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Sound Rivers Program Director Clay Barber was on site at Vance-Granville Community College last week, checking in on the site of a coming stormwater project.

A regenerative stormwater conveyance system is slated for the college located in the upper Tar River watershed.

“It’s a very eroded outfall where stormwater from the campus basically flows down a slope into a very small tributary of Ruin Creek,” Clay said. “It’s taken a lot of land with it, so we’re going to stick to our three principals of slow the water down, spread the water out and encourage it to soak into the ground as quickly as possible.”

The regenerative stormwater conveyance system equates to pools constructed to do exactly that, he said.

“We’ll be widening the channel, and there will be a series of pools down the slope where water will collect, then cascade into the next one after the previous one fills up,” Clay said. “The more water we can keep in those pools, and the slower we can make it move down that hill, the less sediment erosion will occur.”

Currently, the downward slope means the fast-moving water can’t soak into the ground, a key function in the natural removal of sediment and pollutants from stormwater.

“Right now, there’s no treatment occurring — it’s just water shooting over bare rocks,” Clay said.

The end result will be three pools surrounded by grassy berms and slopes, with little exposed dirt to prevent erosion.

“If there’s a rain of an inch and a half, there shouldn’t be much water making it all the way down the hill. It will soak in before it gets there,” Clay said. “But if it’s a harder rain, it will cascade down but with significantly less force, and significantly less of it will make it to the stream. The rest will sit in those pools and soak into the ground.”

Gabe Adams, Backwater Environmental’s project manager, was on site with Clay to evaluate the overall plan, as well as rock options, slope rate and more. Construction on the project is slated to begin in early October. The project is part of Sound Rivers’ Campus Stormwater Program and is funded by a 2021 Environmental Enhancement Grant, awarded by the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office.

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