Ecosystem Restoration of Glade Creek
Glade Creek is a stocked trout stream in Roanoke County that was experiencing heavily eroding banks which caused high sediment loads to settle in the overly wide channel. The stream had historical documentation of Roanoke log perch, a federally listed fish species.
Roanoke County is regulated as a small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) community. Glade Creek restoration was implemented to address its allocated wasteload, to a certain extent, for the E-Coli wasteload allocations for Glade Creek and Tinker Creek. The projects also helped to address the MS4 permit requirements for the sediment wasteload allocation for the Roanoke River.
The amount of eroded sediment in the stream by using the Bank Erosion Hazard Index (BEHI) tool, and this index number was correlated to the pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus exported from the site on an annual basis. Because of this assessment, the County was able to successfully obtain Stormwater Local Assistance Fund (SLAF) grant funding for the stream restoration.
Two connecting segments of Glade Creek have been constructed, with any segment having its own unique project delivery as well as site design challenges. Phase 1 involved a design build project approach, while Phase 2 was a traditional design bid build approach. Phase 1 was implemented in a park setting, while Phase 2 was laterally constrained by a railroad and park. Phase 1 involved extensive coordination with US Fish and Wildlife Service, including a biological opinion (BO) related to effects to Roanoke log perch and federally protected bats from project construction. The BO for Phase 1 included documentation for Phase 2 which expedited the permit process for Phase 2.
The total amount of work on Glade Creek is over 5,000 feet. Since the completion of each phase, Roanoke County has not been required to perform any maintenance work completed on two projects.
This presentation will describe the benefits of the varying delivery methods along with how the design approaches varied to meet the site constraints and produced stable reaches that have required no maintenance. The complex issues of securing the project’s permits will also be discussed, particularly how the environmental permitting on Phase 1 provided for a smoother process to secure environmental permits for Phase 2.
Author Bio
Phillip Todd currently works with Freese & Nichols with their Fluvial Ecosystem Restoration group. He has over 30 years of experience in the environmental industry, including 8 years involving stream restoration design and over 11 years with stream restoration construction. He has a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Biology, both degrees from North Carolina State University.
