Garden to clean stormwater in Franklin

By Ashley Studley

Milford Daily News, Wednesday, August 4, 2010

FRANKLIN - Workers this week began installing four rain gardens at the Parmenter Elementary School on Wachusett Street.

Town Engineer Bill Yadisernia said crews started digging Monday and are expected to complete the gardens by the end of summer.

"I think the ones we're putting in over there are very well placed and will work quite well," Yadisernia said.

Franklin is installing four rain gardens - planted depressions that clean runoff and filter water it back into the ground - at the school and one at Fletcher Field. The Charles River Watershed Association in April had suggested the measure.

"They're very beneficial (and low impact development)," said Pallavi Mande, an urban restoration specialist who helped create concept designs for Franklin. "You can get a lot of benefits from stormwater management, and (a rain garden) is one of the easiest to build and maintain. It gives a pretty good end result in controlling runoff volumes."

Mande said it's important to remove pollutants, like phosphorous, from stormwater since it can filter back into the Charles River, create oxygen-depleting algae blooms and kill fish.

"We chose locations that would give us the maximum benefit for stormwater management for the least cost. With places like the Parmenter School, you have added public education benefits. To do a project there, it's something a lot of people can see and implement at other sites," she said.

Yadisernia said two gardens will go in the front of the school, one in the parking lot that will eliminate four parking spots and another one on the side of existing landscape. Each will be 20 feet wide and 40 feet long and hold up to 12 inches of water.

Workers "dig, they put in soil, a mixture of compost, loam and sand, which will filter the pollutants out," he said.

Yadisernia said yesterday the garden in the parking lot is complete, and a landscaper will add special shrubs in the fall.

A rain garden at Fletcher Field will likely go in later this month, he said.

"These are the first ones (the town) has had, and we have plans for some more on Anchorage Road and Elm Street, and one at the high school that hasn't been built yet," he said.

Franklin is one of three communities, along with Bellingham and Milford, that are faced with a new federal regulation requiring them to cut down the amount of phosphorous that gets into the Charles River from storm runoff.

Yadisernia said the rain garden construction coincides with the Wachusett Street reconstruction, and is expected to be complete before school starts.

Click here to read the original article