September 2007

Reducing Stormwater Impacts in Heavily Developed Areas; Winooski Rain Garden Project

Winooski Rain Garden Project

The Winooski Rain Garden project was developed through a partnership between UVM Extension Lake Champlain Sea Grant programs NEMO program and the city of Winooski. A study of the Morehouse Brook found it to be severely impaired by stormwater inputs just below Mallets Bay Avenue. Winooski, a historic city that is heavily developed, has little area to build traditional engineered stormwater facilities. In the process of looking for an alternative way to reduce the stormwater inputs to the Morehouse Brook, the rain garden project was developed to demonstrate to residence and business owners the low cost and low maintenance practice to manage their stormwater runoff. Rain gardens originate from the stormwater practice called bio-infiltration or bio-retention. This practice mimics an upland forests natural functions of interception, infiltration, chemical transformation and ground water recharge. Rain gardens have a two fold benefit; reducing stormwater flows and producing clean water. This project showed the versatility of rain gardens as a small residential garden treating roof runoff, to a large public garden treating road runoff, to a small park garden treating sediment laden stormwater from a ball field, to the affects of a small garden on parking lot runoff. The project was funded by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation 319 Non-point Source Pollution Prevention Grant in June of 2006. Other partners in this project include Winooski Environmental Leadership Board, University of Vermont Master Gardeners Program and Vermont Youth Conservation Corps.

Project Preparation
A flier was sent to all Winooski residents in April as part of the towns water bill mailing advertising the rain garden project. The project was also advertised in an article written about the project in the Burlington Free Presss local section and through a live call in program on the local cable access channel. After receiving many emails and calls about the project a kick off meeting was held in late May for interested residents. Site visits to potential garden locations were conducted by Emma Melvin. At the same time locations for the public gardens were reviewed by Emma Melvin and Erik Bailey. As part of the education component of the project, in June, workshops were held on the function, design and installation of rain gardens. These workshops were open to the public. All garden recipients were required to attend a workshop. Master gardeners interested in the project were also encouraged to attend. As part of the workshop, the participants installed a rain garden at the Winooski Wastewater Treatment Plant. Twenty three people attended the two workshops held, and eighteen people attend the project kick-off meeting.

North Street Rain Gardens North Street rain gardens have about a 134,549 square feet watershed draining into them. Twenty four percent of this area is covered by impervious surfaces including houses, roads and driveways. Not all of these impervious surfaces are asphalt or concrete, some are dirt and gravel drives. These rain gardens were designed slightly oversized to compensate for the compacted urban soils and somewhat larger storms volumes (over one inch). These rain gardens were functioning early in April and infiltrated the spring snow melt. They also captured water and sediment released during a water main break on North Street above the gardens. If the only surfaces within the watershed draining into the rain gardens were the impervious surfaces (~32,292 ft2) with a precipitation of approximately 32.6 inches (storms less than 1 inch) during the time period the rain gardens were functioning, these gardens have treated 1,051,750 cubic feet of stormwater, not to mention all the sediment captured in the gardens.

Fence show aired early October. Each of the larger gardens at Landry Park was installed in a day. Each was installed with a gravel entrance to dissipate some of the erosive energy of the stormwater as it enters the garden. An asphalt speed bump was also installed below the curb cuts on the garden located along North Street. These speed bumps were installed to help direct the stormwater in the gardens. The gravel entrances were designed to also allow for some water storage and sedimentation for any thing being carried in the stormwater. Many of the plants used in these gardens were donated by master gardeners and others. Two rototillers, one loaned from the Winooski Parks Department and one rented from Essex Equipment were used to un-compact soils in all the of the gardens. Due to the high use and the common nature of urban soils, they were of poor quality and highly compacted. Replacement soils were purchased from Intervale Compost. These soils were used in the upper garden located along North Street. The next garden installed was for the Michael Dabb's property at 217 Mallets Bay Avenue. It was a unique garden given that it crossed underneath the front fence and was tiered. The upper tier was the main garden and the lower tier was for overflow. The upper tier had an earthen berm but the lower tier had reinforced wooden wall. The public gardens at Landry Park were installed August 7-11 by the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps crew. The town of Winooski excavated most of the gardens and created the curb cut for the entrance of the gardens prior to installation. The town also transported to the site all the gravel used for the garden entrances and the walkway from the baseball field. The compost and mulch was delivered to the site by Intervale Compost. On August 7, the first day at Landry Park with the VYCC crew, Andrew Gordon from the University of Vermonts Across the Fence TV program, came and filmed the installation and interviewed Eric Bailey from the city of Winooski, Sally Dean, the master gardener involved in the project and Jim Foster, a garden recipient. On that same day, a reporter and photographer from the Burlington Free Press interviewed the VYCC crew members and the project coordinator Emma Melvin. This article appeared in the Burlington Free Press the following day August 8. The Across the
The Dabbs garden was designed to capture runoff from 2/3 of the roof . There was a lower tiered garden installed to capture any overflow from the top garden.

