SPEAKER_04 0:00

It's been about 18. Well, the project's been going on a little bit longer just because there's a design phase and such. But on the ground, I think, well, we we constructed a bioswale at Ken Rock last spring. And then uh fall of 2024, we constructed a bioswale at Parker Woods. And both of those are Rockford uh Park District Parks, so you can go and check them out, and that's what they're forgetting.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Here with us today in Rockford Public Library Podcast Studio, we have Rebecca Olson. Rebecca is the founding environmental scientist with Olson Ecological Solutions. She is here to talk to us, to Lara Griffin and I about biosoils and the health and safety of our water here in Rockford. I'm gonna start with Lara. Lara, you have been building a tribe within our Rockford Public Library audience that's interested in environmental issues. Lara, can you describe um RPL Green efforts?

SPEAKER_05 1:26

Yeah, RPL Green Efforts, it's a sustainable initiative for a better planet that is launched by RPL, the Rockford Public Library. And it started out with uh a seed library. Uh we had a community member come to us and say, like, would you be open to having a seed library? And it is how it got started. We then were able to get donations of native seeds this past year. And so that's one of the ways that we're able to put um native seeds out into the community for free. And so I learned about Rebecca through Wild Ones, which is one of our local community organizations that is about sustainability and um the environment. So I went to one of the talks that Rebecca led on um rain gardens. And what caught me why I wanted to go was because it talked about how rain gardens can help with flooding. And I don't know if you're in Rockford if you've experienced flooding, but I have. It's not fun. And so we're finding a natural solution was one of the things that got me to that meeting, and I wanted to learn more. And then through that, I learned from Rebecca more than that, just about bioswales and different ways that we as a community can be a part of improving our environment, um, our water, and um yeah, just through planting native plants.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

Super interesting. I I I think it's um we all learned about a problem that we have with our water. So, Rebecca, can you tell us about the problem that we face here in Rockford with our surface water? Sure.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Uh it's it's a problem in Rockford, but it's a problem pretty much everywhere in the first world country that we live in, uh, where we have we're dealing with more water now than we used to deal with. And the reason is twofold. Uh, first of all, we develop in such a way that we have more pavement on the ground. We have more rooftops, there's just more people and more development. And when you have development in terms of pavement and rooftops, that is called uh impervious surface. And it's just those surfaces don't let water soak into the ground. So we have more surfaces that don't let water soak into the ground than we used to. That water has to go somewhere. Number two, we have more rain. And that is uh something that has been shown with records. The records that we use are 30 years of data. So the 30 years of data that we used to use versus the 30 years of data that we use now shows that there is more rain. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

So when the rain falls out of the sky, it lands on our ground, and more of those surfaces are those impervious surfaces. And so the water then flows into our curb and gutter system and returns to our surface level sources, which are our streams and our river, the rock river or creeks. That's correct. Okay, and when they flow through our curb and gutter system and they don't sink into the ground, they are not filtrated in any way, and they can pick up more contaminants and bring them, the contaminants back to the river. Is that correct? That's correct. Yes. Okay. So when Lara met you, you were discussing a community solution that was being planned, and that is bioswales.

SPEAKER_04 5:27

Can you just define what a bioswale is? Yes. So a bioswale is a it's a landscape feature that is uh think of it as a sunken garden. You know, there's a little swale to it. It carries water from point A to point B. So just like your curb and gutter does, um, the water flows into the beginning of the bioswale and it travels its way down this sunken garden that's uh it's long in shape. In that sunken garden, we have a couple things. We have some rock piles that are strategically placed so that the water will hit this, it makes a dam for the water, but it's not very tall. It might be like a foot tall of rock. So the the water hits this rock and it has a hard time going through it. So the water gets backed up in this bioswale. And it just takes longer to get through the bioswale than it does to get to a curb and gutter. And then the other feature that we put in there is uh what we plant in there. So you've got the water has has time, it has contact with the soil, and it has contact with plants. And the best plants to use are native plants because they have these massive root systems that turns the ground from a compacted soil to a sponge.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Okay, so ground that's more impervious becomes porous. And then the surface water can the storm water can flow through it, and that act of flowing through it will treat it, will remove some of the contaminants. Yes. And the plants that are planted in the bioswale will also are chosen because of their root systems to be excellent filtration.

