Stormwater

A stream restoration project was installed at Brookside Country Club as part of the Schuylkill Watershed Initiative Grant. 

Conrad Weiser Middle School worked with Berks County Master Watershed Stewards and other volunteers to retrofit a grassy area with native plants. The students helped with researching what native plants and pollinators to use. 

In 2011, an acre of turf grass was converted to meadow, and 200 riparian buffer trees were planted along Stony Creek with TreeVitalize funding. The project restored a primary headwater stream, Stony Creek, before it flows into the Schuylkill River, by stabilizing eroding streambank, installing energy dissipaters upstream of the eroded areas, converting 1.4 acres of turf grass into deep-rooted meadow, and planting over one acre of riparian buffer.

The Green Lane Reservoir supplies drinking water to the town of East Greenville, but increased upstream development intensified stormwater runoff, and threatened to increase water quality impairment.  A reforestation project took place to slow the destructive force and filter pollutants from the runoff. 

Students and educators at Hereford Elementary School planted a 9,000 sq. ft. rain garden which treats runoff from the front parking lot and the roof on the front side of the school.

Destination Schuylkill River partnered with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary to install a rain garden at the Lankenau School in Philadelphia.

The Friends of the Wissahickon (FOW) worked with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, students, teachers, and FedEx school employees to install a rain garden at Lingelbach Elementary School, which will treat stormwater before it enters Monoshone Creek.

An eroding stream bank was stabilized and replanted using erosion-control tubes filled with a composted growing medium.  Despite being under water several times, the fully vegetated berm is holding strong and continues to protect the Stony Creek from erosion at this site. 

The Partnership for the Delaware Estuary and Montgomery County Conservation District partnered to retrofit a failing rain garden into an improved bioretention area, filled with native shrubs.  School district maintenance staff completed construction under the direction of the District Watershed Specialist.  Then, the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary teamed up with a science teacher to lead students in planting the garden.  Funding was provided through a grant from 3M, awarded to the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary.

Berks Nature worked with Robeson Elementary Center to eliminate mowing from a 2.6 acre area of the campus. The area was reseeded with native seeds and planted with native trees and shrubs. Addtionally, blacktop was removed from a 1,200 square foot area of the parking lot and graded to collect stormwaterrunoff. An 800 square foot pollinator garden was also added to the site. These projects absorb and infiltrate stormwater running off into an unnamed tributary of the Hay Creek.

Green Valleys Watershed Association worked with Schuylkill Elementary School to install a large rain garden on their campus.

Students transformed a paved traffic circle into a working rain garden, calming trqaffic problems and preventing heated parking lot runoff pollution from entering the Wissahickon Creek.  Other rain gardens and student-created sculptural installations addressed runoff from the school roofs. 

The headwaters of Unami Creek was restored, with invasive species removed and a riparian buffer planted.