Winooski Rain Garden Project

Installation
Garden installation started on July 29 at Jim and Carole Fosters property, 57 Cedar Street, Winooski. Ten master gardeners volunteered for this garden installation. The installation started with a short explanation of a rain garden, the design and steps of the installation. This garden treated approximately 500 square feet of the Fosters roof. The garden dimensions were marked off with wooden pegs and string prior to the installation. The master gardeners started by digging a one and a half foot deep kidney shaped bowl with gently sloping sides. The excess soils were used in creating a small berm on outside curve of the planting bed. After the digging was finished, the gardeners leveled the bed and the berm. Compost was mixed with native soils to create the rain garden soil medium. Two by four wood planks were laid out during planting to minimize soil compaction. Some of the plants in this garden were donated by master gardeners (approximately 3 out of the 15 planted). The garden was mulched with approximately two inch layer of aged mulch from the Intervale Compost. The rain water was directed to this garden through an extension pipe attached to the rain gutter. The entrance of the garden was lined with pebbles to protect from erosion and to better disperse the water. The next garden was installed on August 5, 2006 at Karen McCreas property on 103 North Street Winooski. This garden treated approximately the same size roof but the rain water was directed to the garden by a sloped drip line armored with cobble. This garden was also installed by master gardener volunteers.

The rain water was directed to the garden through an extension pipe connecting to the down spout. A small rock pile was created at the end of the extension pipe to dissipate the flow into the garden. Approximately eight volunteers helped install this garden. The last garden installed in the fall was at the Nocito property at 4 Pine Grove Terrace. This garden infiltrated one fourth of the roof and was adjacent to the back deck. The garden was adjacent to the gutter and required little directing. This garden comprised mostly of bushes, most interestingly blueberry bushes and some herbaceous flowering plants. Visits were made to the installed gardens to assess for any problems and ensure proper functioning in the fall and the following spring and summer. Two rain garden tours were conducted in the fall of 2006 for interested master gardeners, state employees, university faculty and students. 17 people attended the tours. Two more tours were given in April 2007 for the master gardeners and a Vermont Technical College horticultural class. An presentation was made to the Winooski City planning and development review boards about the project and rain gardens encouraging them to consider rain gardens and Low Impact development as a solution to manage the towns stormwater. An educational how- to poster was created for municipalities and others interested. An informative brochure was created about the project and was distributed at the

Vermont Farm Show and is currently displayed at the State Extension office in Colchester. The Across the Fence show and the brochure is also available now on the Lake Champlain Sea Grant webpage. The project was also spotlight in a presentation made to the New England Conservation Districts at their annual meeting in February. A workshop on incorporating rain gardens and other low impact development strategies focused the Winooski Rain Garden Project was presented at the Town Officials Education Conference spring of 2007. Educational signs were designed by the Maja Smith with the LCBP Wayside Exhibit Program. This fall the signs will be posted at the public gardens explaining the stormwater impact on streams and how rain gardens function and reduce these impacts. Identical signs will be posted at rain gardens installed by Otter Creek, Poultney Mettowee, and Rutland.
Rain Garden Sign to be posted at the public rain gardens.

Maintenance
All gardens were visited early spring to see if any damage was incurred over the winter. All gardens were functioning properly and were infiltrating spring snow melt. Plants were added to the North Street gardens. The North Street gardens were impacted by a water main break above the gardens on North Street that washed in large amounts of sediment. This sediment covered the lower two gardens about 2 1/2 inches deep. The upper garden received less sediment with only a thin layer of sediment over sections of the garden. This sediment

was removed early enough by Emma Melvin and the volunteer master Sally Dean to incur no damage to the plants. Sediment deposited into the garden is the largest maintenance issue with the North Street gardens. Few of the drive ways located in the watershed draining into the rain garden are gravel or dirt. It is quite apparent that these driveways are contributing enormous amounts of sediment entering into the gardens. The driveways can be identified by the type of gravel that appears within the garden. Large stones were added to the entrance to stabilize the entrance. Much of the smaller gravel was transported into the garden after the larger storms and the water main break. The gravel and sediment built up at the entrance of the gardens were removed as part of the route weeding. Mulch was stockpiled at the city wastewater treatment plant and was used to mulch all the public gardens.

Residential Rain Gardens and Master Gardeners

This project purpose was to demonstrate the uses of rain gardens as a viable tool to manage stormwater in an ultra urban environment. By partnering with the Master Gardeners program, this project was able to reach master gardeners throughout the state and within Chittenden County. Master gardeners helped the home owners choose the proper plants for their garden and how to maintain a healthy garden. They also generously donated many of the plants used within the rain gardens installed in this project. This highly respected and active group planted the seed of rain gardens in their local communities. Stemming from this partnership a rain garden workshop was presented at the Annual Association of Professional Horticulturist meeting and rain gardens and the Winooski project was featured on the cover page of the Living Section of the Burlington Free Press in July 2007. As part of this projects partnership master gardener program has been working with Lake Champlain Sea Grant to develop a plant list suitable for Vermont rain gardens. Special thanks to Nancy Hullet, Sally Dean, Marc Conpanion, Tage Lilja and Ann Pearce.

dens, the total rain fall was used since residence noted that their rain gardens never filled. For the Public gardens only storms 1 inch or less were used in the calculations. Though rain gardens did infiltrate snow melt this was not included in the calculations.

