After three consecutive days of stifling, 90-degree heat, any droplets of water had long since evaporated from the shallow inlet of vegetation outside the Roger Williams Park Seal House.
But come the next heavy rainstorm, the infiltration basin overlooking Roosevelt Lake will become a pool of water, slowly absorbed by the native plants and grass specifically chosen and planted for that very purpose.
Ryan Kopp, coordinator for the newly opened Providence Stormwater Innovation Center, stepped into the basin as he pointed out the path the water will take.
Before, a runoff system along the sidewalk would collect rainwater and dump it directly into the pond, along with all the sediment, chemicals and other harmful pollutants picked up as it flowed along the road.
Now, rainwater will run down the street into a small, concrete paver, designed to slow its pace so that the sediment is left behind, before the water traverses through a dam-like cluster of rocks known as a weir, which further restricts water flow before it enters a basin.
An uneducated onlooker could easily mistake the entire set up for some aesthetic landscaping, were it not for a small sign marking the basin, complete with a QR code allowing passersby to learn more and get involved in the monitoring practice.
‘I wanted to ... bring all the people involved in this to the table.’
BRIAN BYRNES, Providence parks and recreation deputy superintendent
The basin is one of 42 structural and nonstructural “best management practices” features – a mix of swales, basins, bioretention gardens and sand filters – designed to reduce harmful pollution in the park’s lakes and, in turn, Narragansett Bay. The installations also fulfill a 2017 consent agreement the city signed with the R.I. Department of Environmental Management after it was found to have violated its state-issued municipal stormwater permit.
Exactly how effective is the $1.5 million infrastructure project?
“It’s too soon to tell,” said Kopp, adding that the answer could be several years down the road.
But he and other partners in the Providence Stormwater Innovation Center are committed to finding out.
Created with federal grant funding, the center is a partnership among the city of Providence, Audubon Society of Rhode Island, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Rhode Island and the University of New Hampshire intended to study and improve stormwater infrastructure in the park and share best practices with municipalities, engineers, construction companies and scientists.
The center officially opened last month, marking the completion to a yearslong project of installation and development. At the helm of the project is Brian Byrnes, deputy superintendent for parks and recreation for the city of Providence. Byrnes, who worked as a construction and development contractor for 26 years prior to starting his job with the city, explained how interactions with engineers, construction and maintenance crews sparked the idea for an interdisciplinary training center.
“There was a lot of misunderstanding, crossed signals, people who weren’t receptive [to stormwater infrastructure],” Byrnes said, “I wanted to do it better, to bring all the people involved in this to the table ... to have a conversation and in the end, make a better product.”
While in-person training is still on hold amid guidelines restricting group gatherings due to COVID-19, the park offers the ideal combination of classroom learning and hands-on experience. And the sprawling 435 acres of lakes, paved roads, hills and valleys is a perfect petri dish, exemplifying the kind of urban environment where stormwater management is most needed – both for environmental reasons and also public health.
“If we have standing water or contamination, that’s a risk to the people who are enjoying the park,” Byrnes said.
Joseph A. Casali, president of Casali Engineering Inc., has taken his 10-person staff on many trips to the park to study stormwater drainage – an integral part of the site design services offered by his Warwick-based engineering firm. But he was excited to come back to participate in one of the center’s hands-on, guided training sessions.
Design standards change frequently, making it hard to keep up with the latest rules and regulations. Additionally, in an era of heightened awareness on environmental stewardship, many of his commercial clients are beginning to show an interest in going beyond the minimum state requirements in their stormwater-mitigation plans. Any new techniques, especially those that keep costs down, could benefit his company and his clients, Casali said.
The cost of the infrastructure – both in installation and maintenance – is also a focus of the Stormwater Innovation Center’s work. For that reason, even similar types of structures feature slight variations – caged versus uncaged weirs, wet and dry swales – to experiment with what works best.
Eventually, Byrnes hopes to use the center to create a certification or licensing program for stormwater consultants and contractors, distinguishing themselves from those without formal training in the growing industry.
“Anyone can pick up a shovel and start digging sediment, but you can just as easily get it wrong as you get it right,” he said.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.