STORMWATER WETLAND AT HILLANDALE GOLF COURSE
            There are aesthetic ways of utilizing and treating stormwater.  In May, 2000, N.C. State Extension installed a stormwater wetland on a feeder creek that runs next to Hillandale Golf Course's parking lot.  The project was catalyzed by a tour ECWA gave to state and city wetland specialists one year prior.  After designing and grading were completed, volunteers from ECWA and the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood helped plant some 2000 native shrubs and wildflowers along its edges.  The wetland--a remarkable collaboration involving N.C. State, Hillandale Golf Course, ECWA and others--filters out pollutants and has transformed an eroded ditch into a home for wetland wildflowers and a diverse wildlife.  Within weeks of its installation, dragonflies, butterflies, hummingbirds, crawdads and mosquito-eating minnows (a native related to guppies) were counted among the wetland's new residents and visitors.

           The installation is now a featured stop on NC State educational tours.  When a member of Durham city council was shown the wetland, her immediate response was "Why aren't we building these all over Durham?"  ECWA thanks N.C. State and the staff at Hillandale Golf Course for their commitment to restoring Ellerbe Creek.

 
Here, in a view from Indian Trail soon after planting, is the stormwater wetland's forebay, the first in the series of three 6 foot deep pools, separated by more shallow areas.  Stormwater coming through the culvert under Indian Trail spills into the forebay, dropping most of its sediment there.  Maintenance consists of occasionally digging sediment out of the forebay.
 

This is the third pool, with spillway, prior to planting. The wetland holds back 6 inches of floodwater after a storm, which is then slowly released through the drawdown pipe mounted in the spillway. The more runoff that can be temporarily held in wetlands like this, the less flooding and erosion will occur downstream during storms.
 
Here is the constructed wetland in mid-summer glory, with mature vegetation two years after planting.