Addressing Stormwater Pollution in the Ben Walters Area

Stormwater generated in east downtown Homer has used Beluga lake marshlands and the upper Beluga slough marshlands as a de facto treatment area.   Yet, much of this runoff is conveyed in a direct manner to the lake and enters Palmer creek via the Beluga Lake wier.  As such, any treatment benefits provided by marshlands is mostly bypassed and urban runoff with associated pollutants is conveyed directly to Kachemak Bay. The Ben Walters main stormwater discharge area runs on the border of a popular COH park adjoining Beluga Lake at its southern (discharge) end.   The Homer green infrastructure initiative seeks to address stormwater runoff in the COH to continue towards Lower Impact Development (LID, Kinney, 2020). This project seeks to add an additional property to this system in order to facilitate additional stormwater treatment capacity, and re-direct all remaining stormwater discharge of this area more efficiently through the freshwater wetlands that border these properties and Beluga Lake.  This project is conceptual at this time and is being designed by Coble Geophysical Services.

Linked below is a map of Ben Walters stormwater treatment plan.