George Hellwig Memorial Park
This is how the Park Authority is protecting environmental resources at Hellwig Park.
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This is what's there now that's being damaged. |
Upstream, stormwater runs off a 300+ car parking lot and ballfields. The water, carrying oil/grease from cars as well as nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment from the fields, flows into a stormwater pond. The water exits the pond, and is slowed by a check dam at the edge of the Conservation Area. |
Engineers determined that the water discharged from the pond had to be slowed to 2.5 feet/second, to minimize erosion of the natural wetlands in the Conservation Area. Until a "level spreader" is installed, the check dam and a silt fence are supposed to prevent excessive siltation and erosion downstream. It is obvious that the Park Authority has not ensured the effectiveness of the barrier, which has completely silted up and permits stormwater to flow rapidly into the natural wetlands.
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A rare natural pond on private land, outside the boundaries of Hellwig Park, is protected by a conservation easement. The proposed Hellwig Highway would alter drainage, pouring sediment and road runoff into this natural site. |
The site plan filed by the Park Authority for the Hellwig Ballfields Development states "This channel contains documented wetlands and is to be left undisturbed in order to preserve the natural conditions." Instead, the Park Authority carved a channel through the wetlands, placing barricades on each side and planting grass species that did not grow naturally at the site. |
At the edge of the "undisturbed" Conservation Area, the Park Authority acknowledged the massive amount of stormwater it would be channelling downstream by building levees. |
 Native wetland plants remain in the undisturbed portion of the wetland, but that section is threatened by the proposed road. |
The proposed location of the "level spreader" is currently an artificial dam. The spreader is designed to reduce the speed at which stormwater washes into the Conservation Area... but it's hard to believe that the erosive force already demonstrated at this location will be diminished enough to protect the stream channel downstream. |
View of raw earth from construction, ponding behind check dam, and location of proposed "level spreader." |
Cinnamon fern, Royal fern, and skink cabbage - wetland species that can not tolerate raw sediment being piled on their roots. |
In the Conservation Area, between the levees and barriers to channel the stormwater, the Park Authority has placed jute maats - similar to rugs used in a summer porch. That engineering soolution to "harden" the ground to handle excessive stormwater runoff clearly violates the commitment to leave the Consrvation Area "undisturbed in order to preserve the natural conditions." |
Edge of natural pond on private land, which Park Authority claims it will leave "undisturbed in order to preserve the natural conditions" during construction of Hellwig Highway. |
Edge of Conservation Area, where disturbance was supposed to end and conservation was supposed to begin.
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The Park Authority must assume no one is watching, and no one cares about broken promises, violations of law, or protection of natural areas on public and private land. |
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