If all goes according to plan, come June contractors for the Prince George’s County Department of the Environment (DOE) will begin an outfall and stream restoration project northwest of the basketball court at University Square apartments. The Greenbelt City Council received a briefing from Adeel Malik, senior engineer at the DOE, on Monday, December 3. The agreement between the city and DOE will likely be placed upon the agenda of a January council meeting for approval, Director of Planning and Community Development Terri Hruby said. This work is one of five outfall restoration pilot projects the DOE is undertaking. The work is expected to take four to six months, including restoration, inspections and closeout actions. The project is funded by the same county stormwater tax as the forebay restoration projects last year. The project will be fully funded by the county, which will also be responsible for all future maintenance. While the overall plan was discussed at this meeting, some details, such as work hours and minimizing the impact on traffic in and out of Belle Point, will not be available until the preconstruction meeting is held next year. The outfall is located between University Square and Pinecrest Court. All access will be through Lakecrest Drive. Roughly 0.78 acres will be disturbed. Construction equipment will not be placed upon private property although some equipment may be stored on city-owned property in the area.
Current Conditions
Malik said that the outfall itself is in relatively good condition. However, the evaluation observed significant erosion in the adjacent stream, which feeds into Greenbelt Lake. As a result, instead of the 25 linear feet initially identified, 465 linear feet will now be restored, taking it all the way to the lake forebay. The project is expected to eliminate streambed and bank erosion and improve water quality in Greenbelt Lake. The contractors will be using natural materials for the restoration and will not install any concrete or other manmade structures. Malik said that the county will replant many more trees, plants and shrubs than are removed. Similar to the project a few years ago along Hillside Road, the restored stream will have eight ponds along its path. These are intended to slow stormwater down to reduce the amount of erosion. A number of trees will be removed including some sizable ones but according to Malik, the trees they are removing would eventually be undercut and fall into the stream. Some already have exposed roots.
Beavers
There are beavers living in the area that will be disturbed. Malik expects that they will relocate themselves during construction. Once the project is complete, the beavers may return, as they have done after previous projects.