Brookhaven and UGA join forces to improve water and soil quality
Brookhaven’s Murphey Candler Lake will benefit from a biochar water filtering partnership with UGA.
Brookhaven, GA, May 23, 2022 – The City of Brookhaven has entered a partnership with the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources to evaluate the use of biochar for surface water quality enhancement. As a part of the project, residual biochar will be evaluated for its value as a soil enhancement.
Under the terms of the one-year, $150,000 agreement, a research team will collect and analyze baseline representative water quality data in Murphey Candler Lake and in stormwater runoff in the area. At the same time, the team will create biochar-filled filter bags to deploy at stormwater runoff discharge points to remove nutrient laden sediments. The potential for biochar-amended soil to promote healthy growth of trees and turf will be evaluated.
“This exercise is another aspect of the vision of Sustainable Brookhaven. We are always looking for ways to identify innovative and novel approaches to help lead the region in sustainability,” said Mayor John Ernst. “Biochar is basically a type of charcoal, wood that is not completely burned. We want to see if we can take what was going to the landfill and repurpose it as great big water filters. Then the question becomes, can the used water filters then become a type of fertilizer?”
The Biochar Project will employ a multi-tiered approach to divert biochar materials from the landfill through repurposing and reuse to reduce pollutant loads and urban runoff. The program would achieve this through:
- Biochar separation and reclamation from waste wood ash
- Creation of biochar-filled filter bags
- Placement of filter bags in the path of stormwater at key runoff discharge points around Murphy Candler Lake
- Recovery of nutrient and sediment-filled biochar bags
- Application as a soil amendment and nutrient source in new development landscaping activities
The necessary wood ash to create the biochar filters is readily available and easily accessible. Field water quality assessments will be integrated with biochar bag trials. These trials will begin with laboratory evaluations of the biochar and will end with greenhouse and field amendment trials using the biochar from the spent bags. The preliminary investigations include:
- Water quality assessments
- Continuous stream monitoring upstream and downstream of Murphey Candler Lake
- Stream nutrients and suspended solids sampling and analysis
- Adsorption isotherms
- Land application assessments
- Greenhouse assessments
- Tree vault assessments
- Grass assessment
The water quality assessments and field trials will be conducted in and around North Nancy Creek, Nancy Creek, and the Murphey Candler Lake. The agreement was approved by the Brookhaven City Council on April 26, with the installation of biochar filter bags to begin later this summer.
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