City of Peachtree Corners Installs Bioswales on Bankers Industrial

To assist with water quality and lessen the impacts of potential flooding, earlier this year, the City of Peachtree Corners installed a bioswale on Bankers Industrial Drive. A bioswale is a shallow, landscaped depression in the ground that collects, filters and treats stormwater runoff. Bioswales are designed to reduce flooding, filter pollutants and slow runoff.

This project began as an offshoot of the Georgia Environmental Protection Department’s Nancy Creek Watershed Improvement Plan.  The city participated due to the headwaters of Nancy Creek being located inside Peachtree Corners city limits around Bankers Industrial Drive.  

To help fund the project, the city applied for and was awarded federal Section 319(h) funds of $400,000 for design and construction. The city was then required to provide a local match of $392,749.  

About the project

The Bankers Industrial area is heavily urbanized, with many impervious areas, including large buildings, parking lots and connecting road networks, which are common in industrial complexes. The area typically sheds large volumes of stormwater runoff, which has caused localized flooding and water quality impacts downstream in the tributary of Nancy Creek.

This project installed 10 (ten) linear bioretention cells/bioswales totaling up to 13,000 square feet in area within the city right-of-way along Bankers Industrial Drive. The linear bioretention cells/bioswales were installed as a retrofit into the landscaped areas adjacent to parking lots, roadways and/or large rooftops within the existing stormwater drainage system. The bioswales infiltrate and treat stormwater before its discharge to the existing system.

As the system previously existed, most stormwater infrastructure discharged directly to the Nancy Creek tributary without any treatment or attenuation since the area was developed before the current Georgia Stormwater Management Manual (GSMM) design standards.

This project demonstrates watershed improvements by retrofitting and installing updated stormwater controls, green infrastructure and stormwater treatment within a heavily urbanized area while leveraging dedicated funding sources, including the city’s stormwater utility.

Environmental benefits

In addition to managing nonpoint source pollution, the project provides several other environmental benefits, including the reduction in volume and rate of runoff flow into the tributary of Nancy Creek.

The excessive volume generated by impervious surfaces in the headwaters of the watershed has damaged the health of the tributary downstream, impacting aquatic habitat and increasing the sediment loads carried into Nancy Creek.

This project is expected to infiltrate approximately 4 million gallons of runoff per year and provide an effective solution for addressing water quality impacts by addressing runoff reduction and infiltrating stormwater runoff.

For more information, visit peachtreecornersga.gov/civicalerts.