Beebe School Students Complete Rain Garden Project in School Parking Lot

Fifteen Beebe School students planted Malden’s first public rain garden, which was built in the Beebe School parking lot by highway maintenance company Gillis Brothers, Inc.  The rain garden is a “Supplemental Environmental Project” (SEP), as part of a settlement for an environmental violation negotiated with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and the Attorney General’s Office.  The rain garden project involved partners Tri-City Community Action Program, Inc. (Tri-CAP), local landscape designer Clay Larsen, the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA), Partnership for Community Schools in Malden (PCSM), and the City of Malden.

Now completed, the rain garden will act as a natural filter for the parking lot’s stormwater runoff.  Stormwater runoff is defined as water from precipitation that flows over parking lots, roads, industrial sites, and other areas into water bodies directly, or via pipes and drains underground.  That water picks up harmful materials with it and caries the pollution into water bodies.  Stormwater pollution contributes to the excessively high levels of nutrients, bacteria, and other related contaminants in the Malden River today. 

For the project, Gillis Brothers excavated a corner of the parking lot and filled it with gravel, soil, mulch, and drainage pipes.  They also adjusted the elevations in the corner of the parking lot to direct water runoff into the new garden area, before it enters the drainage system.  Previously, runoff from the parking lot flowed into a catch basin that drained directly to the Malden River, like most parking lots in Malden. 

On Monday, the students put the finishing touches on the garden by planting flood-tolerant plants and shrubs, including highbush blueberry, pussy willow, red-twig dogwood, and others.  The combination of healthy soils and plants in this rain garden will act as a natural filter to remove the pollutants from the parking lot runoff.

Rain gardens are becoming increasingly popular stormwater management tools that help reduce pollution and maintenance costs, while also beautifying areas.  

The students are part of an afterschool club at the Beebe School, focusing on stormwater and the Malden River, run through Partnership for Community Schools in Malden’s (PCSM) Channel Surfing afterschool program.  This project is funded in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Region 1.  Nick Cohen, coordinator of the Environmental Justice Community Organizing Initiative of Tri-CAP leads the club, along with local landscape designer Clay Larsen, and student volunteers from Malden High School, with support from the Mystic River Watershed Association (MyRWA).  The same club developed the wet meadow restoration and Malden River-Stormwater informational signage at Fellsmere Pond last school year.  The students will continue learning about stormwater and the Malden River throughout this school year by maintaining the rain garden and developing informational signage for it.

To get involved with this project, the Malden River, and other rain garden opportunities, please contact Nick Cohen at ncohen@tri-cap.org or (781) 322-4125 x237.