CIB assists local community with drainfield conversion project

The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, with support from the state’s Community Water Quality Improvement Grant Program, is working to convert 10 acres of former drainfield in a Cape Region community to a more natural landscape.

The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays promotes water quality through research, education and restoration. As Sussex County converts more sewer systems from septic to central wastewater treatment, what to do with the retired drainfields is a concern for many, and converting them to meadows and/or forests is one possible solution with many benefits.

In the 1980s, centralized or community drainfields were a popular choice for saving costs and space in developments. However, those fields generated significant nonpoint source pollution to the Inland Bays by discharging nitrogen and phosphorus into the waterways. Redirecting the discharges from these drainfields to wastewater treatment plants will help improve water quality in the bays.

One area community, Chapel Green in Lewes, wants to convert its former drainfield to a reforested area. In response, the center plans to install nine acres of meadow and one acre of forest on top of the drainfield over the next year.

Drainfield conversions like the one at Chapel Green create lower-maintenance natural areas that provide valuable habitat and food for wildlife, trees that promote cleaner air, and improvements to stormwater and water quality. Converting the former turf field to a more natural landscape will also reduce fertilizer and mowing costs.

The Center for the Inland Bays has planted more than 150 acres of forests in the last 17 years, and it started piloting a new style of forest last year that grows quickly and adapts to expected conditions related to climate change.

“A mixture of species planted promotes more diverse wildlife species,” said Meghan Noe Fellows, CERP, project manager and CIB Estuary Science and Restoration director. “Planting two habitats, both meadow and forest, maximizes resilience to climate change, protects the open-space feel of the land, and also begins to bring back the services of our natural landscape, like habitats for plants and animals, and food for pollinators like bees and butterflies.”

The Community Water Quality Improvement Fund supports innovative projects that work to improve water quality throughout the state. Many local communities are eager to see the Chapel Green project's outcome, hoping their own drainfields might be the next to benefit from this treatment.

"Residents of Chapel Green are enthusiastic about the possibilities that reforesting and establishing meadow lands present,” said Mary Gears and Jean Rothenburger of the Chapel Green HOA. “People have volunteered to do the work that it will take to have a positive outcome in our community."

For more information about the project, email Meghan Noe Fellows at mnoefellows@inlandbays.org.

The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays is a nonprofit organization established in 1994 and one of 28 National Estuary Programs. With its many partners, the center works to preserve, protect and restore Delaware’s Inland Bays and their watershed. Learn more at inlandbays.org.