Wake Forest team wins prestigious engineering award
At a time when the world is worrying about pollution and climate change, a Wake Forest town engineer, a local engineering firm and an Eagle Scout candidate have been recognized for their innovative method of reversing stream impairment.
On Nov. 5 the Town of Wake Forest and W.K. Dickson & Company received the Engineering Excellence Award for Scientific Research for their bentho (streambed) macro invertebrate (the small animals without backbones that live in streambeds) relocation efforts that are a part of the Sanford Creek Habitat Restoration Project, which is part of the overall Smith Creek Restoration Project. The award was presented during the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of North Carolina’s Engineering Excellence Gala in Durham.
The team was made up of Wake Forest Assistant Engineer Holly Miller, also the project manager; Ward Marotti, an engineer with W.K. Dickson and until two years ago a member of the town planning board; Wake Forest Urban Forestry Coordinator Jennifer Rall; and Eagle Scout candidate Ross Keyser.
The Sanford Creek Habitat Restoration Project and the overall Smith Creek Watershed Project were judged to be “outstanding examples of the dedication and determination of a firm to push the envelope into unchartered territory to improve the environment.”
For four years W.K. Dickson monitored the macro invertebrates – the insects, crustaceans, mollusks, arachnids (spiders) and annelids (worms) – in Smith Creek, which drains the east side of town where there is intensive development. Smith Creek is listed as an impaired stream by the Environmental Protection Agency under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act, and local governments must develop plans to restore the streams so listed, usually by reducing the amount of pollutants entering the streams, referred to as the total maximum daily loads (TMDL).
Dickson decided to experiment by making an artificial environment in a 100-foot stretch of Sanford Creek (one of Smith Creek’s tributaries) near Golden Star Way and Marshall Farm Street. They chose rolled coir (coconut fiber) matting, duck bill anchors and leaf packs which Keyser placed in the stream bed. The small animals were introduced and monitored for two years, ending this past July.
The award says, “It was found that Sanford Creek was able to support the benthos with the additional habitat, thus negating the impaired stream status. The final data shows a major increase in richness and diversity, which is an amazing success. The town will continue to add habitat to the stream banks and will also pursue a delisting of the entire watershed based on four years’ worth of data that was conducted by W.K. Dickson & Co, Inc. in the entire watershed.”
According to Miller, W.K. Dickson’s use of readily-available materials is an excellent example of value engineering.
“The large benefits of potentially removing a stream from the 303d impaired waters list and not having to produce a TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) have created a change in how we look at stream restoration and habitat enhancement. Overall the addition of the habitat will save the Town of Wake Forest both time and money,” Miller said.
“The Sanford Creek Habitat Restoration Project, a portion of the Smith Creek Watershed Restoration and Implementation Project, added value and ingenuity to our efforts and more than achieved our overall goals. We are grateful for the opportunity to have worked with W.K. Dickson & Co., Inc. Their knowledge and depth of stream restoration experience and assistance with public involvement has been an excellent asset to the Town of Wake Forest.”