Winooski Rain Garden Project

Garden edging was added to the gardens to reduce the weeds within the garden. Sally Dean has adopted the North Street garden and has helped maintain these garden this summer with Emma Melvin. She will continue this maintenance in the following years. All plants that were planted at these gardens survived this year and will be monitored next year. The other Landry Park gardens were damaged during park construction. No maintenance was completed on these gardens due to the continued construction and inability of the city securely say that these gardens would be maintained and restored after construction. The gardens located at the wastewater treatment plant were re-mulched at the beginning of the season and weeded through the season. Most plants in these gardens came back this season. in which the stream drains into prior to it being piped underground. With the means available no flow measurements could be made directly upstream of the North Street rain gardens to assess the actual decrease in stormwater flow entering the stream. Estimates were made of decreased stormwater for each rain garden for the functioning period of the garden by calculating the rain fall Figure 1. Precipitation After Rain Gardens Installed Rain Events Gardens Inches Above 1 Installed Date of Rain Inch Aug-07 1.46 b Jul-07 6.29 2 Jun-07 2.26 b May-07 1.95 b Apr-07 3.79 1.27 Mar-07 Dec-07 3.84 1.74 Nov-07 2.62 b Nocito Oct-07 6.25 1.96 Dabbs Sep-06 3.22 b McCreas & Landry Park Aug-06 4.36 1.5 Fosters & Waste Water Treatment Plant Jul-07 2.95 b Total Rain 38.99 and multiplying it by the drainage area of the rain garden (Figure 2). The precipitation data used for this calculation was taken from the NOAA National Weather Forecast Office webpage for Burlington (Figure 1). The time period used does not include periods during the winter when the gardens were filled with snow. For the residential gar-

Figure 2. Winooski Rain Gardens Infiltrated Stormwater Garden Foster Dabb McCrea Nocito North Street Wastewater Treatment Drainage area 500 ft2 850ft2 500 ft2 ft2 32,292 ft2 600 Infiltrated Rain 19,495 ft3 26,928 ft3 18,020 ft3 7,920 ft3 1,051,750 ft3 23,394 ft3

Sediment and gravels washed into the rain garden entrances at North Street. This is removed as part of the season maintenance.

Stormwater Reduction
Some stream flow monitoring was completed after the garden installations. Morehouse Brook is piped under ground for much of its length. It is first piped under ground at the industrial park near the head waters and is piped under North Street and Landry Park. The flow measurements were made at the point the stream reappeared from underground just lower left corner of Landry Park and where it day-lights again at Mallets Bay Avenue. Upstream measurements were made but were hard to compare to the downstream measurements due to the industrial parks stormwater detention pond

Nocito garden has an assortment of shrubs including summer sweet and blueberry bushes.

Winooski Rain Garden Locations Public Garden Locations: Landry Park3 gardens on North Street along Park fence 1 gardens within park adjacent to bleachers 1 garden within park adjacent to baseball field dugout Winooski Wastewater Treatment Plant2 gardens adjacent to parking lot Private Garden Locations: 217 Mallets Bay Avenue 57 Cedar Street 103 North Street 4 Pine Grove Terrace
This project was funded by a Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Department of Conservation Non-point Source Pollution Control Grant, and by the CSREES USDA New England Regional Water Quality Project, award number USDA 00-51130-9775.

Survey Results and Comments

1)

Have you seen pooling in your garden?

Nocito: We love our garden! It performs great!

McCreas: Yes, I have seen pooling, but only in the middle of a very heavy rain storm (remember, I also funnel water from the back roof into the garden, AND we built it a tad larger than was originally anticipated). Foster: No standing water at all. Nocito: There has not been any pooling in our garden.

4) Have you talk to other people about rain gardens?

McCreas: Yes, I talk to people about the rain garden ...... and thanks for the Free Press referral! Foster: Constantly, a couple who I have talked to has put one in or have plans too. People who talked to ask more questions about putting one. Nocito: Yes we have talked with other people about our garden. 5)

2) Have all the plants survived?

McCreas: I lost one plant over last winter. Foster: All survived Nocito: All of our plants survived beautifully 3)

Do people ask you about your rain garden?

McCreas: Thanks to the Free Press article, lots of people ask me about my rain garden. Foster: No neighbors this year but neighbors on each side asked last summer. Nocito: People cannot see ours unless they are in our backyard, but typically if I bring it up they ask more about it.

Are you satisfied with the gardens performance?

McCreas: The garden is wonderful - it also supported a large gaggle of bird-planted sunflowers all summer. The best display of sunflowers I have EVER had. Foster: Absolutely

Winooski Rain Garden Project, protecting our waterways through gardening

Picutres taken during the Winooski Rain Garden Porject.

University of Vermont 63 Carrigan Drive Burlington, VT 05405

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