Lacey, Saint Martin’s team to treat water

New system to filter stormwater runoff from 400-acre area

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published June 30, 2008

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LACEY – Woodland Creek water quality and the salmon that spawn there should benefit from a just-completed stormwater-treatment system installed on the Saint Martin’s University campus.

The three stormwater ponds carved out of a tree-lined meadow just northwest of Old Main are a joint project between the city of Lacey and Saint Martin’s Abbey.

The abbey provided the property — 20 acres — and the city provided the money — $1.6 million — to build three stormwater ponds that treat stormwater runoff from a 400-acre area that includes much of the downtown Lacey area and the university campus.

“We couldn’t have done this project without the abbey’s cooperation,” Lacey city engineer Roger Schoessel said. “This is a pretty sizeable footprint.”

How system works

The three ponds, which cover 10 acres, include one lined pond that traps pollutants and allows them to settle out of the water. Water from the lined pond flows into two more ponds that infiltrate water back into the ground.

And in the cases of major storms, the westernmost pond is equipped with an overflow pipe that empties into a series of wetlands that eventually empties into Woodland Creek.

Before the project was built, the stormwater from the older areas of Lacey was discharged to a pipe that emptied directly into a wetlands area near Exit 109 off Interstate 5.

“It was pretty much untreated water,” Schoessel said.

“This project allows us to get clean water back to the salmon-spawning grounds on the north side of Martin Way,” said Kathleen Bauknight, director of real estate for Saint Martin’s Abbey.

The project site always was set aside for stormwater storage for the campus, Bauknight said. But the partnership with the city upped the ante considerably, requiring the excavation of 48,000 cubic yards of dirt and elimination of two older, 1-acre ponds dubbed Twin Lakes by several generations of university students.

Teamwork

The abbey worked with the city to create a landscaping plan that features mostly native plants. The network of gravel maintenance roads around the ponds doubles as walking trails. And the irrigation system temporarily required until the 12,000 trees, shrubs and plants gain a foothold is solar-powered.

Historically, the area has served many purposes; it has been home to deer, birds, waterfowl and amphibians, a training area for the university’s cross-country team and a place for monks, students and others to meditate and commune with nature.

“The project complements those things,” Father Alfred Aulscher said. “It’s great.”

However, Bauknight noted, the stormwater pond site is not designed to be a public park, nor is it open to the public.

The ponds started accepting stormwater last fall, and the landscape work is scheduled to wrap up Wednesday.

The ponds already serve as habitat for two pairs of nesting mallard ducks. Swallows flit overhead, snapping up insects, and a killdeer chose a patch of gravel next to one pond to lay her eggs. The nondescript nest site is outlined in blue paint to keep pedestrians from disturbing it.