Raymond J. Hudak, USDA-NRCS
Pictured are three common illustrations of power, erosive forces and man's failure to understand the complex nature of interconnected fluxing stream systems that is characteristic of a watershed. Any alteration of any element in a watershed can affect the waterway, up and down stream. On a grand scale, building subdivisions, strip malls, etc. increase impervious surface and stormwater runoff. Straightening the channel increases velocity. But just as damaging are seemingly small endeavors such as clearing the vegetation from the bank, dumping leaves and other debris into the channel, installing plank privacy fences flush with the ground, tiling downspouts or gutters to outlets, all contribute to altering the natural course of water and water will find a way to discharge, good or bad. (click here to see more Fishpot photos)
 |
Fishpot Creek behind Pepperdine Subdivision before a rain event. This
area is in the unincorporated area of Valley Park
 |
Same area after a rain event. Stormwater Runoff.
Never underestimate its power.
 |
This is a stormwater outlet pipe along with the headwall structure that was to keep the pipe in place. From left to right, pipe end broken off from the main pipe. The part with vines over it is the headwall and the end that is flared lets the water flow into the stream. This section of unsecured pipe will continue to be carried downstream by stormwater and will end up in the Meramec River.
 |
In the very front of the picture, the thing that looks like a big speed bump is a sanitary sewer pipe crossing the stream. The pipe is supposed to be buried. The big rock on the other side of the pipe was dumped in a large scour hole. Some of this rock is 6 ft. in diameter.
The road at the top of the box
culvert is
Sulpher Springs Road.
 Water flow undercuts streambank. |
The streambed was at the bottom of the pipe. The wall was installed to protect the bank after all the vegetation was removed.
Look at the area under the pipe; there is a concrete cutoff wall that is being undermined. Scour erosion has exposed the toe of the retaining wall.
If unchecked, the wall will be undermined and it also will fail. This is a common site in the watershed. Flows undercut high banks leaving trees teetering on top of the bank. Eventually the bank will give way, and the tree will fall in.
 |
by Susan E. Sagarra
West News, April 5, 2000
For the first time in West County, the flooding and erosion problems of bridges and roads as well as flooded basements could be solved. This will not happen by digging ditches and pouring concrete, but by creating a brand new ecosystem of plants and landscaping that absorb water and retain land. This revolutionary program has been approved for use on the 25-mile Fishpot Creek in West St. Louis County. The program will be implemented through an unusual partnership between the private sector; the St. Louis County Soil and Water Conservation District; the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD); and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Missouri Rep. Brent Evans (R-Dist. 92) and mayors from West County municipalities have been working together to get this initiative completed. “The nice thing about this program is the holistic approach,” Evans said. “Homeowners can’t see the creek with this and it’s nicer than having a big cement thing there in the yard. It increases the home’s value. This doesn’t fix the whole problem but it sets us on the right path. It’s not a complete solution but it is a step. It also is a long-term solution. Pouring concrete is not a long-term solution.” The program borrows from an evolving branch of science known as “geo-morphic-based stream channel management.” Land along the Fishpot Creek watershed will be graded to increase water absorption, and special vegetation will be planted which can drink large volumes of water and retain deep, soil-holding roots in wet environments. Evans said that there are places on the Manchester Road bridge at New Ballwin Road that have been critically undermined from rising flood waters, threatening a catastrophic collapse. Evans also said that several backyards of local homeowners have had floodwaters encroach their property, remove topsoil and threaten their safety. “Too often our answers to flooding problems involve solving a problem for some residents, only to make the problem much worse for others who live downstream,”Evans said. “Long-term, we must find ways to live with nature and respect its power over man. Under this program, we will be fighting nature with nature, without creating more problems for man.” The estimated cost of the project is $245,000. “We pay for this tax, it’s time for us to get our fair share of the money to fix one of the biggest problems in St. Louis County, “Evans said. “It’s a good precedent and step to get other projects done like this in the St. Louis area.