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Frenchtown Stormwater Facility Undergoes Retrofit The drained ponds of the Frenchtown Stormwater Facility lay barren. Most of the surrounding park is closed off to visitors and covered in dirt.
Katherine Brennan & Alan Schulz CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
The Frenchtown Stormwater Facility is closed down, dug up and undergoing extensive renovation in accordance with phase 1 of a substantial retrofit project aimed at alleviating the area’s terrible flooding and storm water runoff problem. At the center of Carter-Howell-Strong Park, the holding ponds lie just beyond the Tennessee strip, off the corner of West Carolina and North Copeland Street. The project involves a new drainage system being installed under surrounding roads and the removal of sediment buildup and pollutants on the pond floor by the truckload. This process, overseen by Frenchtown Stormwater Management, is intended to facilitate the cleaning of storm water runoff that eventually drains into Lake Munson by increasing the capacity of the ponds. Where a third of Tallahassee’s urban storm water is drained, Lake Munson was ranked the seventh most degraded lake in the state in 1982 by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, according to a 2006 ecological report on Lake Munson by McGlynn Laboratories. The Frenchtown Stormwater Facility is one of several upstream water quality facilities that were created in order to pretreat the water that drains into Lake Munson. However, as the
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ponds at the Frenchtown Stormwater Facility became more and more polluted they also became less successful at treating the runoff. Every fifteen to twenty years these ponds are supposed to undergo a major cleaning and sediment removal project, such as the one occurring now. The cost of phase 1 of the project is projected at $3,500,000 and will be partially funded by the Environmental Protection Agency. It began in May 2010 and is scheduled for completion in August 2011. Sam Cook, who visits the park every other Sunday, speculated that the project is moving slow because it lacks funds. But Project Manager Chuck Blum is confident the park will reopen next spring. “Rain does cause minor delays, however we have a pump that removes water out of the pond so it does not pose a serious problem,” said Blum. “Plus we’ve had a recent dry spell that allowed us get a lot of work done.”
Besides the inconvenience of the detours created by the routing of the drainage system, many locals seemed to be supportive of the project, citing the flooding problem and anticipated improvements. “It’s been flooded from Carolina Street all the way to Georgia Street,” said Brendan Paul, who lives nearby. “You can’t drive down the road, that’s how bad it flooded. It was a much needed project, for it to be deeper.” Park goer Harold Hardwick said the entire park flooded “several times in the past,” including St. Mary Primitive Baptist Church, which sits on the corner of the park. Many who use the park regularly said they heard through word of mouth that amenities are going to be added. References were made to Lake Ella, which not only underwent recent reconstruction of its ponds, but also had new bathrooms installed. Marcello Iaia contributed reporting.