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French Broad River |
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RiverLink's Stormwater Best Management Practices:Ross Creek Stormwater Improvement Project Town Branch - LinkingWaters -124 Choctaw Street Rhododendron Creek - West Asheville Park Buttermilk Creek - Malvern Hills Park Swannanoa Driving Tour:Haw Creek - Evergreen Community Charter School Swannanoa River - Black Mountain Well Lot Swannanoa River - Riverside Park
Ross Creek Stormwater Improvement Project
Ross Creek Stormwater Improvement Fact Sheet St. Luke's Church Concept Drawing Watershed: Swannanoa Major Goals:
Project Brief: The Ross Creek Stormwater Improvement Project is an effort to implement portions of the 2007 Ross Creek Master Plan. Numerous stormwater best management practices (BMPs) where identified in the plan to improve the water quality in Ross Creek and Kenilworth Lake. Through funding from North Carolina’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund, this project implements two (2) of the projects identified in the Master Plan, one at St. Luke’s Church on Chunns Cove Road and the other on residential property at the corner of Waverly and Lakewood Dr.
Linking Waters Project
RiverLink is pleased to be working with yet another dedicated group of volunteers and professionals to create an innovative new demonstration project for homeowners.
In the South French Broad neighborhood, a private property owner has offered her home as a demonstration site for an innovative whole systems permaculture project to reclaim urban water for jobs, the environment and food production. For Additional Information please check out the Project website: www.linkingwaters.wordpress.com The features and methods included at the site include:
For more information contact Michelle Smith at 230-3845 or via e-mail at linkingwaters@gmail.com, or Nancy Hodges at RiverLink, nancy@riverlink.org. Connect with LinkingWaters:
Hominy Creek Water Quality Projects
RiverLink with funding from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund is implementing a stream restoration and stormwater project to prevent future stream bank erosion and catch and treat polluted stormwater before it enters the creek. We are working in Malvern Hills Park (Rumbough Street) and West Asheville Park (bottom of Vermont Street) in West Asheville. Malvern Hills Park contains Buttermilk Creek (click here for additional information on the water quality in this creek)and West Asheville Park contains Rhododendron Creek. Both of these creeks drain to Hominy Creek and ultimately the French Broad River. Look for these projects to begin to improving the water quality of these streams.
Take a self-guided tour! Click here for a printable list of RiverLink's BMPs In 2001 RiverLink received a cost share grant funds from North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Department of Water Quality/319 Non Point Source Pollution Section to implement urban “best management practices”(BMP’s), to treat nonpoint source runoff from urban areas within the Swannanoa watershed. Non-point source pollution, such as oil from parking lots, fertilizers, pesticides, and sediments is a major threat to the health of our waterways, but by using these BMPs local residents can greatly reduce the amount of pollution that reaches our streams. The goal of these projects is to provide examples and educate residents, developers, and local governments about preventing non point source pollutants from entering our streams and rivers. Five projects have been installed within in the watershed to demonstrate a variety of measures that can be replicated. These include rain gardens/bio-filters, stormwater wetlands, vegetated swales, stream bank stabilization, rain barrels, conservation easements, and riparian plantings. Below are examples of the "best management practices" that are now a model for treating water quality in the Swannanoa River Watershed.
Evergreen Community Charter School Watershed: Swannanoa
Project Brief:
Both systems are designed to capture the first inch of rainfall, which contains the vast majority of pollutants. Overflow from both of these systems, in addition to runoff from roadways will be directed to another vegetated swale to reduce the water’s velocity and treated again in a stormwater wetland. The wetland will provide for additional educational opportunities by providing another biological habitat on campus for scientific studies.
Jones Residence Haw Creek Community Watershed: Swannanoa
Project Brief: The Jones property is bisected by Haw Creek and one of its tributaries. Until now, stormwater runoff from Haw Creek Road has flowed through their property unabated into Haw Creek. A stormwater wetland has been designed to stop direct input into the stream. The wetland is designed to allow the water to slowly pass through the wetland before discharging and is heavily vegetated with native wetland plants. By slowing the water’s velocity and allowing for some percolation, nonpoint source pollution entering the stream is greatly reduced. Streambank erosion is a problem for many areas of Haw Creek where vegetation is sparse. The second phase of this project will be to remove invasive exotic plant species from the riparian buffer areas and then replant with native trees, shrubs and groundcovers. This will will stabilize the stream bank reducing sediment loading and providing shade to help maintain cool water temperatures.
Black Mountain Well Lot #6 Parking Area Watershed: Swannanoa Location: Behind Black Mountain Center for the Arts/ Swannanoa Valley History Museum Major Goals:
Project Brief:
RiverWalk Park - Black Mountain Watershed: Swannanoa Location: behind Bi-Lo grocery Construction: May 2004
Project Brief:
An additional bio-retention area and a stormwater wetland were constructed onsite to treat stormwater runoff from the adjacent railroad. Appropriate native wetland plants were used on all projects to provide for nutrient uptake and aid in the decomposition of pollutants. All of these projects were designed to both educate and demonstrate new stormwater treatment technologies for students, developers and decision makers.
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Quick Links:
The Evergreen Community Charter School project is designed to direct roof runoff from the main facility into a rain garden that can serve dual purposes. The rain garden will provide treatment of roof runoff which contains nutrients such as nitrogen, as well as enhance the educational opportunities for the science base curriculum (i.e. butterfly garden). The parking lot will be sloped to capture and treat stormwater containing gas and oil contaminants in a vegetated swale into a rain garden. 
Two bio retention cells (rain gardens) will treat roof runoff from adjacent buildings (Black Mountain Center for the Arts and the Swannanoa Valley History Museum). This runoff will be collected and filtered by soil percolation in the two landscaped bio-retention cells. The parking lot will be graded, sloped, and resurfaced to allow for stormwater runoff to be treated in a vegetated swale that will function to slow the runoff velocity. This will remove sediment and the associated parking lot pollutants (i.e., grease, oil, gas, and heavy metals like zinc, cadmium, etc.)
This project was designed to treat stormwater runoff from half of the Bi-Lo roof and parking area. A bio-retention (rain garden) was installed to capture and treat runoff from approximately 1.5 acres of impervious surface. This runoff contains oils, grease, gasoline and sediment. The bio-retention cell was sized to capture the first inch of rainfall and allow sediment and nutrients to settle and filter through soil for approximately 24-48 hours. This will slowly release stormwater and capture pollutants. Sediment is deposited within the bio-retention cell and pollutants are bonded to soil particles. 
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