New Johnston County Agricultural Center incorporates leading-edge water-quality methods
Bill Lord and Ken Bateman stand at a Johnston County Agricultural Center retention pond.
Photos this page by Art Latham
North Carolina Cooperative Extension's Johnston County staff is proud of the water-quality-enhancing efforts incorporated into the new $5 million Johnston County Agricultural Center, which includes Extension's county offices.
"The original plans several years ago were to make the place as Neuse River-friendly as possible," Ken Bateman, Johnston County Extension director, said recently. "The two big items were our on-site reclaimed rainwater use and incorporating multiple bioretention beds to store and treat stormwater runoff from the building and parking lots."
Reclaimed wastewater is not drinkable, but its many uses - including agricultural and other irrigation - saves precious drinking water. The fact that all the new center's grounds are irrigated with reclaimed water testifies to the practicality of wastewater use, especially since Extension urges farmers and nurserymen to use reclaimed wastewater for irrigation.
"Since the nursery business in Johnston County, which reports $64 million annually in farm gate sales, lists water as its top expense," Bateman said, "we think we should show interested groups that reclaimed water is a good product, so we're using it. And not only using it, but treating it before we put it back into the groundwater."
"We needed to practice what we preach," said Bill Lord, Extension Neuse Education Team member and area specialized agent in environmental education for Johnston and several other counties.
As the Clayton area faced mushrooming growth a few years back, Bateman said, Johnston County officials realized that their water treatment plant wouldn't be able to handle new subdivisions' predicted strain on the system. But despite official approval, reclaimed water use was not an easy sell.
"At that time," Bateman said, "no private lands were irrigated by treated water. But now, even people who were a bit hesitant to use reclaimed water are saying 'Gosh, I wish I could water with it at home.'
"Tim Broom, the county engineer, had the foresight to say we could put reclaimed water on the new golf courses, businesses, homes and farms," said Bateman. "He said, 'On the approach to Disney World, all that sprinkling you see is reclaimed water. If they can do it, we can too.' The plan was that the county offered treated water to golf courses, and we told farmers we wanted them to use the reclaimed water as often as they could up to the point that it started impacting production through waterlogging."
The county center is an environmentalist's realized dream. Everything - from the large parking lot (located to the side to avoid a "Big Box" look) that channels stormwater runoff through cut concrete stanchions and rock channels to planted bioretention areas, to cast-iron stormwater drain covers emblazoned with "this drains to the river" - are environmentally friendly.
The parking lots were graded to feed stormwater runoff to flat grassy areas that slow and filter the water before it runs into two large bioretention beds. The beds allow collected stormwater to soak into the ground, preventing downstream flooding, and removing most sediment, heavy metals and many excess nutrients. Builders incorporated two more bioretention beds into the landscape to store and treat stormwater runoff from the building's roof. Even the sediment basins built to trap sediment-laden stormwater from the building's construction phase will convert to stormwater wetlands once the site completely stabilizes.
As they do on the county's agricultural fields that use reclaimed water, vegetative buffers border streams around the center. And as it does in the fields, extra water returns to groundwater after the buffer, acting as a backup, picks up excess nutrients.
"Every part-per-million of nitrogen we use here reduces the amount going into the Neuse, thus reducing the county's obligation to pay for too much nitrogen use under the Neuse Rules," Bateman said.
The county center's reclaimed water demonstrations someday will include seven turfgrass areas and an arboretum.
"Our dream is to put in a diverse landscape where people can see not only the plant, but the plant in its proper setting," he said.
Which means there's still some work to be done at the center.
"We've set ourselves up as an example," Lord said. "Now we have to make it work."
- Art Latham
"The original plans several years ago were to make the place as Neuse River-friendly as possible," Ken Bateman, Johnston County Extension director, said recently. "The two big items were our on-site reclaimed rainwater use and incorporating multiple bioretention beds to store and treat stormwater runoff from the building and parking lots."
Reclaimed wastewater is not drinkable, but its many uses - including agricultural and other irrigation - saves precious drinking water. The fact that all the new center's grounds are irrigated with reclaimed water testifies to the practicality of wastewater use, especially since Extension urges farmers and nurserymen to use reclaimed wastewater for irrigation.
From top to bottom: Lord points out a stormwater parking lot escape route. The center's lawn sprinkler system uses recalimed water. Bateman inspects a bioretention bed. A drain cover reads, do not dump -- Drains to river."
"We needed to practice what we preach," said Bill Lord, Extension Neuse Education Team member and area specialized agent in environmental education for Johnston and several other counties.
As the Clayton area faced mushrooming growth a few years back, Bateman said, Johnston County officials realized that their water treatment plant wouldn't be able to handle new subdivisions' predicted strain on the system. But despite official approval, reclaimed water use was not an easy sell.
"At that time," Bateman said, "no private lands were irrigated by treated water. But now, even people who were a bit hesitant to use reclaimed water are saying 'Gosh, I wish I could water with it at home.'
"Tim Broom, the county engineer, had the foresight to say we could put reclaimed water on the new golf courses, businesses, homes and farms," said Bateman. "He said, 'On the approach to Disney World, all that sprinkling you see is reclaimed water. If they can do it, we can too.' The plan was that the county offered treated water to golf courses, and we told farmers we wanted them to use the reclaimed water as often as they could up to the point that it started impacting production through waterlogging."
The county center is an environmentalist's realized dream. Everything - from the large parking lot (located to the side to avoid a "Big Box" look) that channels stormwater runoff through cut concrete stanchions and rock channels to planted bioretention areas, to cast-iron stormwater drain covers emblazoned with "this drains to the river" - are environmentally friendly.
The parking lots were graded to feed stormwater runoff to flat grassy areas that slow and filter the water before it runs into two large bioretention beds. The beds allow collected stormwater to soak into the ground, preventing downstream flooding, and removing most sediment, heavy metals and many excess nutrients. Builders incorporated two more bioretention beds into the landscape to store and treat stormwater runoff from the building's roof. Even the sediment basins built to trap sediment-laden stormwater from the building's construction phase will convert to stormwater wetlands once the site completely stabilizes.
As they do on the county's agricultural fields that use reclaimed water, vegetative buffers border streams around the center. And as it does in the fields, extra water returns to groundwater after the buffer, acting as a backup, picks up excess nutrients.
"Every part-per-million of nitrogen we use here reduces the amount going into the Neuse, thus reducing the county's obligation to pay for too much nitrogen use under the Neuse Rules," Bateman said.
The county center's reclaimed water demonstrations someday will include seven turfgrass areas and an arboretum.
"Our dream is to put in a diverse landscape where people can see not only the plant, but the plant in its proper setting," he said.
Which means there's still some work to be done at the center.
"We've set ourselves up as an example," Lord said. "Now we have to make it work."
- Art Latham