For
the town of Williamston, NC, graduation day holds special significance. For most
seniors at Williamston High School, graduation means saying goodbye—not just to
their alma mater, but to their hometown as well. Faced with a local economy
buffeted by the vagaries of global agriculture markets, and beyond reach of the
resort boom on the coast 100 miles east, young graduates see their opportunities
here as limited. Dr. Tom Ward, sustainability coordinator for the town, and a
former community college administrator, says, “Close to 70% of each graduating
class will migrate from the area each year. Most don’t plan to
return.”
Nonetheless,
as sustainability coordinator for this rural town (population 6,000), Ward
optimistically seeks to chart a future that can protect the local environment
and encourage economic vitality in the global marketplace. For many planners, an
out-migration of a community’s young working-age population on the scale of 70%
would seem a bit troubling, but Ward is not pessimistic. He says that the
Williamston area has a lot to offer, in part because of its agricultural roots.
“Residents have always lived close to the land,” and, as a result, he says, the
community has maintained an unspoiled appearance of rustic and natural beauty.
Ward believes this beauty, combined with the area’s rich history, dating back to
early settlers along the Roanoke River, can breathe life into the economy by
attracting a different type of tourist—perhaps more interested in nature or
genealogy than those who flock to the coast for sun and surf. He also believes
the tranquil quality of life that a rural setting like Williamston can offer
will become one of the area’s best assets, attracting older citizens and even
luring former residents back home for their retirement
years.
To
facilitate this return flight, Ward began looking for ways to preserve and
enhance the community’s natural assets. “We were looking for ways to take care
of what we had. In addition to trying to do what’s right, it’s also part of an
economic development strategy.” To promote the town’s environmental credentials,
the town competed for and won the Audubon Green Communities Award, part of the
Audubon International’s Sustainable Communities Program. Ward hoped to shepherd
the town to full Audubon certification, one of the nation highest environmental
honors.
Beyond
the Albemarle
To
move forward in the certification process, there were problems that needed to be
addressed, with the quality of surface waters in the region high on the list.
“The main things we’re seeing in the water are the algae blooms from
agricultural lands and the use of chemicals in agriculture,” says
Ward.
But
Dwane Jones, North Carolina State University Extension associate for Martin
County, whose primary research focus is water quality, believes stormwater is,
in fact, the overarching concern facing waterways in the area. “The Roanoke
Basin is plagued with stormwater issues,” he says. “Sediment is the major
pollutant of concern in this region of North Carolina, particularly in the
Roanoke River basin.” According to Jones, these sediments, driven by stormwater
runoff—not just from farmlands, but also from developed areas—threaten to choke
off life in the streams and contribute to the silting of the Albemarle
Estuary.
In
recent years, according to the EPA, the quality of this valuable resource has
been declining: human waste contamination, draining of wetlands, increased
near-stream development, and agricultural and urban runoff each has added its
deleterious effects. As a consequence, populations of submerged aquatic
vegetation have been on the decline, shellfish yields have decreased, skin and
shell diseases have attacked aquatic organisms, and extensive algal blooms have
appeared blighting the waterways.
Jones
says, as a university extension associate, his job is to help solve these
problems at the community level. Serving as the liaison between North Carolina
State University and the county, he takes the university’s ideas and research to
the people who can put them into action. A big part of this work is education,
Jones says. “We try to promote the hands-on activities. It’s one thing to learn
something in the classroom, but it’s a whole different thing to apply it and see
it in action.”
When
Jones learned that the town of Williamston had hired Ward as sustainability
coordinator, he decided to meet with Ward to discuss the progress the town had
been making in the Sustainable Communities Program. Their conversation generated
an idea that would eventually have a profound impact on the local community.
They would create an environmental project on the campus of a local high school
to dovetail with the Audubon project. Williamson High School was selected as the
project’s location.
An
Ideal Site
According
to Ward, the concept quickly gained the support of the county school
superintendent, who held a degree in biology and was familiar with environmental
issues. But the real test would come in gaining the acceptance and support of
the staff of Williamston High School itself.
Already
on campus was a nature site next to a small stream that cut across the property.
Ward describes that site with its adjacent wooded tract: “It’s just a beautiful
area of hardwoods with plant life and animal life, including migratory birds—an
ideal site to teach kids.”
