Veterans memorial park upgrades successful in first test

"The Center for Watershed Protection designed this bio-retention pond for Rising Sun's Veterans Memorial Park to redirect stormwater and alleviate flooding. "
PHOTO COURTESY CWP.

"With a bio-retention pond in place designed by the Center for Watershed Protection flooding issues like this in Veterans Memorial Park in Rising Sun have been largely eliminated."
PHOTO COURTESY CWP

RISING SUN — With the work at Veterans Memorial Park finished Brian Seipp, watershed manager with the Center for Watershed Protection, waited for the rain to fall to assure his months of work there was successful.

And it was. Even in the torrential downpours of late the stormwater remediation project at the Rising Sun park successfully kept the town property off Wilson Road from going underwater.

“This was the biggest project we’ve done in Rising Sun,” Seipp said of the grant funded $634,700 effort that redirected and redesigned the creek and added drainage and other elements.

“Everything seems to be working exactly as we designed it,” Seipp said.

The CWP project came to be through the Octoraro Watershed Association, which studied the town and identified several projects that would improve the health of the watershed but also add quality of life to Rising Sun.

“I’m hearing that the roads are flooding less,” Seipp said. “The step pools held water and drained down.”

Those step pools have also helped attract more wildlife.

“There are all kinds of tadpoles and more amphibians,” he said, noting along with the wildlife, kids are also more attracted to play in and along the creek now that some of the embankments have been lowered. Gentler slopes invited wading and exploring.

Center for Watershed Protection, while new to Cecil County, has been around for 27 years. Interestingly enough, it’s headquartered in Ellicott City. The company dedicated to addressing issues with flooding was itself, in that historic area that has been in the news recently because of flooding.

“With Tropical Storm Lee, we got flooded out in 2012,” he said. “We decided at that point we needed to move.”

While still in Ellicott City, CWP is out of the flood zone.

With Veterans Park complete CWP has moved on to a similar project at Fair Hill Nature Center.

“We are working with them to take out a lower parking lot,” he said. “The Department of Natural Resources wants that dirt parking lot out of the wetlands.”

To compensate, CWP proposes using land across from the Nature Center where the remains of a burned out barn now stand. Clean up of the property will be the first step.

“Then some of it will be torn up and restored as a meadow,” Seipp said.

The new parking will accommodate both school buses and horse trailers.
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“The plans are in review. We hope to move to construction by the end of 2018 or early 2019,” Seipp said.

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​Article was published on Tuesday, June 12th, 2018 in the Cecil Whig. It was written by Jane Bellmyer (jbellmyer@cecilwhig.com).