SPEAKER_04 7:23

Yeah. So the plants will actually uh they'll digest the a lot of the contaminants. Okay. All right. So it really is a solution to them. It's not like we have to collect them and take them somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

It's like they're just they're just not like the contaminants are left on the plants and we have to then clean them out. They're digested and done away with naturally through the process of just being consumed by the plant. Yes. That's that's exciting. That's pretty cool. That's pretty good. Okay. So if if we don't have the biosoils and the storm water falls from the sky and it just hits our curve and gutter system and and rushes back to the rivers, and what happens? What happens if the contaminants just get back into the rivers?

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Well, what happens is we have a couple of problems that people will face and wildlife will face. Yes. We have algae blooms that are caused by some of the nutrients built up of nutrients in the water. And we have our lakes and streams will fill up faster because of the sediment that will get into the water. Um, and we have bacteria that is harmful, fecal coliform bacteria. Fecal, fecal.

SPEAKER_05 8:47

Fecal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:48

Yeah. So it is a what's fecal?

SPEAKER_05 8:51

What is fecal?

SPEAKER_04 8:52

Fecal is poop. Yeah. So it is we we get too much poop in our water.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Poop. And animal poop, human, human poop.

SPEAKER_04 9:01

Well, it could be both because septic systems or sewer systems. Sometimes sewer systems could leak.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

Yes. And then otherwise it can be livestock or it can be from geese. You know, there's a lot of places where geese will congregate.

SPEAKER_00 9:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

And uh that poop will just and they poop a lot.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

We are here on the banks of the Rock River at the New Main Library. The New Main Rockford Public Library, we contend with goose poop quite regularly.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

The the geese don't have to poop straight into the water. It just gets washed in there by the rain. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Okay. All right. So these bioswales are put into place, and then the the storm water flows more slowly, is absorbed by the plants, and then our our river and and lakes that are fed by our river are cleaner. So they're cleaner. So we can be in them. We can swim in them, we can water ski in them, and we can and and will it get to our drinking water or it hits our water treatment plant um cleaner already? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

And water treatment plant, uh it's it's a it's our tax dollars at work. Okay. So the more water we send to the water treatment plant, the more we have to pay. The dirtier the water is, the more we have to pay. So that's another benefit to us.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Okay, yeah, sure. That does make sense. Okay. So um, how long does it take for a bioswale to be productive?

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Well, right away we have reshaped the earth and used the rocks to slow the water down. So as soon as it's built, it is productive. It's more productive than it was the way it was. Uh and then when the plants fill in, then we finally reach that designed productivity. Right. Uh, after um, I mean, it's a gradual process, but three to five years. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

So cool. And do we and and so when Lara you met Rebecca, did we at any point, did we have bioswales already in our area at the time you met last a year ago?

SPEAKER_05 11:25

Maybe one?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Maybe one.

SPEAKER_05 11:27

Yeah. There was one. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 11:31

Yeah. Yes, we had one at Levings. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And there might be one other one in town, but I'm not sure how visible it is. But Levings Liverpool has a as an example. Okay. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_05 11:43

Nicholas has a small one. Nicholas Conservatory has a small little demonstration.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

They do now. Probably not when we met, but it's in place now. Okay. Yeah. Well, it's more of a it's a little bit different. Okay. Over at the Nicholas Conservatory. But up in Cinnesippi Park, there is a rain garden, which is uh, you know, the bioswale we talked about it being a sunken garden and kind of linear in shape so that the water can flow through it. A rain garden is is uh also a sunken garden, but it's more of a detention basin shape.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:19

And there's one of those at Cinnesippi that's old enough to be look like it's designed to look like.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

The plants have all filled in.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Cool. Okay. So um, so that's interesting. So, you know, you met and Laura, you learned from a talk that Rebecca gave to the Wild Ones group about um different gardens, rain gardens, and things. And Rebecca, you were working, Olsen Ecological Solutions was working with a number of other agencies in town to um put together a project where you constructed two major bioswales in our area, yes?

