Biazzi Stream Restoration and Wetland Creation at Naval Support Facility

Location: Indian Head, Maryland
Year: 2015 - 2018
Scope: This project presented the opportunity to accomplish the full cycle of services to support an ecological restoration project from concept to design, permitting to construction, and finally through to delivery. This successful project restored 250 linear feet of stream channel and created two small seasonal pools that are providing water quality and wildlife habitat benefits.

Project Details

NAVFAC Washington awarded Versar a Cooperative Agreement to prepare a design package and secure necessary permits to implement 250 linear feet of voluntary stream restoration and wetland creation at 2 locations on Naval Support Facility Indian Head (NSFIH) located in Charles County, Maryland.

The stream restoration site was south of the terminus of Nitramine Way in the Agile Chemical Facility. The site had a degraded perennial stream channel with areas of unstable stream geometry and eroding banks. The stream reach received input from an existing storm drain upstream of the site and flowed to the east to the forested wetland floodplain of Mattawoman Creek. There were signs of previous efforts to stabilize the left bank perhaps associated with construction work in the vicinity. If left unaddressed, the unstable eroding stream banks would have continued to release sediments to Mattawoman Creek, which was listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as impaired under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act for excess nutrients, sediment, and loss of living resources. Restorative measures in this watershed would help reduce these impairments.