WRD of New Hampshire and Vermont - Lake Champlain BMP: Urban Component

LAKE CHAMPLAIN BASIN BMP:

URBAN ENVIRONMENT, ENGLESBY BROOK

In 1999, the 0.93-square-mile Englesby Brook watershed in Burlington and South Burlington, VT, draining directly into Lake Champlain, was selected for the urban BMP-effectiveness study. Funds for BMP implementation activities in the Englesby Brook watershed were made available to the City of Burlington as part of the Pine Street Barge Canal superfund settlement. The Englesby remediation plan (Center for Watershed Protection, written communication, 2000) includes BMPs to address erosion control, stormwater treatment, source reduction and education. Structural BMPs and educational/outreach activities that have been implemented in the Englesby Brook watershed are listed below.

Map showing land use and monitoring station in Englesby Brook watershed

click to enlarge location map

Structural BMPs

Golf course irrigation pond near headwaters (2002)
Stormwater detention facility to treat 100 acres in Shelburne Road area of Burlington (2005)
Shallow marsh wetland to treat 38 acres in Richardson Street area of Burlington (2005)

Educational and outreach activities

UVM Watershed Alliance (managed by Lake Champlain Sea Grant), with a goal of increasing Burlington area middle school students' understanding of watersheds and water quality, has focused awareness on Englesby Brook as a watershed having symptoms of stream degradation due to urbanization.
UVM Extension produced an Englesby Brook newsletter, organized watershed residents to weigh in on the restoration plans, used the Master Gardeners program to promote low input and organic gardening practices, and created Champlain Community Garden on the banks of Englesby Brook.

USGS MONITORING OF ENGLESBY BROOK


Community Garden at the Champlain Elementary School in the Englesby Brook Watershed (Click to enlarge)	Weir and weir pool at Englesby Brook. (Click to enlarge)	Stormwater detention facility in the Englesby Brook watershed (Click to enlarge)

USGS monitoring focused on the composite effects of BMPs in the watershed on the water quality of Englesby Brook. Listed below are the essential components of the study plan and links to data:

Streamflow. A streamflow gaging station was constructed in 1999 and discontinued in October 2010. The gage included a v-notch sharp-crested weir and a continuous data logger that transmitted data in real time via satellite to USGS computers and to the public.

Single sampling station near the Brook outlet.

Statistical and graphical analyses to determine whether there were differences in sediment and phosphorus loads for the periods before versus after BMP implementation. Results through 2005 are available in the USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5074. Final results will be available in 2012.

Link to access all available Englesby Brook data in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) database from 1999 through 2010, including daily discharge data, streamflow statistics, instantaneous discharges, and water-quality data.

Alternatively, choose one of the following links for a simplified procedure to access streamflow and water-quality data for Englesby Brook:

The README FILE describes the data formatting and contents.

REFERENCE

University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab, 2005, 2002 Land cover/land use dataset for Vermont: Accessed August 3, 2006, at http://www.vcgi.org/dataware/default.cfm?layer=LCLU2002