VENTURA COUNTY – The Los Angeles Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers has selected Ventura County Public Works Agency’s Happy Valley Bioswale Meiners Oaks Urban Low Impact Development (LID) Retrofit as 2016 Environmental Engineering Project of the Year.
The stormwater treatment retrofit is a project of the Ventura County Public Works Agency’s Watershed Protection District (VCPWA WPD), helmed by Stormwater Program Manager Ewelina Mutkowska and the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. The project was recognized for benefiting the community, enhancing watershed health, integration of land and water resources management, its application of engineering principals, overcoming challenges and effective collaboration between public agency and land conservancy.
Earlier this year, VCPWA WPD designed and constructed Happy Valley Bioswale, an enhanced vegetated swale, to reduce urban runoff pollutant loading to the Happy Valley Drain, a tributary of the Ventura River. Located in Ojai Valley Land Conservancy’s Ojai Meadows Preserve, the bioswale was installed in order to meet State water quality objectives, but also to provide a safe habitat for wildlife in the native plants included in the design. The project blends elements of engineering and natural biological processes to remove a variety of pollutants from urban stormwater runoff while supporting natural habitats. The improvement will benefit aquatic life and recreational users by reducing high nitrogen levels which can cause excessive algae growth and deplete oxygen in the water. The stormwater catchment area covers about 40 percent of the urban area of Meiners Oaks.
“It is a great honor for our work in the Meiners Oaks community to be recognized,” said Mutkowska. “The project represents the future of urban stormwater management, and we look forward to applying these strategies and techniques to forthcoming county projects.”