Students create rain garden

Members of the Maryland Sustainability Engineering group embrace rainy days as an opportunity to preserve the plants and animals that live in local waterways.

The 30-person organization created the Guilford Run Bioretention Facility — a rainwater garden located on a strip of land between Lot 1 and Campus Drive — with the help of a $9,000 grant from the 2010-2011 University Sustainability Fund, a pool of money which is generated from the $6 mandatory student sustainability fee. Although completed in April, the rainwater garden is up and running this semester.

The project helps slow down the flow of rainwater that runs from the campus parking lots into Guilford Run — a local waterway near the campus — to help minimize erosion on the stream banks caused by fast-moving water, student project leader Phil Sandborn said. Essentially, the project lessens the amount of pollution that flows into nearby creeks and streams.

The facility absorbs rainwater into the ground with a soil-and-sand mixture. It then travels through a bed of gravel at the bottom and through a perforated pipe before finally reaching the creek, according to Sandborn.

"It's not necessarily diverting the water from the creek," he said. "The storm water from the parking lot is going into the creek anyway, but it slows the water down."

The campus' layout was ideal for this sort of project, which helps preserve the area's landscape, Sandborn said.

"Because we have so many roads, sidewalks and buildings on campus, the [rain] water doesn't have a chance to get into the ground," he said.

The garden also features a variety of native plants that feed off nitrogen and phosphorous — two chemicals that are picked up by rainwater when it hits pavement — filtering the chemicals out of the collected rainwater before it pollutes waterways like Guilford Run.

Student project leader Brennan Keegan said athough the team faced several challenges, such as uncooperative weather when construction began in January, seeing the project in action has made it worth the time and frustration.

"It snowed a couple of times and that was annoying, but overall it was a great experience to finally get the project realized," he said.

Keegan said he hoped creating the facility would encourage students to launch more eco-friendly initiatives on the campus and the surrounding area to help make the university a role model in sustainability.

"There's so much urban area around, and the more bioretention projects that pop up around the area is going to help wildlife ecosystems," Keegan said. "It's important for us to showcase sustainable technology, and I think it's a great way of showing the university's commitment to sustainability."

Fran Avendaño, the Office of Sustainability communications coordinator, said because this project is entirely student-driven, it may help inspire other students to launch initiatives of their own.

"It will really serve as a model for what students can do using their research and knowledge and apply it to a substantial and practical project where we can experiment and use the campus as a living lab to really move toward sustainability," Avendaño said.

The sustainability fund served as a critical resource for students looking to create and develop their own initiatives on the campus, Sandborn said, noting the student group's plans to apply for the green fund again for other projects.

"The sustainability fund makes it easy for students," Sandborn said. "These projects are about bringing creative ideas together with other people so you can really hash out the details and turn the ideas into reality."

Sandborn said he hopes other students now realize they have the ability and resources to help further the university's sustainability goals.

"It starts this rotation of people coming up with projects and getting funds," he said. "I think everybody ought to be able to come up with some kind of project idea and pitch it to start this idea of actually making a difference with something on campus."

saravia@umdbk.com