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Project Completed June 2015

The Big Urbie Final Reports

  • Big Urbie Final Report: HERE
  • OEWRI South and Fassnight Creek Water Quality Assessment Final Report: HERE
  • OEWRI Detention Basins Final Report: HERE

Expanded

In April 2013, WCO was awarded an additional $100,000 grant funds which will be matched with $66,667 in matching funds. The award will allow more stormwater improvement projects to be completed.

The Section 319 grant implements stormwater improvement practices that reduce and treat runoff from streets, buildings and parking lots, thereby protecting area streams, lakes and springs. The improvements are being implemented at residences, businesses, schools, and community parks located in the South Creek, Fassnight Creek, Jordan Creek and Pea Ridge Creek watersheds. The grant also monitors the water quality before and after improvements are installed. This allows local experts to measure the effectiveness of these natural solutions for reducing, absorbing and treating stormwater runoff.

Projects Implemented

During the 2014 calendar year, several stormwater water quality projects were completed including rain gardens, tree box filters, bioswales, riparian corridor improvements and designs for LID (low impact development) stormwater best management practices.

  • 4 Big Urbie Clean-ups with a total of 134 volunteers
  • 5 volunteer planting days with a total of 98 volunteers
  • Partnered with Springfield Public Schools to construct pervious pavement parking lots at Boyd Elementary and Robberson Elementary consisting of a gravel infiltration swales, native vegetation and rain barrels
  • Constructed new detention basin stormwater improvements at Missouri State University and Drury University to promote infiltration
  • Partnered with MSU Campus Construction Team, Facilities Management, and Students for Sustainability Commission to construct a 20,000 gallon rainwater collection system at the William H. Darr School of Agriculture. This innovative project utilizes rainwater collected from the roof for dust suppression inside the Pinegar Arena
  • Funding from Big Urbie allowed the City Streets Department to construct their first pervious pavement parking lot
  • Partnered with Missouri Department of Conservation to install a pervious paver patio at Homegrown Grocery
  • Partnered with Gilardi’s Restaurant to collect 1,700 gallons of rainwater from their roof to help water their vegetable and herb gardens
  • Constructed a rain garden with native plants for Messiah Lutheran Church
  • Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) held a two-day course Stormwater Management for Educators course at Missouri State University June
  • Two parking lots at the City Government Plaza will be retrofitted with pervious pavement, rain gardens, and a bioswale that will allow rainwater to soak into the ground and be used and naturally filtered by soil, plants, and trees
  • Held 4 Big Urbie Steering Committee Meetings

History

The Watershed Committee of the Ozarks has been awarded a Section 319 Nonpoint Source Implementation Grant by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The grant total award will be $1,000,000 applied over four years (2012-2015) toward stormwater best management practices to reduce nonpoint source pollutants in Springfield and Greene County. A variety of water quality improvement projects including rain gardens, rainwater harvesting, native vegetation, vegetative filters, infiltration trenches, streetscapes projects, riparian restoration projects and retrofits of standard detention basins will be implemented in four targeted sub-watersheds; Jordan Creek, Fassnight Creek, South Creek and Pea Ridge Creek. The project name is the Springfield/Greene County Urban Watershed Stewardship Project, which has been dubbed the Big Urbie.

Project partners include Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, city of Springfield Storm Water Services Division, Greene County Resource Management, Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute, Missouri State Project WET, James River Basin Partnership and Ozark Greenways.

Since the DNR Section 319 Grant has multiple partners, a grant webpage called Big Urbie, was created and is maintained by the city of Springfield. Please visit the Big Urbie website to find project details, milestones, pictures, updates and current news.