Swantown Creek Restoration

Purpose:  An actively eroding series of connected ravines has for many years been depositing enormous amounts of sediment and nutrient pollution into Swantown Creek on the Sassafras. 

Project: At a meeting in 2013 with Shorewood Estate residents, our Sassafras Riverkeeper promised that we would do all we could to eliminate the nutrient and sediment pollution problem, which had substantially blocked even canoe navigation in the upper region of the creek.   After years of raising funds, designing, engineering, and permitting the project, construction has recently begun.  This incredible project will restore 4100 ft. of actively eroding stream, reconnect the stream with the floodplain, restore natural stream functions, and eliminate further sedimentation in Swantown Creek.Initial flow from the 600 acre upstream farm is being addressed through installation of shallow infiltration basins at the head of each main stream. Smaller rain events will be captured and infiltrated, while larger events will pass safely through a primary spillway control structure.

A series of grade control log and boulder weirs are being installed within the two main stream channels as well as side channels to reset and stabilize the streambed grade.  The streambed within the ravine will be raised to the grade control structures with sand excavated on site and top-dressed with a cobble aggregate to improve macroinvertebrate habitat.

The lower stream is being restored through relocation of outer meanderbends, reconnection of the floodplain, and creation of habitat.  The entire site will be stabilized and planted with native trees and shrubs and seeded with an appropriate native grass mixture.

Annual Pollution Reductions: 307 lbs. of nitrogen, 278 lbs. of phosphorus, and 62,000 lbs. of sediment.