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the money to the Missouri DNR. The Soil and Water Conservation District, a division of the Missouri DNR, is acting as the grant administrator for the project. “We’re trying to get away from the traditional concrete and rock solutions,” said Jackie Moore of the Soil and Water Conservation District. “This type of program has been around since the 1950’s but we’re slow in the Midwest.” The design team for the projects is the private firm Intuition & Logic, which specializes in urban stream management and restoration. “When people have a storm water or flooding problem, they want it taken care of now,” said Munsell McPhillips, one of the lead designers for Intuition and Logic.“So we ask if they want a nasty concrete tunnel or if they want it to look like it did 100 years ago. Of course they want the natural looking stream bank.” McPhillips said the design team currently is collecting data. “We’ll get some conceptual designs,” McPhillips said.“We look at the watershed as a whole system. We look for the root cause of flooding, erosion, etc.” The bonus is that creating this ecosystem makes the area more aesthetically appealing. “We’re focused on mimicking how the natural stream flows,” McPhillips said.“Then you don’t have nonstop maintenance on it. It’s a highly-engineered streamed bank with the use of engineer tools but you don’t see those after a year of two. It looks nice”. MSD and the affected communities then will use the designs to plan for future projects along the creek. MSD is replacing the sewer line in the creek.“It’s a way to try new methods for erosion prevention,” said MSD’s Gary Moore. “It’s our chance to employ their methodologies and monitor to see how it works and possibly use on future projects. We’re always looking for new methods for stream stabilization and this is like a pilot project for us. It’s a win-win situation for the people who live along the creek and for us to try new methods and test them to see how they work.”
--with permission and compliments; WEST NEWS, April 5, 2000
|
Shows the flow resulting from a 2 to 10 year event in the lower portion of Fishpot Creek. The flow is about 15 feet deep and 60 feet wide.
|
Shows the same location, 2 hours later. This illustrates the flash
nature of Fishpot Creek and how quickly the waters recede.
 |
These massive gravel dunes come and go from storm to storm and illustrate the immense bed load of this system.
– The Missouri Department of Natural Resources awarded a $245,600 grant today to the Soil and Water Conservation District of St. Louis County Missouri to support a three-year project addressing streambank degradation in Fishpot Creek. The Fishpot Creek watershed covers 10.9 square miles and includes parts of seven cities and unincorporated St. Louis County. Rapid urban development has caused flooding, channel instability and degradation of water quality within the watershed/s drainage network. The Soil and Water Conservation District, the Metropolitan Sewer District and USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service have formed a partnership for the purpose of addressing water quality and quantity problems in Fishpot Creek. Through this project, the partners will be working closely with members of Intuition & Logic, Inc., a local consulting engineering firm that specializes in geomorphology work. All partners will be working together to carry out the Fishpot Creek Reclamation project with funds provided under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. The grant is being administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, Region VII in Kansas City through the Department of Natural Resources in Jefferson City. In the past, stream channel management has been narrowly focused on maximizing flood conveyance. The standard engineering practices in urban areas have been based historically on a need to carry raw sewage away from homes. Unfortunately, the standard practices have been costly, especially in terms of increased taxpayer dollars, water quality degradation and loss of land and vegetation in the streambank area. This three-year project will result in a demonstration of geomorphic-based stream channel management methods designed to reclaim Fishpot Creek and to provide a cost-effective model for communities across the nation. Field days and public involvement opportunities will be provided for local professionals, community leaders and other citizens interested in learning more about the project.
