Creek drastically altered by cleanup

By SCOTT SMITH

Where thick undergrowth once closed off the view of Kokomo Creek, a gentle grassy slope now leads down to the water. Where sand bars and snags once poked above the water’s surface, the stream now flows smoothly.

The Kokomo Creek, one of the most abused waterways in the state, has been radically altered.

Gone is 2 feet of thick muck at the bottom, a mixture of old fuel oil and industrial waste, contaminated with carcinogenic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Gone as well are dozens of crushed chemical drums and other debris scooped up during a summerlong excavation process.

The creek now looks like a stream one could envision providing drainage to a large, wealthy subdivision in an urban area.

There is no roughness left, none of the neglect which marked the stream for decades.

For about a quarter-mile to the east of the confluence of the Kokomo and Wildcat creeks (roughly where Park Avenue meets Defenbaugh Street), Kokomo Creek has been renewed.

The actual cleanup, begun this spring, consisted of diverting the waterflow around the dirtiest part, where the creek flows between the former Continental Steel Main Plant site and Highland Park.

Once the exposed stream bed dried, excavators came in and began scooping out the muck.

To get to the stream, and to get to debris lining the creek banks, excavators also denuded much of the bank on the north side of the stream.

Contractors CH2M Hill have since reconstructed that creekbank, giving it a gentle slope and putting down topsoil, coir matting and grass seed. Here and there, the contractors kept some of the stately trees along the bank.

Further to the east, toward Leeds Street, the original steep creekbanks have been maintained, but with one key addition.

Limestone blocks line the north side of the creek, protecting a sewer trunk line which otherwise would be prone to erosion during flooding.

Across the streambed, narrowed to only a few feet by weeks of dry weather, dirt covers most of the broken stone holding the excavated bank in place. The fist-sized stones, called “rip-rap,” line the creek on both sides, apart from a 200-yard stretch covered by the limestone blocks.

The streambed itself is now fresh gravel, small stones which eventually will be worn smooth. Bit by bit — or perhaps in one rush if flooding occurs — sediment from upstream will collect on the bottom.

While the streambed has been cleaned of industrial contaminants, the low water level reminds visitors to the newly “remodeled” creek that all of Kokomo’s environmental problems haven’t been solved.

The smell of raw sewage still permeates the stream, evidence of Kokomo’s remaining combined sewers.

The Pete’s Run sewer interceptor, which runs from U.S. 31 near the Markland Mall, through downtown, finally empties into the Kokomo Creek in the middle of the newly restored section.

Across the stream, on the south bank, is the city’s new, $5 million lift station. The project eliminates three combined sewer overflows in the middle of the city’s most-used park, and will eventually be complimented by a $5.5 million “peak access flow” project, currently under design, which will allow the wastewater plant to treat a far greater amount of stormwater during rain events.

The upshot of the two projects — to be paid through increased city sewer rates — is that the city will be able to treat more sewage-laced stormwater before it reaches the creeks.

Nowhere would the project be more valuable than along the newly reconstructed stretch of Kokomo Creek. Millions have been spent cleaning it up. Now state and federal officials want to make sure it doesn’t collect another load of nastiness.

Instead of a fenced off morass of pollution, the stream is now being envisioned by local river advocates as a launching point for canoe trips.

Instead of a weed-choked mess, a landscaping contractor is out planting shrubs to line the southern bank.

Twenty years from now, when the ownership of the Main Plant site is decided, and the public has become long accustomed to access to a place which, for environmental reasons, was long inaccessible, it’s likely the Kokomo Creek will be a local green haven.

Scott Smith may be reached at (765) 454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com

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