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Accotink Creek

Bank of the Accotink Creek

The purpose of this project is to provide information to Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4s) operators and states on the performance of selected best management practices (BMPs), including stream restoration techniques and various nonstructural practices, on improving biological and in-stream water quality within an urban watershed. This objective will be achieved by monitoring improvement in water quality and biological conditions in Accotink Creek in Fairfax City before, during, and after stream restoration.

This project consists of restoration of 1,800 linear feet of degraded stream channel in the North Fork of Accotink Creek from Lee Highway to Old Lee Highway in the City of Fairfax, Virginia. Restoration includes installation of native plant materials along the stream and bioengineering structures to stabilize the stream channel and bank. These actions are intended to restore the stream channel to a stable condition and reduce stream bank erosion thereby reducing sediment loads in the stream. Construction was completed in the spring of 2006. In addition, project partners are developing designs for additional nonstructural controls including such things as street sweeping, watershed forestry, and targeted education which will be implemented, pending funding, in 2007

This project is a joint effort between US EPA Mid-Atlantic Region and Office of Research and Development, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, and Fairfax City, Virginia. Current additional cooperators are the Center for Watershed Protection and the United States Geological Survey.

Hickey Run

Many of the small tributaries' problems are a result of the large areas of paved or otherwise impervious surfaces. Many of these streams experience unnaturally high flows during storm events, which result in eroded stream banks and channels. But, changes have been made that have already reduced oil and grease loading by around 90%.

Low Impact Development Recognition Program

Thanks to a Cooperative Agreement between EPA's Mid-Atlantic Region and the Low Impact Development Center, Inc. a Low Impact Development (LID) recognition award program for local governments and other EPA Regions has been developed. The primary goals of this recognition program are to establish a forum in which innovative and sustainable stormwater management planning, design, and program management efforts may receive recognition. As a direct result of this program, codes and ordinances that promote LID will be compiled and the number of design professionals who are engaged in using LID will rise.

This competition is open to ten project categories:

Codes and Ordinances
Pilot Projects
Visionary Projects
Technology
Leadership
Research
Educational Programs
Built projects
Corporate and Private Sectors
Institutional

For more information contact:

Low Impact Development Center (contact@lowimpactdevelopment.org)
4600 Powder Mill Rd, Ste 200
Beltsville, MD 20705
301-982-5559

Sweetwater Farms In-Line Detention Basin Planting & Infiltration - Lower Southampton Township, Bucks County, PA

The PA Coastal Zone Management and Growing Greener programs jointly funded a nonpoint source pollution control project in Lower Southampton Township, Bucks County. The project, entitled Sweetwater Farms In-Line Detention Basin Planting & Infiltration, was designed to reduce nonpoint source pollution from a residential development into Turkey Run, a tributary of the Neshaminy Creek. As part of the project:

riparian buffers along stormwater ponds adjacent to the Sweetwater Farms residential development were designed and installed
a 50-foot infiltration trench was developed and emplaced on the longest and steepest slope adjacent to the ponds to capture and treat high-velocity storm flows
alternative mowing practices in order to allow the return of natural vegetation along the banks of the creek and the development's detention ponds.

Local volunteers from the township accomplished most of the planting. As evidence of the project’s success, the landscape architect with the firm hired to carry out the project recently received the "Planning and Analysis Merit Award" from the American Society of Landscape Architects for her work.