Lewis Creek Association (LCA) and the Town of Hinesburg have partnered to plan for improvements in water quality in the area that drains Lyman Meadows, Hart & Mead, Lantman’s, Russell Farm, and the United Church. This project investigated potential fixes in this sub-watershed, which flows into the LaPlatte River behind the Cheeseplant. Lewis Creek Association, with the help of Water Resources Engineer Jessica Louisos at Milone & MacBroom, reached out to develop relationships and discuss potential water quality projects with landowners in the area, and to determine which groups may be willing to help improve water quality by using a portion of their land for a treatment area.
Bioretention areas, or rain gardens, which help by slowing the water down and allowing it to be filtered by plants and absorbed into the ground before rushing downstream, were one of the options examined. Others included restoring wetlands that had historically been filled in. These fixes would all help improve water quality in the LaPlatte River by slowing water down, spreading it out, and sinking it in to the ground (“the three S’s” that are central to LCA’s Ahead of the Storm program. You can learn more about the Ahead of the Storm program at www.lewiscreek.org/ahead-of-the-storm.). The LaPlatte River, which drains into Shelburne Bay, is impaired for E. coli bacteria from its mouth up to Hinesburg, and we hope to keep it from impairment due to phosphorus, which contributes to harmful algal blooms and fish die-offs in Lake Champlain. You can learn more about the problem and what landowners can do to improve water quality in a brief 17-minute presentation LCA’s website at https://www.lewiscreek.org/water-quality-videos. It is crucial that we all do our part to improve to water quality in small ways, in order to improve Lake Champlain’s water quality and beauty, and to protect the animals and plants that live in our rivers and streams.
With the help of Milone & MacBroom, LCA set up a small advisory committee, including members of several landowner groups in the subwatershed, and began investigating potential projects. After responses from landowners, it was determined that the most viable water quality improvement project would be a wetland restoration of a portion of the lawn behind the United Church. Jessica Louisos of Milone & MacBroom designed a wetland restoration for this area. This will help naturalize the flow of runoff from upstream and improve water quality, habitat, and flood resiliency. The project will take ditched water and allow it to filter through natural vegetation, slowing the velocity, and providing flood storage in a previous wetland that has been converted to lawn.
Area behind United Church that may be restored to wetlands (November 1, 2019).
LCA now plans to pursue grant funding to finalize the design and restore the wetland in this area, both beautifying it and improving water quality downstream. LCA will also continue conversations with upstream landowners, in hopes of making further improvements to water quality, while also fixing other problems (such as large puddles on the roads and wet areas in lawns in the Lyman Meadows area). Please reach out to Kate Kelly, 488-5203 or lewiscreekorg@gmail.com with any questions. Funding for this grant came from a VT Department of Environmental Conservation grant to Watersheds United Vermont, with a subgrant to LCA.