Jones
and Ward met with school officials and floated the concept of an on-campus
wetland that would provide hands-on outdoor science and nature activities for
students in Martin County and the Williamston area. Jones explained to school
officials that North Carolina State University had participated in similar
projects, installing these types of practices on other campuses in the state,
and they had proven successful and very popular.
 |
Photo: Dwane Jones |
| Dr. Ward and students dig in a rain garden. |
“Dr.
Ward suggested that we visit some other campuses where environmental projects
had been implemented to get some ideas about what we could do at Williamston,”
says Linda Cherry, principal of Williamston High School, who attended some of
the initial meetings. After those visits, she says, “We started putting some
ideas on paper.” Finding the superintendent and one of her science teachers very
interested, she sought their input to envision educational activities that
students could pursue with an onsite wetland facility. Augmenting their input,
Cherry had her own vision. “I wanted to see an outdoor lab that could attract
other teachers to our campus, and I wanted to connect the existing nature trail
to the project,” she says.
Looks
Count
But,
Cherry says, she was also mindful of aesthetics. While she was worried about how
students could utilize the facility, she also wanted to be certain it would not
detract from the existing landscape of the campus. “I was concerned about the
financial aspect as well,” she says, “because we virtually had no money at
all.”
However,
Jones discovered another issue the school had that would eventually render the
wetlands concept unworkable. “Since they’re very close to a swamp area,” he
says, the school didn’t want to create any sort of practice that might present a
safety hazard for students. Ultimately, Jones said, liability concerns over the
location would necessitate a new approach.
Jones
developed an alternative plan, which he believed would be feasible and practical
for all parties. “We came up with this solid idea of creating a low-impact
development campus,” he says. “We began looking for low-impact development
practices that would fit neatly and nicely into the landscape and that would
also help the environment.” Further, he believed a campus-wide low-impact
development (LID) project would provide the opportunity to address more areas of
concern than would a wetland alone.
Cherry
was warm to the idea and remembered being intrigued by the rain gardens she had
seen while participating in the site visits early in the project. “I was not
really familiar with the concept of rain gardens,” she says. “I had seen them
before but really didn’t know what I was looking at. As a matter of fact, I
questioned why people would be growing wild grass and wild flowers, and putting
it in places looking like that.” She says, however, that Ward explained their
function, “and after I saw the kinds of things the students were doing through
their science classes, it became more and more appealing to
me.”
No
Small Problems
Ward
and Jones met again with school officials and walked the entire campus with
school staff, looking for problems that could be addressed by LID
practices.
They
identified a number of drainage issues. According to Jones, there were areas of
standing water in the parking lot. Stormwater carried deteriorating asphalt from
this lot directly into the storm drains, allowing oil, grease, and coolant to
migrate into surface waters, he says. Although Ward says the creek—as it crossed
the school grounds—was so small it could be forded in a single stride, erosion
from its banks was making a major contribution to sedimentation in local
waterways. Jones concurred, observing sediment that was beginning to build up
in, and imperil, a wetland a quarter of a mile downstream from the campus.
Additionally, he says, there was evidence that the creek itself was in the
process of losing its flora and fauna because of
sedimentation.
 |
Photo: Dwane Jones |
| Sandy, loamy soil on the site is perfect for infiltration. |
The
high school’s principal had also observed some of the stormwater issues on
campus. “We had a problem with water retaining on our grounds, particularly in
heavy rains, sometimes resulting in flooding,” Cherry says. “I hoped the project
could alleviate these concerns as well.”
In
addition to addressing current stormwater issues and environmental concerns,
Jones believed innovative practices introduced as a part of this project could
inspire engineers in the local area to consider implementing LID practices when
planning development projects in the community. To this end, he says, the
project would “mesh some of the design concepts being used at NC State [North
Carolina State University] with the landscape of the campus,” and the site would
double as a workshop where professionals could attend seminars on LID
applications, with access to real-life examples.
Getting
Underway
Jones
says North Carolina State University had developed a very good working
relationship with the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP),
partnering on environmental issues. The organization had published a request for
proposals for innovative practices on school sites, to which Jones submitted the
Williamston High School LID project.
Although
Jones says that the resources were not available to perform baseline
water-quality data gathering onsite, he was able to utilize “a wealth of
information” from the state Division of Water Quality to establish the need for
the project and to determine which practices would best address the particular
pollution problems found. The project proposed multiple practices, which
included streambank stabilization, installation of several rain gardens, a
riparian buffer, permeable pavement for the parking lot, and a
rainwater-harvesting system. The APNEP responded favorably, awarding a $25,000
grant to implement the project.
