M Focus on: Parks & Environmental Services
Cleaning up municipal waterways By DENISE FEDOROW | The Municipal
W
hether you live on the East Coast, in the South, the Midwest or on the West Coast, if there are municipal ponds, lakes or beaches within city limits, at some point, you’re faced with how to clean or maintain those resources. Invasive plants, waterfowl or careless acts by residents or visitors all can turn a beautiful water feature into a smelly swamp if not maintained. The Municipal spoke to officials in several cities about the steps they’ve taken or plan to take to protect their water resources. In Sebastian, Fla., officials worked on an integrated pest management plan adopted at the end of August. Sebastian has several stormwater ponds, stormwater conveyance canals and ponds in city parks. City Manager Paul Carlisle said, “With every body of water in Florida, the problem is overgrowth of vegetation, and trying to manage that is always a challenge.” The city’s completed integrated pest management plan for the stormwater system employs manual or organic methods, with the use of chemicals, herbicides and fertilizers being only as needed and in the least invasive way. In Garden Club Park, the city put in probiotics and upgraded aeration. Carlisle said three tests of soil and sediment on the bottom of the pond were conducted so the city will have control data moving 22 THE MUNICIPAL | OCTOBER 2021
ABOVE: Prairie Meadow Pond in Plano, Texas, was restored in 2019 using the hydraulic method where the silt is sucked out of the pond’s bottom and into geo bags. The muck is then hauled away while clean water is released back into the pond. Natural Resources District Supervisor Kym Hughes said this type of dredging is not as disturbing for the wildlife. (Photo provided by Plano, Texas) forward, and it is expecting results soon. The city plans to launch another round of testing. Carlisle said workers also spent hours and hours manually removing 30,000 cubic feet of vegetation from canals and redoing the water features to better channelize the water. All the outfalls have nutrientreducing baffle boxes installed to filter the water before going into the Indian River Lagoon. Stormwater Treatment Park in Sebastian is a series of interconnected ponds, dams and weirs that provide stormwater surge and treatment while also serving as a wetland habitat. The integrated pest management plan was developed by a subcommittee of members from the natural resources board, three local scientists from the Florida Department of Agriculture and city staff members. Carlisle said the committee held public meetings. “It was a collaborative effort with a lot of input,” he said, adding the IPM “stresses more organic and more manual mitigation other than chemicals as a first resort to control vegetation.”