SPEAKER_04 12:58

Yes, and we did it as a demonstration so people can come and see what a bioswale is. And there's other parts of this project that not only the demonstration on the ground, but if you were interested, we can give you some technical support toward what you might be able to do on your own property.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Okay. So who were you partnered with in that effort?

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Yes. So first of all, Region 1 Planning Council here in Rockford, uh they spearheaded it. Okay, and they received partial funding from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 13:34

And then the other partners involved were the Rockford Park District, the Soil and Water Conservation District of Winnebago County, Rockford Township, uh, the library, of course, uh the city of Rockford, and Winnebago County, specifically their highway department, and then us. Okay. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

And and we were thrilled to partner with it, but we joined you because there was such a desire to on part of the EPA and Region 1 to make the project educational for our community, which is what we're doing with this podcast right now. As well as um an event that we'll be having on Wednesday um the 23th. April 23rd. April 23rd at 6 p.m. at uh the J.R. Sullivan Theater at RPL's Nord Law Center at 118 North Main, downtown Rockford, where Rebecca Yu and Eric Tyson from Region 1 and um Sean from the from Winnebago County.

SPEAKER_05 14:36

Highway department, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

We'll all be talking about the projects. But what what did you what did our group uh what did we achieve over the last has it been 18 months? Has it been a year? It's been a year.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

It's been about 18. Well, the project's been going on a little bit longer just because there's a design phase and such. But on the ground, I think, well, we we constructed a bioswale at Ken Rock last spring, and then uh fall of 2024, we constructed a bioswale at Parker Woods. And both of those are Rockford uh park district parks, so you can go and check them out, and that's what they're for. Very cool. Yes. And uh Ken Rock is in the city, and it's in a neighborhood that has Kerb and Gutter, and that Kurb and gutter goes straight into Buckby Creek, and even the people that live around there uh might not realize that it's a creek because Buckby Creek at that point is a concrete channel. And so the water, the rain water, hits the rooftop, runs down the gutter, goes into the street, goes down into the sewer pipe, and then you know, you don't see it anymore. But what happens is right at Kenrock Park, it would outlet into Buckby Creek, which is a concrete channel. So think about that. That water has picked up some things along the way, and uh once that would get in the water, that would be considered pollutants. And those things could be, you know, nutrients and sediment from um from you know living things like leaves and grass, and uh it can be um oil and gas from roads, road salts, heavy metals, it can be all kinds of things. And uh in that neighborhood, the water doesn't have a chance to drop them out, they go straight into the creek. And so what we did is we interrupted that path. And instead now of going straight into Buckbee Creek, that water goes from the rooftop, down the gutter, into the so uh uh into the uh pipes underground, and then it spits out into our bioswale instead. And now here's our opportunity, the water's opportunity to uh it needs to slow down, and we have the rock piles in there to slow it down. Um, it needs to interact with soil and plants, and uh as it goes through the soil and plants, it'll it'll soak into the ground and the plants will digest that the nutrients out of that water and the contaminants. Yes, and the contaminants, and then it'll go down the linear sunken garden and do that several times, and then it will get dumped into Buckbee Creek concrete channel, and it will be there in a cleaner form. In a cleaner form. There'll be less water at the end and it'll be cleaner.

SPEAKER_05 17:49

Nice. And I suggest if people like that people would go and see it because it's not small. It is not small. Huge. It's an acre. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Oh, the biosoil is an acre.

