Water Connects Us All
Asheville’s RAD Watershed Restoration Team takes a holistic approach to managing stormwater
By Mickey Snowdon, Communications Liaison for The Collider
The French Broad River is the third-oldest river in the world. Tourists and residents alike flock to the river and its many tributaries to paddle, swim and fish — but it’s no secret that these waterways have long undergone abuse and neglect.
RiverLink, an Asheville-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the environmental and economic vitality of the French Broad River and its watershed, has partnered with the City of Asheville to find ways to restore the section of watershed that drains through Asheville’s River Arts District (RAD) with funding from grants awarded by the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Pigeon River Fund.
Collider member Blue Earth Planning, Engineering and Design, PC (Blue Earth) was selected by RiverLink to lead the one-year assessment and planning phase of the RAD Watershed Restoration Project, assisted by a local team of interdisciplinary professionals including fellow Collider member Ecosystem Services.
RiverLink prioritized the River Arts District Watershed due to its complex environmental, economic, and social equity issues. In addition to several mixed-use developments slated for construction in the area, two greenways are planned along Bacoate Branch and Town Branch, which will invite people to interact with the streams. The watershed also includes the traditionally underserved Southside community, through which Town Branch flows in residents’ backyards, and the Dr. Wesley Grant Sr. Southside Community Center.
Renee Fortner, the Watershed Resources Manager at RiverLink, says that the RAD Watershed Restoration Project incorporates all of the goals of RiverLink’s Watershed Resources Program, including improving water quality within the watershed, educating community members on water quality issues, and empowering the community with information and tools that they can use to help improve water quality.
Back when the Cherokee named the French Broad the “Long Man” and its tributaries the “Chattering Children,” it was teeming with biodiversity. But as Western North Carolina became increasingly settled throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, industry came to the banks of the French Broad, and with it, pollution. Along with many prominent waterways across the country, the once-thriving river fell victim to negligent agricultural and industrial practices.
Today, the French Broad River and many of its tributaries still struggle with pollution. E-coli levels in the Town Branch tributary often exceed state water quality standards where it flows into the French Broad in the RAD. Even though this section of the French Broad frequently tests high for E Coli, it is quickly turning into a tourist destination for river recreation.
The RAD Watershed is just over two square miles and includes Town Branch, Bacoate Branch, and an unnamed tributary, all of which flow west through downtown Asheville into the French Broad. The watershed is comprised of diverse neighborhoods including East End/Valley Street, Livingston Heights, Erskine-Walton, South French Broad, West-Asheville Clingman Avenue, and Lee-Walker Heights. Some of these neighborhoods are home to Asheville’s most socially vulnerable populations who have endured a history of marginalization.
Founded in 2018, Blue Earth’s mission is to “provide innovative water resources planning, engineering and design within a company framework that values the Earth, people, and future generations over profit” — a mission that’s actually written into the firm’s bylaws. Blue Earth’s co-founder, Tim Ormond, says he is grateful for the opportunity to be working with RiverLink and an incredible team of experienced, creative, and passionate local experts who are deeply familiar with the RAD Watershed as well as its communities.
Ormond says the project team understands the essential role that RiverLink has historically played in revitalizing the watershed. And as local residents themselves, team members have experienced firsthand the vibrancy of the RAD Watershed, and know how vital this area is to the entire region.
“We also know how critical the ecological health of the watershed is to RAD’s continued vibrancy, and we understand the many water quality challenges that this urban watershed is confronting through its industrial past and its rapid development today,” says Ormond.
The project team is working to create a restoration plan that not only meets all of the requirements of an EPA watershed plan, but also one that celebrates the uniqueness of the RAD Watershed and its diverse community. The team is working side by side with RiverLink to listen and learn from community stakeholders to ensure that the restoration plan prioritizes local residents, builds trust, and proactively addresses equity and inclusion.
The team sees the RAD watershed restoration as an incredible opportunity to harness the creativity and artistry within the watershed in the form of innovative and ecologically-based green infrastructure practices while supporting the creation of green jobs for disadvantaged local residents. The team is working to create a restoration plan that will ensure the long-term health of the watershed by protecting its most precious assets and provide habitat so that its flora and fauna remain resilient to the effects of development.
Ormond says another key focus of the project is building climate resilience through understanding climate change impacts in the watershed. Climate change is affecting our water cycle through increased storm intensities and extended dry periods. The City of Asheville has also recently completed a tree canopy study which shows the RAD watershed has lost significant tree canopy over the past 10 years, resulting in increased stormwater runoff and pollution as well as increased heat vulnerability. All of these factors have negative impacts on infrastructure, property, and human health.
As both a registered engineer and a certified permaculture designer, Ormond says his team is bringing a holistic, systems approach to the project, which involves working with nature to reestablish vital connections that will help restore water quality and build resilience. These connections include re-integrating rainwater back to the land and vegetation as well as rethinking the way people and neighborhoods interact with their watershed.
One strategy to rebuild these connections is through green stormwater infrastructure. With green infrastructure, practitioners design systems where stormwater is intercepted, captured, stored, transpired, dispersed, infiltrated, and filtered through natural, soil-based vegetated systems. As the vegetation grows, green infrastructure can actually improve in function over time, taking up even more stormwater and removing more pollutants.
