An article from Eddy Magazine

Maximizing Impact of Green Infrastructure
by Philip Tunnicliff

Green infrastructure projects come in many forms and can appear at first glance to be natural areas, gardens, ponds, or stream banks. They often are a special kind of public partnership of cities, homeowners, and private businesses with the natural world. These projects reduce runoff, beautify wild places, and clean water by relying on native plants and streams to do the work they have done for thousands of years. And to assist in this function, placement of rocks slows streams and reduces erosion, native plants absorb excess nutrients, and detention ponds store rainwater and reduce flooding. This year, several high-impact green infrastructure projects are happening on both sides of the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities.

Location of Bettendorf’s planned storm water detention area.

City of Bettendorf Project

In December 2020, The City of Bettendorf approved the acquisition of the last parcel for a large stormwater project along Middle Road and 53rd Street. The project will take two smaller detention ponds currently owned by the city and add 1.9 acres that were formerly planned as a multi-family residential development. This project will create a large detention area with an estimated capacity of 620,900 gallons for the Pigeon Creek watershed, a tributary of the Mississippi River. The project will mitigate drainage issues in the surrounding neighborhood and, when completed, will slow storm water runoff reducing erosion in Pigeon Creek. These ponds also will reduce potential for flash flooding and collect runoff from heavy rains before allowing it to flow into the water table. This is a best practice project that, if replicated in all cities along the Mississippi, would significantly lower flooding levels. The land acquisition will cost nearly $374,000 and it will be entirely city funded.

City of Rock Island Project

In Rock Island a different sort of stormwater project is underway. The Broadway neighborhood sits at the foot of the Hauberg Estate and experiences runoff causing erosion in summer and ice in the winter. The Friends of Hauberg Civic Center Foundation, the City of Rock Island, and Rock Island Soil and Water Conservation District are collaborating to recreate the landscaping that was originally created by Jens Jensen for the Hauberg Estate. These groups are bringing back the features that mitigate runoff to the Broadway neighborhood on 21st, 22nd, and 23rd Streets north of the estate. This restoration/runoff mitigation project will restore the original landscaping at a cost of about $35,000. The project will create a landscape that is over 90 percent native plants and includes a spring and a series of five ponds that will regulate runoff down the hillside of the estate. The construction portion of the project is complete and over 1,000 native plants will be added in the spring of 2021. Once completed, the City of Rock Island will be able to identify any additional runoff problems in the neighborhood. While this project will not solve all the stormwater issues, it will help the entire Broadway neighborhood and improve the Hauberg Estate, Mansion and Gardens, a beautiful historic cultural amenity in the Quad Cities.