“Pulling
everything together was a time-consuming process,” says Jones. “Also, because we
were using so many different practices in a community where these practices were
not yet prevalent, we had to bring in outside
contractors.”
 |
Photo: Dwane Jones |
| Students planted more than 100 trees for the riparian buffer. |
 |
Photo: Dwane Jones |
| Watering the grass swale |
Careful
Planning
To
select the best practice for a site, Jones says, one must consider factors
beyond hydrology and engineering—particularly human and social factors.
Installing the wrong practice on a site, he says, can sometimes make things
worse than they were prior to the installation. For example, the design team had
considered installing a level spreader to control streambank erosion along the
small creek on campus. Designed to break up a channel of water flowing over a
slope and spread it across a wider swath, a level spreader dissipates the energy
and erosive potential of the runoff. However, Jones says, he became aware of
research from North Carolina State University, which had demonstrated that
because of improper installation or improper maintenance, “a great number of
level spreaders do not function as they are intended to
function.”
Furthermore,
Jones learned that, lacking proper maintenance, level spreaders sometimes
“concentrate the water in a way that causes the slope to wash out, only at a
different point” from the one that was being affected before the installation.
Doubting that the high school community would be prepared to handle the
maintenance requirements of a level spreader, Jones made the decision to go with
a simpler practice to stabilize the stream bank, choosing instead to implement a
grass swale to diffuse stormwater flows over the banks. “We wanted
low-intensity, low-maintenance practices at first,” he explains. “Once we find
that these are being maintained properly, we’ll progress to more intensive
things.”
After
two years of planning and preparation, construction began in May 2007. “I was a
ball of nerves,” says Cherry, who had hoped to see the project completed and the
campus returned to normal in time for graduation ceremonies just weeks
away.
Jones
realized this timetable would be a challenge as he coordinated the project.
“When you’re working with low-impact development, there are often few
contractors that have the expertise to install all of the practices,” he says.
“When we install five or six different practices on campus, we sometimes use at
least three or four different contractors, each with their own specialty.” For
this project, Jones says, “It was a matter of finding contractors that were in
the area who knew exactly what we were talking about and how we wanted the
practices installed, and who were able to install them. Once we found the
contractors, then it was just a matter of scheduling.” Sometimes, he says,
contractors would be scheduled to work sequentially, other times, in tandem,
depending on the tasks required.
However,
not everything had to be done by experts, and because school was in session,
there were a lot of curious students on hand. Science classes worked with their
teachers to develop the text for the educational signs that would accompany each
practice. Ward says that the students helped by planting more than 100 trees for
the riparian buffer. “We wanted their involvement,” says Ward. “We wanted them
to establish a sense of ownership.” Jones says it was good to have the students
around during all stages of the project. “When we were surveying the site, we
could explain to them why a particular spot was a good place to install a rain
garden. While we took soil samples, we explained what qualities to look for in
the soil, and how these qualities affected drainage, and which practices we
decided to install. It was a very teachable moment.” Jones adds that there was
an important take-home message, and adjusting for scale, “what we installed on
campus were the very practices that could be installed at
home.”
A
Campus in Transition
Construction
began in the area of the vocational building where a cistern was installed to
collect runoff from that building’s roof. Cherry says that the water collected
would be used for agriculture and horticulture classes planned for the next
spring, but in the meantime, it was available free of charge to local gardening
clubs. From there, work progressed from the rain gardens to the streambank, and,
as graduation day approached, to the parking area.
When
crews reached the final phase of the project, Cherry became very interested and
“really excited to see whether or not the treatment would alleviate the standing
water in the parking lot,” she says.
