Addison County Regional Planning Commission (ACRPC), Lewis Creek Association (LCA), and landowners have partnered to make improvements to water quality and reduce flooding risk in the Hollow Brook area near Lazy Brook Manufactured Housing Community on Hollow Road in Starksboro. In this area, Hollow Brook comes down off Lincoln Hill and the Hinesburg Town Forest, and would historically have spread out into the lower elevation wetlands. In these “alluvial fan” areas, streams often drop their sediment and move around over time. However, in this location, past agricultural practices (straightening/berming along the stream) and development combined to push and constrain the stream into its current location. There was an old bridge crossing the brook near the manufactured housing community, which left concrete in and near the brook; this constricted the brook and caused floodwaters to leave the stream and flood the neighborhood.
Area above Sugarhouse Lane, after construction, where old bridge abutments were removed, and the floodplain was restored. Photo credit: Alex Marcucci, SLR
Thanks to funding from the Flood Resilient Communities Fund (received by Addison County Regional Planning Commission), Jessica Louisos and Alex Marcucci of SLR designed a project to remove the old bridge abutments and concrete in the brook (which will help minimize the risk of flooding in the manufactured housing community in the future), and obtained permits from the state and federal entities for the project. A contractor (Ben Canonica of Canonica Landworks) was hired, and he began work in early August after assisting with flood recovery in other parts of the state. The project involved removing some trees and fill, including concrete blocks, in and next to the stream to create a new floodplain, burying root wads in the bank and floodplain, and placing boulders to improve fish habitat in the brook. The brook now has more space to spread out onto its floodplain during times of high flow, and the removal of the constriction caused by the abutments will minimize the flood risk to the manufactured housing community.
Photo caption: Area above Sugarhouse Lane, before construction. Photo credit: Jessica Louisos, SLR
Elise Shanbacker, the Executive Director of the Addison County Community Trust which owns Lazy Brook manufactured housing community, expressed her gratitude to LCA and ACRPC for taking on this important project. “As we know too well from recent events, manufactured housing communities have experienced disproportionate impacts from flooding in Vermont,” Shanbacker said. “Addressing flood risks to these communities is an important environmental justice issue. Most importantly, residents of the park can rest a little easier now that this project is complete, and ACCT can better ensure that this affordable housing resource stays safe and habitable for future generations of Vermonters.”
Hollow Brook feeds into Lewis Creek in the northwest corner of Starksboro just south of Tyler Bridge Rd in Hinesburg, and Lewis Creek eventually drains into Lake Champlain. Lewis Creek is impaired for E. coli bacteria in stretches; LCA hopes to maintain water quality in Hollow Brook so that it doesn’t contribute 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 bit.ly/lca-wq-videos. These include things like 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.). It is crucial that we all do our part to improve 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.
There are other water quality and flooding problems in this area: upstream from this site, runoff from the roads has focused water and sped it up coming down the steep slopes, which caused major erosion, and dumped much sediment in the brook. At Sugar House Lane, the double culvert is too small, so has blocked fish passage and increased upstream flooding risk. If funding can be obtained for the downstream culvert replacement and the upstream road runoff, water quality, flood resiliency, and habitat for fish will be further improved. Please reach out to Andrew L’Roe, alroe@acrprc.org with any questions.