The
West Dakota Water Development District and a group of Rapid City area businesses
are funding upgrades recommended by a team of South
Dakota Mines students
at the Trinity Eco Prayer Park in downtown Rapid City. The upgrades will
increase the water flow capacity and provide easier maintenance at the park. This
will help maintain the original intent of the park, which is to slow, spread, infiltrate,
and naturally filter the stormwater that runs off part of downtown before it
enters Rapid Creek. Most importantly, the project also creates opportunity for
a living laboratory where future students can study urban runoff, associated
water quality issues, and sustainable stormwater management practices.
Urban
runoff is a major contributor to pollution in waterways around the world. In
general, precipitation falls onto a rooftop, runs across a parking lot and into
a curb and gutter where it drops into a storm sewer making its way to a local water
body. During this process the water never comes into contact with soil, which
is our natural filter. Hence, the runoff is untreated. To deal with this
problem, many cities have installed natural treatment systems, known as green
infrastructure or low impact development practices. This allows runoff that is
shed by city streets, parking lots and sidewalks to be filtered before entering
into local streams and rivers.
Trinity
Eco Prayer Park, which is owned by the Trinity Lutheran Church Foundation,
operates as a public park with over a dozen sustainability features. Some of
those help protect water in Rapid Creek, which is known for excellent trout
fishing. Renovations at the park are now underway thanks to public-private
partnerships that include funding and donations from a number of entities. The
West Dakota Water Development District is granting $24,500 in funding for the
project that comes on top of $15,000 from the Trinity Lutheran Church Endowment
Foundation. Other donors who are helping to make this project a reality include
TerraSite Design, a Rapid City-based landscape architecture and engineering
firm and a Mines alumni-owned business that pledged $5,000 in in-kind services;
RCS
Construction, an
alumni-owned business that donated $3,000; Doyle Concrete, which pledged $3,000 in in-kind
services; Hanson Mapping and Survey, which offered in-kind services totaling
$2,000; and Pike at Play Excavation, an alumni-owned business, which is doing the demo and dirt
work at cost. Several more donors are needed to cover the entire cost of the
$66,010 in improvements.
“These
funders are visionaries who understand this park is something unique that is
turning the otherwise unsightly problem of urban runoff into a community
asset,” says Park Director Ken Steinken, a member of Trinity Lutheran Church
and one of the visionaries for the park itself.
Eirik
Heikes, president of TerraSite Design, was the original landscape architect on
the project that helped to make the park a reality with best practices and the
appropriate types of vegetation for the different biomes. “TerraSite is honored
to be able to continue with the upgrades to this great example of bio-diversity
and sustainability in our community,” says Heikes. “We hope it will inspire
others to do the same. Good science, like design, is in a constant process of
refinement.”
“This
project not only helps reduce pollution into Rapid Creek, it will help us
better understand, study and design sustainable stormwater management solutions
for future projects,” says Jason Phillips, a Ph.D. graduate student in the
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at South Dakota Mines and staff
member of TerraSite Design. “This living laboratory allows local students, from
Mines, Western Dakota Tech, or area high schools to get valuable
hands-on-experience and research/monitor the performance of this park. During
their studies some may even come up with new ideas to tackle this global
challenge.”
The
idea for infrastructure upgrades to increase the water flow and filtration
capacity at the park began in 2017. Mines student Andrea Vargas was undertaking
a study on pollinators in urban areas when a major rainstorm hit the park.
During the storm, Vargas noted that the infrastructure was not adequate to
handle larger storms as water overflowed onto sidewalks before filling up the
main pond and channel. The next year she and a team of Mines students, including
Ben Holkeboer and Danielle Tourtillott, undertook the senior design project to
study and recommend infrastructure upgrades for the park. In early 2020, TerraSite
Design in collaboration with Steinken further developed and enhanced design
concepts to increase water flow capacity, increase sediment removal and improve
the ability to research and monitor the park’s performance. These concepts were
developed into a grant proposal by Steinken and Phillips and presented to the
Western Dakota Water Development District board. The board funded the project
to implement the upgrades. The multiple contributions and collaboration between
South Dakota Mines and project design professionals are measurable and a
working model for continued improvement of the park.
“We
are very honored that our project contributed to the upgrade of the Trinity Eco
Prayer Park,” says Vargas. “We hope that with this upgrade the City of Rapid
City gets to see and learn all the amazing benefits stormwater rain gardens can
bring to both the community and the environment.”
The
upgrades include a sediment catchment basin where water flows in from the
surrounding block. This basin will increase flow time and thus increases the
settling of larger sediment. It also allows water and sediment inflows to be
measured. Upgrades are also being made to the sidewalk crossings and to increase
the channel capacity.
“The
park is designed to be a model for stewardship,” says Steinken. “This is really
exciting for us to see this happen. We hope this can be an inspiration for
others to design ecofriendly and cost-effective solutions.”