For more information, call John Johnson of the Department of Natural Resources at 573.522.2740.
 |
Watersheds (areas of land from which water drains into a given point, usually a larger body of water such as a stream or river) provide particular challenges when they are located in an urban area. The construction of impenetrable surfaces such as roadways, rooftops, and parking lots prevent rainwater from filtering down into the soil and increases the amount and speed of runoff into the watershed. This increase in runoff causes soil erosion to take place, resulting in streambank destabilization and a widening and deepening of the stream channel. Another problem that occurs within a watershed is an increase in sedimentation and silt that is caused when vegetation is removed at building construction sites. This increase is caused by rain hitting bare soil that is exposed during construction. Rain dislodges particles of soil, which then become suspended in the resulting runoff. These suspended particles reduce water quality and can smother aquatic life, clog the gills of fish, and cut off needed light to underwater plants. The silt and debris caused by erosion ultimately washes into the larger streams and rivers that the smaller streams feed into and causes pollution because of silt, fertilizers, oils and other potentially hazardous substances that may attach themselves to the soil particles.
Over the last four decades, the City of Maryland Heights has experienced a significant increase in population. In particular, the Midland Branch area within the Fee Fee Creek watershed has seen growth in business, industrial developments, and planned residential areas. Although this growth is good for the economy of the city, there has been a substantial increase in water pollution in this area caused by water runoff, soil erosion, and sedimentation. Since the City of Maryland Heights is actively involved in stormwater management and addressing the citizens problems; a project has been sponsored that is designed to improve the water quality of urban runoff and to document the improvements through a planned monitoring and reporting procedure. It has a citizen’s stormwater committee empowered to assess and prioritize stormwater concerns, and has engaged consultants to investigate and recommend solutions to stormwater problems. The USDA - Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and the St. Louis Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) are also participating in this project and will be providing technical assistance whenever needed.
There are three main objectives to this project:
- The reduction in the receiving stream’s sediment load through
erosion control.
- Development of control systems to help restore and maintain some
of the watershed’s original characteristics and prevent future
degradation of water quality.
- To provide a natural demonstration tool for classes and informal visits of residents as a learning tool related to plants, wildlife and the environment in general and with respect to recognizing potential losses of channel banks in particular.
To meet these objectives, the city plans to use Biotechnical Best Management Practices, or BMP’s. These are innovative bioengineering techniques that provide a means to control the erosion process through bankline stabilization as well as provide vegetative cover and habitat. Although this method of erosion control is fairly new to the area it has origins back to ancient times and has been used extensively in the East and West areas of the United States. This project will provide a means to evaluate how well these techniques work in the Midwest, and determine which methods work the best so that they can be used throughout the Fee Fee Creek watershed.
The City has already begun its efforts to improve stream quality, beginning with clearing and cleaning portions of Midland Creek under the conditions of a Federal permit in 1996. In April 1997, Intuition and Logic, a Webster Groves company that provides water management services, began efforts to stabilize the streambank along a 700-foot section of Midland Creek in Maryland Heights’ Vago Community Park. Along with using existing trees to build crib-walls that reinforce the bank and rebuild the slopes along the creek, trees such as sycamores, willows and locusts were planted. “Once a waterway is restored and water quality issues addressed, fish will often return,” said Robert Prager, engineer and co-owner of Intuition and Logic.
Another purpose of the Midland Creek project is to provide an educational tool to be used in partnership with schools, municipalities, and residents to teach science, and provide a demonstration tool to explain different environmental issues. Many of the plants that are being used to revegetate the site and stop soil erosion are native plants. Not only can students be taught about the different plants and trees in the area and how they grow, but also they can be taught the important part that these plants play in holding the soil in place and creating food and habitat for wildlife. As the waterway develops, students can also study the creek itself and the different aquatic life forms that begin to inhabit it once soil erosion has been curbed. Such educational potential qualified Maryland Heights for an $800,000 grant from the EPA that was distributed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
Construction on the Midland Creek project in Vago Community Park is scheduled to be completed in May of 1998. There are two other project sites on Midland Creek that will be started this year as well. These are the Mars Lane and Grand Circle Stabilization Projects. Beginning in October of this same year evaluation will begin on the effectiveness of the bioengineering techniques that were used and total project completion is scheduled for December 1999. Monitoring of these project sites will continue until the year 2002.
INFORMATION
Information is available on the City of Maryland Heights World Wide Web
site:
www.marylandheights.com.
City of Maryland Heights
