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 focuses 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. The gage includes a v-notch sharp-crested weir and a continuous data logger that transmits 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 are differences in sediment and phosphorus loads for the periods before versus after BMP implementation (these results will be available in a 2007 USGS Scientific Investigations Report).

Links to Englesby Brook streamflow data in the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) database:

Links to Englesby Brook water-quality data, including Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and suspended sediment, October 1999 through September 2007:

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