Embodying The Mission: Outreach
Auburn Engineering partners with city of Auburn to improvement stormwater at city park
By Dustin Duncan
Auburn engineers are making an impact in their own backyard with a stormwater project at Hickory Dickory Park — a public playground on the north side of Auburn — to protect and improve water quality.
The effort, a partnership between Auburn University and the city of Auburn, is funded by an Alabama Department of Environmental Management grant.
The project will stabilize streambanks, redirect runoff and apply proven stormwater practices — improvements designed to protect local waterways and enhance residents’ quality of life.
Michael Perez, director of the Auburn University Stormwater Research Facility, said the work addresses long-standing issues in Auburn’s streams and creeks.
“Many of our waterways are impaired,” Perez said. “Parkerson Mill Creek, which runs through campus, is impaired for pathogens. The tributary that runs through Hickory Dickory drains to the Sougahatchee Creek, which later flows to the Tallapoosa River, and that system has its own impairments.”
The project centers on stabilizing the streambank through Hickory Dickory Park, where years of stormwater surges had carved steep, unstable banks.
“Our first goal was to stabilize the stream by cutting back the vertical walls, widening the flood plain and reducing erosion,” Perez said. “That helps keep sediment from washing downstream.”
The second part of the project redirects stormwater runoff from the park and parking lots. Auburn researchers installed stabilized channels and three bioretention cells to capture water before it reaches the stream.
“By collecting and treating it first, we can slowly release it over time instead of letting it cause more erosion,” Perez said.
Perez said the stormwater facility has spent years developing and testing stormwater management practices and has a reputation for practical, research-based work.
“Now we get to take what we’ve studied at the Stormwater Research Facility and put it into practice,” he said.
The Hickory Dickory Park project is part of a larger stormwater initiative supported through the ADEM grant. The AU stormwater group and the city of Auburn are hosting rain-barrel workshops where participants receive free barrels and learn how to use them for irrigation in their gardens.
“Collecting rainwater reduces runoff, it prevents pollutants from entering streams and saves money and conserves resources,” Perez said. “We’re also teaching people how to maintain the barrels and raising awareness about stormwater management in our local community.”
Other elements include installing 50 pet waste stations around town to encourage pet waste pickup and reduce contamination into water bodies.
“This is about improving our water quality, protecting our streams and giving people the tools to make a difference,” Perez said.
Researchers