It hit him in a dream: use Mother Nature to cleanse water runoff

LANSING — Ingham County Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann had just been elected to the post of commissioner in 1993 when he and his office were faced with a dilemma. Federal law mandated that sanitary sewers and storm runoff sewers be separated to prevent raw sewage from entering local waterways. It was an overwhelming task, one that could cost millions of dollars. One area in particular was his focus, a chunk of land called the Tollgate Drain Watershed, located in the northeast corner of the city of Lansing, and a portion of Lansing Township.

The state, Lindemann said, wanted him to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $22 million to $25 million to take the storm water runoff and its accompanying non-point source pollution directly into the Red Cedar River. Lindemann disliked the amount of money the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality wanted him to spend, and he hated the idea of putting polluted water into the river.

So it hit him in a dream. Why not use Mother Nature’s plans to cleanse the water?

In nature, water is cleansed when it runs through wetlands, with various stages of the wetlands absorbing various pollution elements.

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So Lindemann proposed a series of ponds would mimic Mother Nature’s cleansing power. Most people were skeptical, he said. It took him two years to get the approval to build the system, now called the Tollgate Drain, located about 300 yards from M-43. Throughout the approval process, Lindemann said, no one would “stand at the podium with me.” But when it came time to cut the ribbon, every politician was there with scissors.

A worldwide draw

Since that time, the pond and wetland system has become an international feature, drawing specialists from around the world to review the system and go back to their countries and replicate it. Lindemann has created hundreds more similar systems throughout Ingham County, and there are several large drain systems that have been created throughout the country. The local system has also become a favorite for nearby residents, who stroll or run along the area’s half-mile paved path.

The drain has become home to muskrats, red-winged blackbirds, great blue herons, green herons, butterflies of all kinds, Baltimore orioles and several species of turtles. Lindemann said he saw deer in the space a few days ago, and he says there is a beaver family living in the drain system.

He is most excited about the appearance of three Blanding’s turtles, a threatened Michigan species that has actually begun breeding in the system. To protect the offspring of these long-lived shy turtles, Lindemann and his staff created a turtle nesting pen that is protected from raccoons and crows, who love to eat the freshly laid eggs. Last year, the first year of the turtle hatchery, Lindemann said 30 baby Blanding’s turtles emerged from the sand and hurried off into the lily-pad-covered waters of the largest of the four ponds.

Of course, the beauty and nature are all fine and good, but does the system work?

How the system works

In the system, dirty rainwater circulates through the ponds for two or three days — pumping at a rate of 2,500 gallons per minute — and comes out pristine. Checks of the local aquifer below the drain have shown not one measurable trace of seepage of runoff pollutants, Lindemann said. And not a single house in the region serviced by the drain has experienced water sewer runoff backing up into the basements. In the end, the commissioner said, the water system removes 99 percent of the heavy metals from the water.

In addition, the system has two safety valves in the event of torrential rains. First, the system itself can hold three more feet of water than it already does. If that is reached, the system has an overflow that feeds into the Groesbeck Golf Course, which also has a series of ponds and wetlands that can assist in cleansing the water. And finally, if even those ponds are overwhelmed, there is a pipe that runs directly into the main sewer system and out to the Red Cedar River. That pipe has never been used. Lindemann said the golf course has also benefited from the water runoff ponds because it uses less fertilizer and pesticides, because the water runoff already has enough to help control pests and nurture the greens.

Michigan Messenger is sharing two videos: the first to introduce the basic structures of the ponds and what they do, and the second to show some of the wildlife living in the heart of the city.