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Emerson Park is a diverse community of 91 townhomes situated on 5-acres in North Michigan Park NE DC. The community has a long history of engagement with sustainability and tree canopy maintenance. The property is divided by 6th Street NE which is a central thoroughfare connecting the community to the Fort Totten and Brookland Metros and the nearby anchor institution, the Capital Food Bank. The property’s main intersection at 6th Street and Ava Way, NE has long suffered erosion, land settlement, drainage, and nuisance flooding issues. This project aims to ease these challenges using green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).
The green stormwater infrastructure utilized in this project is called a Bioretention system. A Bioretention is a vegetated stormwater management system that mimic the natural environment to reduce stormwater volumes and pollutants for the purpose of restoring our streams and rivers.
A bioretention provides the following benefits:
- Reduces stormwater runoff
- Slows stormwater flows
- Removes stormwater pollutants
- Provides habitat for birds, bees, and other pollinators
- Improves air quality
- Reduces air temperatures
By capturing stormwater and by treating the pollutants stormwater carries, a bioretention helps protect and restore our streams and rivers.
How is a Bioretention Maintained?
Routine maintenance is necessary for all stormwater management practices. Routine maintenance for a bioretention includes cleaning out the inlets to ensure that stormwater can get into it, making sure overflows are free and clear of debris so that they can function during larger storm events, sustaining the vegetative cover by weeding/mowing/pruning as needed.
This project will provide water quality benefit to the Anacostia River and overall environmental benefit to an overburdened community with disproportionate exposure for Hazardous Waste, Traffic, and Underground Storage (ranked in the 70-100 percentile). The community aims to use their half of the project's generated Stormwater Retention Credit to help support funding the maintenance of the green infrastructure practice.