SPEAKER_05 18:00

It is huge. And to think about like when I first saw, like before they constructed it, it was just flatland, like you were saying. And then as um when Umbago County came and dug it up, like deep, really deep, then it's cut it's really neat to see with all the plants how all the water is going to be filtered through all of that. And then when you walk past the bioswale, you'll see that creek. Like I had never thought, I'm like, that's a creek, but it's it's it's just all pavement, it's just all concrete. And I'm like, and they call it a creek. So it seems like it's a broader.

SPEAKER_04 18:39

It's a part of the creek that we have just concreted. Yeah. Um, yes. And and what I love about Kenrock is that you can stand between the creek and the bioswale and you can look at both and see the difference. And it's it's really visual. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Okay. So there was the construction, and so the construction of these bioswales is a quite an undertaking. And, you know, we have that's why we have the highway department and you know, everybody showing up with, you know, backhoes and you know, to to dig out an acre in order to and volunteers coming to plant the plants in in the place and everything. Um, that's fantastic. We're the location, there's two locations, right? There was the the um Kenrock that we just talked, you just discussed, and Parker Woods. And Parker Woods. And um what were there reasons why those areas were chosen?

SPEAKER_04 19:43

Okay. Couple reasons. The uh reason that I really enjoy is that Ken Rock is quite urban, like we just talked about with all the concrete. Right. And Parker Woods is in a neighborhood that is kind of a rural residential neighborhood. So they don't have curb and gutter. Instead, they have open swales along the sides of their roads. And you see this a lot uh when you're driving in the country. Um you see on either side of the road there's just a dip a ditch. Sure. And it's mowed. You know, it's mowed grass or it's unmowed grass. So in their development, they have these ditches on the sides of the roads and it's mowed grass. And that's where their water is routed. And then from those um roadside swales, uh, the water would cut through the park and go straight into a creek. And that creek would run to Kent Creek. But the the creek it runs to it doesn't have a name. It's just a small little creek that ends up uh intersecting with Kent Creek. And so there was a beautiful opportunity that we could see. There was already a little bit of shaping to the ground. There was already the the water already had a path there. So uh we're not changing any of that. We're just uh reshaping it gently. We're putting in those rock check dams, they're called, those rock piles I've been talking about to slow it down and putting in the plants and um making the water spend a little more time there.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

Okay, perfect. All right. Yeah, it's it's beautiful too. It's one of the prettiest like areas if you want to check out a bioswale. Um it's just looking at it from the seasons, like going out there from April through today, just seeing how um just seeing how the leaves change and everything, but seeing it's just one of the prettiest areas for a demonstration bioswale.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

So that's great.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Okay. And um it during uh the event here at the library where we're talking more about these bio. Biosoils and their construction, will we be able to see um photography and video of the construction of the biosoil? Yes, absolutely. Good, good. I'm glad. Um, and then hopefully soon enough we'll be able to show you that through our website as well. And um it's it's very exciting. Yeah. Okay, so if if these bios these bioswils are now in place, it's been a long year of construction and planting and winter. And now spring is happening again and and water is certainly flowing. And um, these because of these bioswales and all of the agencies who are involved in the volunteers who were involved in putting them together, we should have cleaner lakes and cleaner river to swim in. The water that is reaching our treatment plants is is doing so in a cleaner way. And yes, it is. We need more of them. We need more bioswales and and yes, and there are other things that people can do aside and what are some things that that people can do to, you know, take better care of their water.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

I'll tell you what people can do at home, but I also want to mention that if people are interested in uh playing a part in these demonstration projects, we do have one more planting day. Oh, actually, we have one more planting uh set of days. Right. And one is Saturday, May 3rd. Right. And the next one is the following Tuesday. Okay. And um people can sign up for that through the Region One Planning Council on their Engage R1 website. Excellent. In fact, they can find out all about the project on that website. We'll include a link to that website and our show notes.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Okay, perfect. Sounds good. Um that's great. So Saturday, May 3rd, yeah, will be another planning day where volunteers are needed, and you can learn about that and and sign up for that opportunity through the Region One website, which we'll include in our show notes. Um, that's exciting. Um how great to be a part of the project, the big community project. What else can people do at home on their own?

