The partnership of the North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF), Brunswick County, the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, and Brunswick Soil and Water Conservation District, with engineering support from Stantec Consulting, has completed the installation of a rain garden and stormwater wetland at the Brunswick County Government Center in Bolivia. NCCF will give a tour of the stormwater wetland and rain garden to the public and media on Thursday, September 24 at 12:30 pm.
NCCF and the project partners are installing a series of measures at the government complex to capture and treat polluted stormwater from the site before it enters local creeks and the Lockwood Folly. Earlier this summer, volunteers and staff from project partners spent two days installing over 1,500 wetland plants in the wetland and rain garden.
The stormwater project not only improves water quality in the Lockwood Folly River but also educates and encourages others to implement low-impact development (LID) measures in the watershed. LID’s goal is to use a natural landscape to absorb and treat stormwater close to its source before it can degrade water quality in local creeks and rivers.
Stormwater runoff, the primary source of surface water pollution, is water from rain or irrigation that flows over land and into local creeks, streams and waterways. Runoff carries pollutants such as pet waste, auto fluids, fertilizers, pesticides and litter through the drainage system and directly into our waterways.
The N.C. Attorney General’s Environmental Enhancement Grant Program funded the project. This project site was identified as an ideal candidate for a water quality demonstration and education project during a two-year watershed planning and monitoring project for the Lockwood Folly watershed and is part of the Lockwood Folly Watershed Strategy.
The project is also a component of the Cape Fear Arch Conservation Collaboration, which consists of a diverse group of organizations, including NCCF, interested in conserving natural resources and enhancing water quality in Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Sampson, Pender and Bladen Counties in North Carolina and Horry and Georgetown Counties, South Carolina.
The tour will start at the Brunswick County Government Complex Cooperative Extension Offices (Building N) in Bolivia. Those interested in the tour should contact Ted Wilgis at the N.C. Coastal Federation at 910-790-3275 or tedw@nccoast.org for more information.