Page 18 - Port of Baltimore - May/June 2019

[16] The Port of Baltimore ■ May/June 2019
GreenPort
Environmental Stewardship at the Port of Baltimore BY MARY MAUSHARD
PORT-ZOO PARTNERSHIP
Achieves Clean Water Solutions
The Port of Baltimore has partnered with the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore on stormwater projects to stop erosion, provide a hospitable habitat for local wildlife and improve the quality of water that flows into the Jones Falls and ultimately into the Chesapeake Bay.
Completed in early spring, these projects tackled two long-unmet needs at the Zoo — a way to collect and filter water from the parking lots and roads near the Zoo’s main entrance, and restoration of a seriously eroded stream.
The Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Port
Administration (MDOT MPA), along with the Maryland Environmental Service (MES), teamed up with the Zoo to upgrade these two areas. The Port provided funding for the projects and hired the engineers and contractors. MES staff oversaw the construction.
“The Port was really very generous in helping us solve
these problems,” said Karl Kranz, Executive Vice President for Animal Programs and Chief Operating Officer of the Maryland Zoo.
The new bioretention area near the Zoo’s main entrance replaces a grassy field with a pond containing a special soil mix and gravel bed that
helps filter out pollutants. The water drains through it into underground pipes on its way to Waterfowl Lake, a small, largely unused lake that once was a reservoir for drinking water, Kranz explained.
The second part of the project tackled a badly eroded stream
that previously allowed water to gush down it and threatened the integrity of a nearby service road. Through a series of step pools built with boulders, cobbles, sand and