BUILDING OUR FUTURE
Heritage Park
Heritage Park is a 125-acre recreational facility owned and operated by Colerain Township in Hamilton County. Using funds from a US Environmental Protection Agency's Targeted Watershed Grant awarded to Miami Conservancy District, the OKI Regional Council of Governments installed a pervious parking area and rain garden at the park designed to provide tangible examples of cost-effective ways to manage storm water, increase groundwater recharge, reduce non-point source pollution, and improve water quality.
Alternative/Pervious pavers and pavement
Storm water flows across streets and sidewalks picking up a variety of contaminants including – spilled oil, detergents, solvents, de-icing salts during freezing conditions, dead leaves, pesticides, fertilizer, air pollution particles deposited on the ground, and bacteria from pet waste – and carrying them into storm sewers and on to our rivers and streams. Keeping that storm water on each property and letting it filter into the ground is the simplest way to control these pollutants. Alternative/pervious pavers are one way to make that happen.
Alternative pavers are permeable or semi-permeable surfaces that can replace asphalt and concrete and can be used for driveways, parking lots and walkways. The two broad categories of alternative pavers are paving blocks and other surfaces including gravel, cobbles, wood, mulch, brick, and natural stone.
A pervious paver parking lot was installed at Heritage Park for roadside, pull-off parking for school buses and vans.
Details
- Unilock environmental pavers
- Crushed limestone base
- Dimensions: 11 feet x 120 feet (about 1,300 square feet)
Cost
- $16,500 for labor and materials(excludes curbs and excavation)
- About $12.70 per square foot
Benefits
- Limits disruption of natural water flows
- Reduces storm water runoff
- Removes pollutants to waterways
- Increases on-site infiltration and groundwater recharge
- Eliminates standing water or ice on pavement
- Offers easy repair and can bear heavy loads without sinking in heat
Rain gardens
Rain gardens are just what they sound like – gardens that soak up rain water. They are built in depressions and are designed to capture and filter storm water runoff from impervious sufaces such as rooftops and driveways.
The gardens can fill with a few inches of water and allow the water to slowly filter into the ground rather than running off to storm drains. Compared to a patch of conventional lawn, a rain garden allows about 30 percent more water to soak into the ground.
By design, rain gardens require little maintenance and can improve aesthetics and property values.
Benefits
- Provides additional filtration to complemetn pervious parking for further reduction of conductivity, total suspended solids (TSS), runoff nutrients and other pollutants.
- Absorbs storm water and nutrients naturally.
- Drainage paths direct storm water to the rain garden where native trees, shrubs, wildflowers and grasses soak up runoff and thrive on the water-borne nutrients.
Evaluation
Under the guidance of Dr. Michael C. Miller of the University of Cincinnati and Anne Lyon of Greenacres Foundation, benchmark surface water data was recorded at the Great Miami River site before development and installation of the rain garden and pervious pavers. This benchmark data will be compared to future surface water data collected at the site.
Among the parameters to be monitored will be surface-water flow rate, sub-surface water infiltration rate, water table level, soil moisture, temperature, pH, conductivity, turbidity, ammonia level and phosphorus level.
The project’s evaluation and educational activities will provide information to target audiences and help stakeholders replicate these structural and non-structural management practices elsewhere in the watershed.
Project partners include: Colerain Township, Friends of the Great Miami, University of Cincinnati and Greenacres Foundation.
This and other projects were made possible through funds from a US Environmental Protection Agency's Targeted Watershed Grant awarded to Miami Conservancy District. For more information go to the Great Miami Watershed Targeted Watershed Project web-page.
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