SPEAKER_04 24:10

So people can do things at home at different levels. Some some of the things that people can do at home are super easy. And it just has to do with thinking differently about the way you treat your water. And so, um for it it is just just habits. So, for example, when you're mowing your lawn or picking up your leaves, uh, some people put them in the gutter. And it's easy because uh it disappears. Why does it disappear? Because uh the leaves in the grass get washed away into the underground pipes and they go either to the river or they go to the water treatment plant. And either one is a problem um because those leaves and grass, they de they decay, they decompose, right, and they release their nutrients and they release their organic matter, and now it's in our water. That's all right. And either we have to pay to clean it out because it's at the treatment plant, or it went straight into the river. Okay. So uh you can keep your grass clippings and your leaves out of the gutter. Right. Um, you can reuse water, you can use less water, and you can reuse your water. There is a if you uh want to look into gray water, that is a keyword that you can Google and learn just about the idea of reusing water, and there's been some fantastic ways that people reuse water. Um, but at home, it's you can do it really simply. I mean, what you can find when you Google are you know, reusing water through buildings and underground storage and stuff like that. But at home, you can just think about uh, okay, we have a bunch of these every dinner's over and people didn't drink all their water. Well, what do you do with it? Do you go to the sink and you dump it out? And then you go back to that same sink and fill up a pitcher to water your plants. Right. You could just reuse the drinking water.

SPEAKER_05 26:12

My kids' water all the time. They have so many cups. So I just go and dump it in my house plants. And your house plants in your watering can.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Yeah. You can I have a pitcher and it's not clear because this water is going to get a little gooky. Yeah. And that's you keeping the gook out of the system, right? So um, I just have like a metal pitcher sitting by my kitchen sink that I can pour it into. So, you know, it's just at your own time, you can take that gray water and go use it.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yeah, I love that. And then I was surprised and laughing to learn that I could also reuse the water that I boil vegetables in.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

Yes, because that some some of those nutrients have leaked into the water. You've got butter in there, you've got salt maybe.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

So let's not put that down the sink. No. But our houseplants will be fine with it. It's not enough to hurt them. And they will filter it and they will, they will digest it. And so your houseplants will become your filter.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Okay. But if I'm just boiling blood broccoli without butter and salt, that's good for my houseplants.

SPEAKER_04 27:15

Yeah, yeah, it's all good for your houseplants. It's all fine for your houseplants. No matter kind of no matter what's in that water, your houseplants will use it, eat it. Good to learn. Yes. And then the other big one is to minimize the use of your garbage disposals. Oh. Um, so throwing any material, food material down there, it's going to de decompose. And now it's decomposing in our water system. Rather than keeping it out of the water and either composting it, which is the best option. But even if you throw it away, you're keeping it out of the water.

SPEAKER_05 27:53

I had never thought about it that way before.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

Like to keep well, it's good for your when we were young, uh-huh. I I think we were taught to not throw anything away because of the landfills, which is another whole problem. So it's, you know, where are you going to put the composting is best, but um, if you have to choose between put it in our water system and put it in the landfill, I would say put it in the landfill.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

That's my personal opinion on that. So let's say you uh you want to do a little bit more at home, that you're motivated to do a little bit more. You can buy a rain barrel and put it at the end of your gutter. And that will um part of the part of the problem with having all this surface water is that it all comes at one time and it all rushes into the streams at one time. So the rain barrels have to fill up before they release that water. And you can use it as gray water. You can use it to, you know, water your lawn or your garden or um so it's another part of that gray water concept. Um, you can also incorporate native landscaping, those those massive roots. You can incorporate them into your to your landscaping. Um and if you want to be more involved, then you can build a bioswale. If you have a if you have a place where water runs, um, you can you can handle it through a bioswale. You can handle it through a rain garden.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

You know, you can you can uh let's talk about the rain garden because that's that's Lara, what you were talking about, you were interested in in planting a rain garden at your own home, right? When you first met Rebecca. Yeah. What can people do with the rain gardens?

