Exploring Schoolyards

This paper was written by SUNY-ESF Professor Peter Black

Meadowbrook Creek Watershed, Syracuse, NY
Summary[1] 

The 3.5-square-mile Meadowbrook Creek Watershed lies almost wholly within the City of Syracuse: a small portion of its headwaters are in the Town of Onondaga. The Creek forms near the intersection of Comstock and Bartlett and flows north-northeasterly through a relatively shallow stream gradient portion of the watershed in which there was a wetland; most of the drainage into this section is from the steep-sloped southern portion of the watershed. From Broad Street to just east of Nottingham High School, the slope of the Creek is minimal and the channel is bordered by the NE and SW lanes of Meadowbrook Parkway which, in turn, are lined with single family dwellings for the most part. The region near the high school is open. As the Creek approaches East Genesee Street, and across from the high school, several community commercial and service buildings appeared in spite of a steep, south-facing slope that requires extraordinary stabilization techniques. (Currently, there is reconstruction of the stream retaining walls and culverts in this section and immediately upstream.) East Genesee Street crosses and re-crosses the Creek between Kimber Road and Gifford Parkway. Here the stream was been channelized with riprap and new culverts have been installed along with some creek re-alignment, in the past several years. After the Creek crosses East Genesee Street again, the stream gradient starts to increase, flowing through the largely open land of St. Mary's Cemetery. Meadowbrook Creek discharges into Butternut Creek watershed in the Town of DeWitt, south of the I481/Rte5 interchange.

The Creek originally flowed directly into the north-flowing Butternut Creek after passing under Jamesville Road. When the Erie Canal was built, normal flows from Meadowbrook Creek were collected by a canal feeder that started about a mile upstream on the west side of Butternut Creek; high flows went on to Butternut. Recently (date uncertain) the crossing was modified so that all of the Meadowbrook Creek outflow is intercepted by the feeder, and flows north to the culvert under the I-481/Cedar Bay Road overpass, and thence directly into the western limit of the Old Erie Canal that extends nearly fifty miles to Rome. Meadowbrook Creek is thus the primary source of water in the Canal until the latter reaches the Limestone Creek feeder at Fayetteville. There are numerous sewer lines crossing Meadowbrook and leaks provide the stream with nutrients and contaminants. Consequently, the Canal waters in this westernmost section are less than pleasant and/or safe for contact and fishing.

In the (southern) upper portion of the watershed, Syracuse University converted the World War II veterans' Quonset hut housing to permanent structures for married students, tennis courts, a student service structure, the Syracuse Research Corporation, and the Bursar's office in the 1960s. The University's small ski area is at the highest point on the watershed. With the conversion, the contractor (the Pyramid Corporation) installed sprawling detention basins that enhance the landscape without creating attractive (and hazardous) nuisances for children. The area immediately south of Broad Street is, according to old Syracuse maps, a large wetland area that was used for probably about one hundred years as dump for solid fill and, in particular, clinkers from coal furnaces. The Detention basin construction project included dredging these wetland dumps, which went as fill for the I690/Thompson Road interchange. The area is now known as Barry Park, the site of numerous sports fields, play ground, and the three connected detention basins to which flood waters are diverted from the Creek at the upper end and discharged at the north end as delayed runoff back to the Creek at Broad Street. The Park’s resources get heavy-use, including the one-mile trail around the detention basin. The 1998 Labor Day storm blew down more than half of the trees and replacement planting has maintained the semi-natural appearance of the now-created landscape.

The Onondaga County Department of Sanitation and Drainage under consultant contract with Calocerinas and Spina managed the late 1970s restoration project. This project included replacement of all culverts through which Meadowbrook Creek passes under the crossing streets from Broad Street to East Genesee Street. It also included enlargement of the Creek's cross section to a broad trapezoid (which also involved removal of beautiful old trees the root systems of which interfered with water storage and flow), and the emplacement of large, immovable riprap or re-establishment of the original limestone lining.

The four major zones of the Meadowbrook Creek watershed are classic examples of urban hydrology challenges to the responsive watershed management-minded government department. Zone I is steep, developed, and a potential producer of flood runoff well in excess of the undisturbed watershed. Zone II is the nearly level section, lined with single family dwellings (a few commercial establishments are near the high school), a high runoff-producer during storms and snowmelt runoff. Zone III is the open section around the high school, still under development pressure, especially on the near north side. And Zone IV is the largely open land of the cemetery, with little development and a steeper stream gradient as the Creek approaches its outlet. The flood detention project is between Zones I and II, designed to protect the many houses in Zone II from flooding. It has been very effective, although estimates of buying empty lots from the City, moving 22 residents' houses to the new lots, and paying for residents to stay in motels for a month during the conversions amounted to less than the proposed project costs. The City would have had an urban stream corridor, which would have more closely approximated the watershed’s pre-development hydrology.

A study of the salt content of the waters of the creek by Richard H. Hawkins was reported in "Street Salting and Water Quality in Meadowbrook, Syracuse, NY"  (pp. 62-69) and published in the Proceedings of the Street Salting Urban Water Quality Workshop held in July, 1971 at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. The study monitored three sites for nine (9) ions, pH, and conductivity for a period of nearly two years at a rate of about two to three times per week. Deicing salt was a major constituent, reaching a high in excess of 10,000 ppm. The Three sites flushing action identified high salt contents that persisted as snowmelt and spring rains eventually washed residual salt from soils and temporary storage locations in pavement and surrounding environs. The study also detected common urban runoff and domestic sewage pollutants in the creek. Functionally, the restored Meadowbrook Creek Watershed hydrology has been within the project's design limits. Aesthetically, however, Zone II is less than desirable. If flows exceed design specifications, flooding will again have serious health, safety, economic, and inconvenience impacts.