UNCW Advances Bradley Creek Watershed Restoration Goals

Permeable pavement, which helps reduce runoff by soaking in rainwater, has replaced several sections of conventional asphalt in UNCW’s Randall Lot across from the water tower on Randall Drive.

The university, in partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federal and the City of Wilmington Heal Our Waterways Program, worked with Coastal Stormwater Services Inc. and DiMaio Concrete to install the permeable paving to help improve water quality in the Bradley and Hewletts Creek Watersheds. 

This project is one of many on campus focused on implementing a local Watershed Restoration Plan adopted in 2007 that serves as a roadmap for reducing the volume of polluted stormwater runoff into the creeks between the city and the Town of Wrightsville Beach. 
 
UNCW is the largest landowner in the Bradley Creek Watershed and has been a dedicated partner on several stormwater retrofit projects over the past several years. 
 
“We are pleased to have this parking lot help reduce runoff and be able to showcase these techniques, along with our campus rain gardens, as a living classroom,” said Feletia Lee, UNCW’s chief sustainability officer. 
 
Since 2019, the university has partnered with the Coastal Federation and the city to install almost half a dozen rain gardens and numerous parking lot paving retrofits. Project partners recognize restoring water quality in these creeks will be a long-term, multi-decade effort and are dedicated to a comprehensive approach to reducing runoff. 

“This collaborative initiative continues to make great strides towards achieving the goals within the Bradley and Hewletts Creeks Watershed Restoration Plan,” said Anna Reh-Gingerich, program coordinator for the City of Wilmington Heal Our Waterways program. “We’re thrilled to see more nature-based solutions to help protect Bradley Creek come together through the hard work and determination of this partnership.”  
 
This stormwater retrofit project is supported by the North Carolina Division of Water Resources’ EPA Section 319 Water Quality Program.