SPEAKER_04 29:40

How what's a rain garden all about? Yeah, it's it's uh finding a low spot in your yard and building that sunken garden, uh digging out um a shallow area where the rain water can gather, and then taking your gutters and routing them to that spot. And so now you have an area where you are letting the rainwater soak into the ground and you are filtering it. And then if if you have an area that's smaller than the amount of water that you have, you're gonna have it overflow into and it'll run where it normally runs. Um but it'll be less and it'll be cleaner.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Right.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

How about your your do you want to talk about your particular situation at home and what you're thinking about with the Yeah, I'm still looking into getting the native plants in.

SPEAKER_05 30:37

So I love that like wild ones all have native plant sales. I've I think some of the and that we have some native seeds here too. And I think we've talked about like you can actually plant at any time of the year basically because of the way that native seeds work. Just that they can, even if it's like cold out, they some of the seeds need that like cold before they will germinate. So even um just thinking through that, I'm like I have I'm starting to get my husband over into where we he's kind of like, okay, maybe we don't have to have a lawn. And he's kind of like, we could have like native plants and we could create this landscape like the one that um you Olson did at Nicholas Conservatory. Like I love the the look of the long grass side, and that's something like I keep in mind that I would I would like to do um in my backyard. Yes, because it's so pretty and it would just be a great lake for landscaping and creating a a boundary too. Yes or an area where you'd want to like sit or you know, um yeah. So I just think about the whole idea of having a lawn more like a rug size and then having using native plants more as like being the show.

SPEAKER_04 32:07

Yes. So and that's something I would c encourage people to think about. How much of your lawn do you actually use? How much do you actually want mowed for some purpose that you actually use? Right. And what could you do with the rest of it?

SPEAKER_00 32:22

And I've heard of that. Have your mowed lawn be more of an area rug, to Lara's point, than room-to-room, wall-to-wall carpeting. And then let native plant fill in and bring back some of the bugs that survey environment and some of the yeah, the the bring back the pollinators, help help our food system. That would be great.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

Yes. Um, we depend on them and and it's just not direct. So it's hard to see.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Right.

SPEAKER_04 32:52

But if we if if our pollinators are in trouble, then we're in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Right. Well, I'm so glad that our our community of interested people in Rockford, you know, is growing. Um, they can learn more, of course, by becoming a part of RPL Green efforts. Um, that involves uh getting a newsletter.

SPEAKER_05 33:15

Right. We'll put it in the show notes link so that you can sign up.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Right. And then you can learn about any of the um classes or events that we have talking about these issues that are gonna help um our our community and and thus our entire nation um, you know, really use their land and water in a way that is more sustainable. I'm so glad that I got to learn about it from you, Rebecca. Um I just think it's super exciting.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

I'm thrilled to work with you both.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

I know. It's been it's been a great project. Um, and it it it promises so much more in the future. There's there's a lot to learn, but there's a lot that we can do um without much effort uh to make a big difference in in the way our world is is serving us.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Yeah, and I just want to say one more thing about the benefits of doing this type of work uh because I haven't touched on it yet, and that is our groundwater. And we have dependency on our groundwater. It's our drinking water, and we're pulling it out of the ground, and we need to put it back. And and this this is helping to uh invigorate those underground water sources, those on and groundwater.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

For those of you who are more like me who didn't know before this conversation the difference between surface water and groundwater. Groundwater is different from the surface water we're talking about routing. And um, yeah, so uh yeah, lots to learn and and lots to be aware of and work towards. And I'm happy that we get to it with you. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you.