4 | JANUARY 28 - FEBRUARY 3, 2022 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM
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A sandpiper hangs out on the water at Broad Meadow Brook Conservation Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. TELEGRAM & GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
Mass Audubon receives grant for stream renovation at Broad Meadow Brook Veer Mudambi Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
For years, the neighborhood just adjacent to Broad Meadow Brook, by Dunkirk Avenue, has had fl ooding issues. There has been signifi cant investment by the City of Worcester to mitigate the situation, by creating an underground fl ood water storage system at the corner of
Firth and Brightwood. Despite these measures, during severe precipitation events, the storm drain system gets overloaded and backs up, leading to fl ooding in the neighborhood. Mass Audubon knows the only lasting solution is to create more direct fl ood water storage capacity in the area, which will reduce peak fl ows, increase fl ow duration and reduce downstream fl ooding. How
does one do that? By “daylighting” hundreds of feet of the Broad Meadow Brook. For those of us who have no idea what that means, Tom Lautzenheiser, senior conservation ecologist (Central/West) at Mass Audubon, explained. It is the process of removing obstructions, like concrete or pavement, which have been used to cover up rivers, creeks or drainage ways, to restore
them to a condition somewhat similar to their original condition. Daylighting a portion of the Broad Meadow Brook may reduce local fl ooding by eliminating choke points where the stream was forced into underground channels and also contribute to more eff ective stormwater management by diverting it from the sewage system. It will increase the area avail-
able for water to pass through the channel, since open streams provide direct fl oodwater storage. Open streams are also highly eff ective in removing pollution by transforming nitrogen and phosphorus, which improves habitats for fi sh and other wildlife. Though Mass Audubon was working on the idea before the See STREAM, Page 8
