The Estuary Partnership collaborated with the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and the Portland Jewish Academy on a green stormwater infrastructure project to improve the water quality of Fanno Creek, reduce the heat island effect, and improve habitat for pollinators and birds.
Fanno Creek is a 15-mile-long tributary of the Tualatin River that flows through the highly urbanized communities of southwest Portland, Beaverton Tigard, and Durham. Fanno Creek is part of the drainage basin of the Columbia River.
The Mittleman Jewish Community Center green stormwater infrastructure is improving the water quality in Fanno Creek by capturing pollutants generated from 14,000 square feet of impervious parking surface at the shared Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Portland Jewish Academy campus. Runoff from parking lots contains heavy metals, oil, brake dust, and other pollutants that are harmful to salmon, other aquatic life and water quality. The green stormwater project also slows down the flow of water into Fanno Creek during heavy rain events. Slowing the flow of water into Fanno Creek during heavy rain events helps prevent erosion.
The green stormwater infrastructure project is also creating habitat for pollinators and birds, while also serving as an important urban greenspace that helps to reduce the urban heat island effect.
As part of the project, Estuary Partnership Educators engaged students with a hands-on lesson about stormwater to introduce them to the new feature of their campus and how it will filter runoff to benefit the Fanno Creek watershed.
In August 2024, the the project area was depaved and the concrete molds encasing the bioswale were poured.
While summer is a good time for this construction, planting is best done during the rainy fall and winter. After large rain events submerged the swale and caused some delays, in December 2024 the project was planted with help from Portland Jewish Academy students.
The morning of the planting, the students received a classroom lesson on the impacts of stormwater and how it affects our watersheds. Then they went outside and, after a brief lesson on successful planting technique, they got busy planting.
The Mittleman Jewish Community Center green stormwater infrastructure project was funded by the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services Percent for Green Program and and by the Estuary Partnership's EPA Columbia River Basin Restoration Program School Stormwater Program cooperative agreement funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Juncus Studio provided landscape and engineering design services, and Blossom Construction installed the green stormwater infrastructure with support from subcontractors Best Alternative Concrete and Blue EC.
