Over the previous decade, untreated stormwater at the Howard University School of Law’s Parking lot consistently overtopped an existing curb at a flooded storm drain inlet, eroding a 14-foot-wide, 6-foot-deep gulley and carrying sediment and pollutants into a tributary to Soapstone Creek. Howard University and their design/build team decided to retrofit the parking lot with 5,500 square feet of permeable pavement, 4,000+ square feet of bioretention, and converted a half acre of turf to a native plant meadow to treat the runoff and provide native habitat for a variety of pollinators, insects, birds, and other native species. With the stormwater practices designed to provide a stable conveyance of runoff, excavated material from these practices was then used to fill and stabilize the eroded gulley, further reducing a potential sediment source to the Soapstone Creek Tributary, and providing substantial cost savings to the project.
