On September 27th, Champlain Housing Trust, in collaboration with Pomerleau Real Estate, the State of Vermont, the City of Burlington and the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) hosted a press conference to describe an ambitious stormwater management project that will improve the health of Potash Brook and Lake Champlain.
Once completed, this new gravel wetland will manage runoff from 16.26 impervious acres and remove an estimated 9.94 kilograms/year of phosphorus runoff. In total, the new system will treat roughly 821,000 gallons of stormwater for every 2″ of rainfall, making it one of the largest stormwater systems in Vermont history.
Why is treating stormwater important? Stormwater runoff is a major contributor to phosphorus and other pollutants that negatively impact water quality in Lake Champlain. As stormwater passes through the new gravel wetland, physical, chemical, and biological processes remove these harmful pollutants before the water is slowly released into Potash Brook which then flows into Lake Champlain.
“This project is a quintessential private–public partnership at so many levels,” said Ernie Pomerleau, President of Pomerleau Real Estate. “It is not only vital for the environmental health of Lake Champlain but also serves as a model for future collaborations between state, nonprofit, and commercial entities. It’s a true partnership that demonstrates the power of collective action in addressing environmental challenges.”
The project is on land owned by CHT’s South Meadow neighborhood, which has 116 apartments and 32 shared equity condominiums – all of which are kept permanently affordable by CHT.
“CHT and the South Meadow neighborhood are pleased to participate in this important project by providing the land to treat all the stormwater from the shopping plaza and a portion of the stormwater from the South Meadow neighborhood,” said CHT Real Estate Project Developer Kirsten Merriman Shapiro. “Together we are improving the health of Potash Brook and Lake Champlain.”
In addition to contributions from South Meadow and Pomerleau Real Estate for this project, the City of Burlington applied to the State for a grant to assist with the cost of construction. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation awarded $2,029,673 to the project from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Additional funding came from a $110,000 Design Implementation Block Grand secured by CCRPC.
The new Potash Brook stormwater management system is expected to be complete by the end of the year.