Although there are numerous different green infrastructure practices, some of the more familiar ones include cisterns for rainwater harvesting, rain gardens, stormwater wetlands, green roofs, permeable pavement, and urban tree canopy.
All of these practices employ basic strategies of slowing, spreading and sinking stormwater and, in the process, preventing the stormwater from conveying pollutants downstream. Green infrastructure also goes beyond individual practices by approaching stormwater holistically at a watershed scale and considering how combining and integrating these practices can provide even greater benefits. Protecting steep slopes, conserving forest and riparian buffers, preserving trees and open pervious space during development are also essential parts of a watershed-based green infrastructure approach.
But more complexity isn’t always better, according to Ormond. “Sometimes it’s more advantageous to support the natural systems that are already in place. Simple low-cost measures like disconnecting downspouts and identifying areas for that water to drain and infiltrate can have significant benefits without requiring much investment.”
According to Research Social Scientist at the University of Washington Dr. Kathleen Wolf, green infrastructure can also provide a number of co-benefits: cities can reduce stream erosion, urban heat island effect, and crime, while also improving mental health — not to mention the aesthetic value it provides.
Opportunities for connecting green infrastructure and local urban food production are also being explored. For example, the East Capitol Urban Farm in Washington DC is harvesting rainwater from a public housing development and using it to create a three-acre community food oasis in the middle of a historic food desert.
Green infrastructure can improve water quality and benefit communities, but this can also be a double-edged sword; “greening” communities can result in increased property values which can displace residents who can’t afford the higher taxes and rents — a process some have termed “green gentrification.”
Collider member Ecosystem Services is one of five subcontractors on the RAD Watershed team. Jane Margaret Bell, an Ecological Restoration Designer at Ecosystem Services, is looking at how water drains within the watershed. She has created a GIS-based computer model of the hydrologic data for the RAD Watershed including percent of impervious surfaces and type of land uses. The team is using this model to simulate water flow through the stormwater pipes and streams throughout the watershed to help identify problem areas and potential project sites.
While water quality is essential to a stream’s health, Bell says that water quantity is equally as important. One of the ways in which the project team aims to improve the watershed is through mitigating stormwater flooding by identifying where the stormwater network exceeds capacity. Bell explains that during major storm events, stormwater systems aren’t always fully equipped to handle the immense volume of water that flows directly off of impervious surfaces such as parking lots and streets, and this water flows into streams and rivers when it rains in urban areas. The quantity of this water coupled with its speed can have detrimental impacts on streams.
In the RAD Watershed, Town Branch and Bacoate Branch are largely confined in underground stormwater pipes but resurface as natural streams closer to the French Broad River. The project team has identified that Town Branch and Bacoate Branch are experiencing “stream channel incision,” which occurs when the bed and banks of a stream are continuously eroded due to excess runoff from impervious surfaces and inadequate stream buffers, causing the stream to widen and deepen. Incision weakens the overall structure of a stream, making it further vulnerable to future erosion and greatly compromises its ecological functions. This excess erosion can also directly harm wildlife by destroying natural habitat and depleting oxygen levels in the water.
Given the amount of development that has occurred throughout the RAD Watershed in recent years, bank erosion and stream channel incision are serious concerns for the ecological health of the watershed.
In order to address the problems in the watershed and to develop solutions that benefit both its residents and ecosystems, Ormond says that listening to stakeholders during all phases of the project is essential. “With leadership from Renee Fortner and RiverLink, the Blue Earth project team is trying to engage with the many different stakeholders in the watershed. We’re explaining the project goals and scope to all of the major stakeholders — residents, neighborhoods, artists, businesses, nonprofits, government agencies, City departments — and letting them know that we need their ideas and input to make the project as successful as possible,” says Ormond.
RiverLink has developed an online survey to gather resident and stakeholder input on problems and opportunities in the watershed. Fortner says that the project team isn’t just seeking stakeholder input during the assessment phase but will also be asking for feedback from the watershed’s communities before actually implementing the plan. According to Fortner, “People who live within the watershed are going to be more aware of its issues — things that RiverLink and the Blue Earth team may not be aware of in terms of stream health and stormwater runoff — so getting their input early on will make for a stronger long-term plan.”
As per the possibility of green gentrification, the project team is acutely aware of this issue and is engaging in conversations with local advocacy groups and nonprofits like Green Opportunities and Asheville Greenworks, and residents living in the watershed. The team is also exploring strategies with Green Opportunities for developing training programs and creating living wage green jobs for residents in the watershed, and collaborating with local nonprofit Bountiful Cities to seek opportunities to grow local food by harvesting rainwater collected from roofs in the area.
Fortner concludes:
“There are many benefits to addressing water quality issues within the River Arts District watershed that include improved habitat for the aquatic wildlife that live in these streams, and a healthier environment for the long-term residents of surrounding neighborhoods and visitors to this vibrant community. With help from stakeholders and community partners, we can create a restoration plan that will ultimately benefit us all.”
