The overall site design and mitigation, including the installation and maintenance of vegetative buffers and other practices to meet stormwater sediment standards should improve water quality protections compared with current conditions. In addition, as a condition of DNR permits, the site must abide by pesticide limits and nutrient management plans designed to limit pollution of downstream surface water.

Land-disturbing activity will be subject to erosion control permits.

Shallow water depth and existing perched culverts limit accessibility of most of the wetland areas to local fish species. Proposed wetland restorations and enhancements elsewhere on the site will likely provide higher quality fish habitat that will compensate for any loss of habitat due to fill.

All wetland fill or cut areas are dominated by non-native and/or common, invasive species of vegetation. Existing wetland areas are relatively small, isolated from other upland or aquatic habitat types, and surrounded by manicured turf grass associated with the golf course. Existing habitat values are likely to be minimal. As part of the WI DNR permit, the applicant will be completing habitat and wetland enhancement and mitigation activities that will likely result in an overall net improvement of wildlife habitat functional value, compared with current conditions.

Along the entrance road to the School Rd boat landing is the brick building of Pumping Station 14. You may have noticed the extensive work being done at the site in recent months. We asked what was going on, and Amanda Wegner, Communications & Public Affairs Manager for the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, provided this information:
 

Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District is currently rehabilitating Pumping Station 14, located at 5000 School Road. Put in service in 1971, this pumping station’s service area covers 14,654 acres in the Village of Dane, DeForest, Waunakee and Windsor, sanitary and utility districts in the Towns of Vienna and Westport, and part of the City of Madison.  
 

In this rehab project, the District is replacing the station’s pumps and all its piping. Other updates include new electrical, HVAC, odor control equipment, and a new control system. The addition of an onsite generator helps ensure station resiliency and redundancy.

Construction started in late 2020. Unfortunately, supply chain issues have affected the ability to get necessary components, which has delayed the completion of the project. It is expected to be complete sometime this summer.

Through the winter, contractors are primarily working inside the pumping station to make the necessary improvements and upgrades. Later this spring, attention will turn to the station’s exterior. Exterior updates and finishes include a new driveway; new landscaping; diverting part of the walking path around the back of the station; installation of a split-rail fence; and the addition of a drainage ditch to prevent flooding at the site.
 

For more information about the District, visit madsewer.org.

Some history of the site from former Conservation Resources Manager Russ Hefty:

Adding the connection to areas to the north required laying pipe under the Yahara River and a high quality shoreline wetland. In an attempt to preserve the existing wetland, wetland ecologist Jim Zimmerman requested keeping the peat separate as the line was being dug so the peat could be put back in place, but the effort failed and the peat washed away. Despite some more recent efforts to restore vegetation, the area remains largely open water.  

  

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