“The
existing asphalt for all practical purposes had zero infiltration,” Jones says,
“and water just runs off into the storm drain and into the stream.” Crews
removed a section of asphalt covering about 6,000 square feet, comprising about
a quarter of the paved area. In consultation with the design team, the school
selected block pavers from Pavestone to cover the area. Jones says that the
treatment was installed on the portion of the lot located on the lower part of
the slope. This allowed it to capture a major percentage of the lot’s drainage
and provided treatment for about half of the parking area.
 |
Photo: Dwane Jones |
| Temporary irrigation setup |
 |
Photo: Dwane Jones |
| Excavating a section of the lot |
However,
Jones says, successfully installing a pervious pavement treatment depends on
more than just selecting and installing the pavers. “It’s not only the blocks,
but the soil media underneath and the gravel as well that allows the water to
infiltrate.” And in this installation, he says, the soil was just right. “The
soil in the area is of a sandy loam type, which really helps to increase the
infiltration rate for the permeable pavement.”
Cherry
says that the transformation of the campus went relatively smoothly. “Dr. Ward
kept me informed through each step of the project.” She adds, “It wasn’t the
sort of thing that disrupted anything until we got into the parking lot and they
had to cut out an area. Then we had a big area of the lot full of rubble that we
had to block off, and I became quite concerned at that
time.”
By
mid-June, construction was complete, and while the renovations on the parking
lot were not finished in time for graduation ceremonies, Cherry was pleased with
the results. “One of the major things that I notice is that when we would have
heavy rains on our campus we used to have lots of water backup and now we
don’t—the water dissipates in no time.” She says it’s aesthetically pleasing as
well. “It looks like a flower bed, particularly at the main part of our campus
and our parking area; it looks like we did some landscaping
improvements.”
Furthermore,
she says, as a result of North Carolina State University’s ability to sponsor
the project, and its willingness to expand its resources to a school campus, “we
were able to get exactly what we wanted.” The Martin County Soil and Water
Conservation District offered technical assistance, and the US Department of
Agriculture’s Mid East Resource Conservation and Development Council provided
educational signage for each practice. In fact, the endeavor expanded into a
group project, with each participating organization making its own contribution.
Consequently, Cherry says, “It didn’t cost us a dime.”
In
the end, Jones says, a little tweaking was required to make
sure everything worked up to par. “For example, we had to set up a temporary
irrigation system to try to establish vegetation along the grass swale—we were
in a drought, and that was something that we had not really planned for. We had
to do the same for the riparian buffer to make sure the trees got a good start
and that they were adequately watered for a few days.”
New
Residents, New Perspectives
Jones
has returned to the project site in the months since the installation. “It’s
been well received,” he says, and Cherry agrees. “Our classes are using it for
activities. We’ve turned it over to our biology teacher who is working with
different projects during her biology classes,” she says. Amplifying this, Jones
says, “A couple of weeks ago, the school system expressed interest in
implementing the practices on other campuses and with new building projects.”
And the results have gained the attention of other area professionals.
“Engineers that have come out to the site have been very impressed and have
expressed interest in participating in some of the classes we plan to conduct,”
says Jones.
He
notes that habits are changing, too, with the school system taking more of an
interest in using sustainable environmental practices. “Before the project,
their way of maintaining the stream was to use a herbicide and to just kill the
grass alongside the stream.” Jones says school officials may not have been aware
that using the herbicide could have contributed to the erosion problem. “Since
that time, they have inquired with us as to how to better maintain the stream
and the riparian buffer.” On his more recent visits, Jones says, he can see that
herbicide has not been used and that vegetation has been allowed to grow
naturally. “There seems to be less garbage and debris both in the stream and on
campus,” he adds. He is encouraged by the project’s positive outcome and its
influence on the community. “They’ve begun to see the value of protecting the
water quality, and they’re using the practices that we’ve installed on campus to
their advantage.”
Ward
says that he didn’t have an extensive natural science background when he started
work in this field, but he learned as he went by talking with colleagues and
attending conferences. “I went through an extensive transformation, becoming
aware of these issues. The same thing has to happen for the general public.
That’s the only way we’re going to protect our natural
resources.”
And
just a few months after the project’s completion, Jones says that tiny new
residents are moving into the Williamston High School’s creek. “We’re starting
to see more of the bugs and the critters come back that were not there before.”
While that may seem like a small change, many small changes add up, and Ward
says that he can already see some positive results from this new awareness. “The
eagle is in here now, and that’s due to preservation efforts,” he says.
“Everybody’s getting more sensitive; everybody wants to do better. Projects like
these create awareness and bring these issues to the
forefront.”
And,
according to Jones, they can be an inspiration to change lives. “Some of the
students actually said they want to get involved in environmental projects once
they graduate high school,” he says. “The project seemed to have a positive
impact on them.”