukeEngage experiences).  Working with local engineering firms and community partners (Eno River Association, East Carteret High School, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Durham County), the project team is delivering high value, student designed, water quality projects.

Supplemental Keywords:

Stream restoration, storm water management, nutrient uptake, watershed management, climate change, sustainable development

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2012 Progress Report

2013

2014

2015

P3 Phase I:

Watershed Management at the Basin Scale at Duke University  | Final Report