Pines On The Severn Celebrates Completion Of Micro-Bioretention Basin Project

The Pines on the Severn Community Improvement Association (PCIA) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of its new micro-bioretention basin project in Arnold on June 18.

Major funding for this project was provided by a $25,000 grant through a Chesapeake Bay Trust and Anne Arundel County watershed restoration award. Additional funding for the project was provided by Unity Gardens and PCIA.

The 5,000-square-foot best management practice (BMP) micro-bioretention basin was designed to slow down, filter and treat stormwater from impervious surfaces including a parking lot and adjacent basketball and tennis courts.

The project includes a swale along the edge of the parking lot and sports courts to channel runoff into the basin to be filtered. Plantings below the basin on the slope to Pine Bluff will slow down, filter and treat additional stormwater and feature hearty, deep-rooted, low-maintenance native species.

The benefits of the project are that erosion on the hillside has been reduced significantly and stormwater from the area is now filtered. The project also reduces pollution content and the volume of stormwater runoff entering Chase Creek, improving the environment and enhancing the quality of life for the Pines community and vast ecosystem in adjacent waterways including the Chesapeake Bay.

Project partners included Chesapeake Bay Trust, Anne Arundel County Bureau of Watershed Protection and Restoration, Unity Gardens, Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy, Welspryng LLC, Arnold Preservation Council and Winchester on the Severn.

Pines on the Severn is an incorporated residential community of 238 homes located on the east bank of the Severn River north of Annapolis in Arnold. The community is a designated clean water community by Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy.