Work on Stoney Creek sets water quality as goal
By Ty Johnson
Published in News on June 13, 2011 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MICHAEL K. DAKOTA
Earth-moving equipment is being used to create small levees and barriers to control flooding from Stoney Creek near Ridgewood in Goldsboro.
The city of Goldsboro's Department of Engineering, along with Kimley-Horn and Associates, is in the middle of a nearly four-month project to restore Stoney Creek's stream in an effort to improve the water quality of the Neuse River Basin.
Using Clean Water Management Trust Fund money, engineers are clearing brush and trees along the banks of the creek behind Camron's Clubhouse and Grill on Ash Street to create a flood plain channel to allow the water to travel through the flood plain and be treated naturally by vegetation that will be planted there.
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund, a state fund, has awarded nearly 1,500 grants totaling more than $961 million since the General Assembly created the fund in 1996. Projects selected must aim to clean impaired waters and project the remaining pristine waters of the state, according to the fund's website.
Ryan Lewis, an engineer with Kimley-Horn and Associates, the city's consultant in the project, said the aim of the work at Stoney Creek is to improve the water quality of the stream as it heads to the Neuse River. Although the project might serve certain secondary purposes as well, for instance, protecting the area from the flooding that has occurred historically, the grant stipulates that the project must primarily be to stabilize streams for the sake of improved water quality.
Lewis said the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the creek back when Goldsboro was being developed to straighten the channel. Piling the displaced dirt onto the banks of the creek cut the channel off from its flood plain, something this project will fix by using a more natural stream design to stabilize the area.
Lewis said the work began about two months ago, but that rain delays had slowed the pace. He said it was anticipated that the project would be completed in the next month and a half to two months.