The Urban Stormwater and Aquifer Improvement Project

Great news!  This year, the EAC has launched a project in Porters Lake aiming to explore innovative stormwater management practices in new residential developments.  The project will involve collaborating with the local community and discussing water, stormwater management, and building healthy water neighbourhoods. We will share results from our pilot site, a new development that is implementing low impact development practices.  We will be monitoring groundwater levels and surface water quality around this new development as it is built and during ongoing construction.  This project is an exciting collaboration between an environmental organization, a developer, university and a community to explore how innovative stormwater management techniques can improve groundwater availability and surface water quality.  We are very proud to share this project with you.

(Photo: during a site visit the team stopped by Bell Lake- Jenny and Rob from the Centre for Water Resources Studies (CWRS), Kyle from genivar, Jocelyne from the Ecology Action Centre (EAC), Brad from Seven Lakes, Rick from CWRS, and Jennifer from the EAC).

Public Outreach

Our project is focused on the Porters Lake area, and we want to connect with this community on freshwater issues.  To share information on these topics, we will launch a series of talks in Lake Echo, Porters Lake, and Musqodoboit in fall 2013 and winter-spring of 2014.  Topics include "Healthy rainwater on your property", "How do we know a lake or stream is healthy?" and "Building a healthy water neighbourhood". Dates and locations for the fall talks are nearly confirmed, so stay tuned to this site so you can attend these events.  Stay tuned for more talks and events in the winter and spring of 2014!

Community Showcase

Bell Lake, in the community of Porters Lake

The EAC believes that seeing is believing, and we have the rain gardens, stormwater demonstration sites and living shorelines to prove it!  The EAC is keen to be working with a developer in the Halifax Regional Municipality using low impact development and open-space principles in their planning.  The Villages of Seven Lakes are in the beginning stages of development in the Porters Lake.  We encourage you to explore their website to find out about their design ideas which include 60% open space, clustered communities, rain gardens, bioswales, and infiltration areas for managing stormwater, innovative stormwater management systems, wetland restoration, tertiary wastewater treatment and many more interesting features.

Research

We are very fortunate to work with a developer that is keen to have ongoing monitoring of their development on lakes and groundwater near their sites.  We have partnered with the Dalhousie Centre for Water Resources Studies who will help us understand the natural conditions of lake and groundwater before homes and roads are built.  They will generate digital models of the site and the impact it has on the surrounding water systems.  These impacts will be compared to that of a conventional development using computer modeling.  This is the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship that will help us understand and hopefully promote low impact development practices elsewhere in HRM and Nova Scotia.

We would love to know your thoughts on stormwater in your community and on your property.  Consider taking our short survey to help us learn more!

Stay tuned for updates on this project, and for information on upcoming talks.

Constructed wetlands

"S" shaped constructed wetland

At the headwaters of Frenchman's Creek in Dartmouth, a wetland was constructed to treat stormwater runoff from the adjacent sports fields and parking lot. The wetland has a serpentine shape and varying depths in order to maximize residence time of the runoff in the wetland. This allows for increased removal of nutrients and metals through plant uptake and adsorption. This stormwater treatment feature essentially acts as a kidney purifying the water. The runoff leaving this site now enters the natural environment at a much higher quality than it would if directly released without treatment. 

This wetland would require occasional maintenance to maximize function. Construction was done by Jeff Pinhey and Rob Leblanc in 2007. 

The marsh is predominantly vegetated with cattails

Engineered Wetlands

Appleton-Middleton Engineered Wetland Photo: www.abydoz.com

When the aging sewage treatment plants needed upgrades in the towns of Appleton and Glenwood in Newfoundland and Labrador, they took an innovative approach to improving stormwater and sewage treatment by implementing an engineered wetland. The towns were concerned  the quality of discharge that was entering the Gander River which was not meeting Provincial or Federal standards and about the increasing maintenance costs required by the older systems.


The newly constructed engineered wetland provides secondary treatment of wastewater, is cost-effective and has greatly improved the water quality discharged into the Gander River. This project was the Atlantic winner of the Watershed Awards, which recognizes community climate change adaptation efforts and is awarded by Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Check out this great video to see how the engineered wetland works. Video provided by the Insurance Bureau of Canada.