Community College installs bioswale on campus

WINSTED — The runoff entering the Still River by Northwestern Connecticut Community College’s Arts and Sciences Building will now be a lot cleaner because the college has partnered with the Northwest Conservation District and the Farmington River Watershed Association to install a bioswale as a model of pollution control for the community.

 “We had a space that needed work, and they both wanted to do a spotlight project, where people could come in and see what these projects could do,” said Science Professor Tara Jo Holmberg. The groups were awarded grants last year from the Alcoa Foundation and the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. 

“We knew there were issues with the runoff from the parking lot from when they first built the Arts and Sciences Building, just in terms of the amount of water going into the Still River,” said Holmberg. “It was all perfectly legal and everything, just could we do it better?” 

The bioswale consists of a deep trough that collects water piped in off the parking lot, roofs and sidewalk. Volunteers recently planted the area with native plants that will soak up and filter the water and pollutants. 

“And there’s layers of gravel underneath here where bacteria and other microbes will go to work on detoxifying things, except in a huge event like a hurricane,” she said. The water entering the Still River would be captured and cleaned.

“There’s all kinds of stuff that comes off cars alone, also a lot of organic nutrients,” said Holmberg, that “can have huge impacts on the water quality for the organisms living in the river.” The pollutant load, which may include E. coli, can be directly toxic, or reduce available oxygen.

The Still River flows into the Farmington River. The Still is also listed by the EPA as a river of special concern, due to Winsted’s industrial history. 

“My students have been studying the river for the last 14 years,” said Holmberg. “We’ve seen some stuff come back that we haven’t seen before. So it’s definitely improving, I think a lot to do with the work that other groups are doing in the area, but if we can do something to make a difference too, that’s great.”

Bioswales are more commonly used on the West Coast, she said, but are starting to catch on in New England. Another organization has already visited the site to get ideas. Holmberg’s plan is to have ecology and botany classes monitor how well the project is working.”

The project also took out some invasive Japanese knotweed. “Most of this was all invasive plants because of all the seeds coming off the parking lot,” Holmberg said. Now it’s all native pollinator plants like blueberry and witch hazel. “So the bees and butterflies and birds will all be happy,” Holmberg said. “They can just be really pretty spaces too, besides being functional. People can create a similar effect in their own backyards by creating rain gardens, planted with native plants.”