Stillmeadow
Stillmeadow was a domestic drainage EWB-GT project that started in the Spring of 2021 and ended Fall of 2022. This project was considered a Community Engineering Corps project where a project team works on an engineering design and consults with the client to provide a community-driven solution. Once the EWB team has completed the design-phase, the client is in charge of implementation with a contractor. The student design team was able to get assistance on drawing and designs from an engineer local to Georgia, but the program was not able to secure a Responsible Engineer In Charge (REIC) in Maryland. Therefore, only “Draft” materials were then passed to the Client (Blue Water Baltimore), however, it should be noted that the team did complete a majority of the designs to a “Final” stage before passing to the Client.
Stillmeadow Civil was a project located in Baltimore, Maryland and focused on the Stillmeadow Fellowship Community. It specifically concentrated on the Stillmeadow Church’s stormwater runoff generated from the parking lot during heavy rainfall. Unfortunately, 100 year floods occur more frequently in the project area (approximately every 20 years). The 2018 flood, specifically, damaged 150 homes and had a depth of approximately 7 feet. To combat this, the project worked with Blue Water Baltimore and Stillmeadow Fellowship to remove 4999 ft2 of asphalt to reduce stormwater runoff at the Stillmeadow Fellowship Church. At the site of the removed asphalt, an island of trees will be implemented to help drain the water and thus help reduce
flooding.
Deliverable
The main goal of the community is to mitigate stormwater flooding by installing a tree island in their parking lot that will slow the rate of stormwater penetration as well as filter the runoff. This greater goal of serving the community through stormwater mitigation is reflected in the Stillmeadow Fellowship’s role as a resiliency hub, exemplified by their recent distribution of sandbags to shield against floods. If possible, the Stillmeadow Fellowship hopes to repurpose some of the runoff for use in irrigation. The client, Blue Water Baltimore, has similar goals to the community in terms of stormwater management as well as increasing tree canopy in the West Baltimore area.
The deliverable included cost analysis of contractors, cost analysis of stormwater damage, and bioretention/bioswale designs to control flooding.
Impact
The Stillmeadow Fellowship Church is located between the Westgate, Tremont, and Beechfield neighborhoods of Baltimore, with approximately 45,900 people, most of which are African-American citizens. Less than 100 people are members of the Stillmeadow Fellowship Church, yet about 600 people are serviced through the church’s various programs including their COVID-19 response and testing, food assistance, emergency shelter provisions during natural disasters, or the Peace Park. The church is in an area that holds people from different socioeconomic classes: the working poor and the middle class. It is estimated that approximately 1,300 people would directly benefit to some degree from the asphalt removal, since in 2018, the debris accumulation within the stream flowing through the church property that blocked the culvert, as well as the runoff from the church parking lot and nearby hill, flooded and negatively impacted approximately 1,300 people.