Although the cost and funding sources aren’t yet certain, Forsyth County is moving forward on a project to shore up severely eroded sections of a Winston-Salem creek near Smith Reynolds Airport.
The county has put out a call for proposals from firms interested in doing design work for a proposed restoration of about 730 feet of Brushy Fork Creek, immediately east of the airport.
Homeowners along that section of stream say it began eating away at their property at unprecedented levels after Smith Reynolds removed 250 acres of trees at the county-owned facility beginning in 2015.
While disputing whether runoff from the cleared section was the primary cause of the erosion, Airport Director Mark Davidson said he was committed to being a “good neighbor” and helping the affected residents after learning of their plight through the Journal’s reporting last fall.
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The airport applied for a $320,000 N.C. Land and Water Fund grant to offset most of the originally projected $400,000 project cost.
Representatives from the NCLWF — including Executive Director Will Summer — who visited the site recently say the price of protecting neighbors from even more damage may be higher because the work likely will involve actually creating a replacement section of stream.
Davidson said he’d like some financial help if that’s the case.
Winston-Salem officials agreed to help pay for a Brushy Fork fix as part of an April deal to prevent the county-owned facility from being carved out of the city for tax purposes.
“But I have not heard or seen anything from the city so I’m proceeding with the grant application,” Davidson said. “It might require more money from the county. I’m hoping the city will come forward.”
Over the past 15 years, Smith Reynolds has paid the city more than $1.4 million in stormwater fees, Davidson noted.
“They never come on to the airport to do any stormwater work or anything,” he added. “I’ve always heard that it’s downstream that they use that money, but this would be a perfect project for the stormwater fee that we’re assessed.”
There are legal layers to peel away first, Winston-Salem City Attorney Angela Carmon said, because the airport side of Brushy Fork belongs to the county and the other is owned by residents.
“I was just asked the underlying question in terms of the use of city funds to help private property owners with the erosion,” Carmon explained. “I think the answers are different (for how city funds can be used). I know the city is committed to trying to find ways to help. We’re just trying to find the best avenue, and I can’t tell you what ‘help’ means in terms of a dollar amount.”
‘It’s awful’
The severe erosion experienced by frustrated residents living along Brushy Fork on Barkwood Drive has toppled trees, taken out fences, damaged outbuildings and opened sinkholes in yards.
Last week, one of their worst-case erosion-related scenarios became a reality when an 80-foot tree along the airport side toppled across the creek and crashed into Brenda Glover’s backyard. The top of the tree came to rest against her bedroom window.
The airport agreed to handle the removal of the tree and replace Glover’s crushed fence. But residents have been on their own in dealing with previous damage.
The neighborhood clearly falls within what have become known as environmental justice communities, which often are near potentially hazardous facilities like airports, factories and landfills.
Research also has found that lower-income communities of color already disproportionately suffer from the impact of climate-related conditions.
The area affected by the Brushy Fork flooding is in a U.S. Census tract where 95% of the residents are people of color. The tract’s median household income of $40,418 is $13,000 less than the countywide median household income.
“People expect us to handle this ourselves,” said Glover, who has lived in her Barkwood home for nearly a half century, said of the battle she and her neighbors have waged against the destructive waters. “We do our best by putting a Band-Aid on it, but it doesn’t last. It’s awful.”
Davidson said he’s willing to help the neighbors, but he also pushed back on the assumption that the airport clearing was solely responsible for their issues.
“I think it’s more (the design of) that neighborhood causing the erosion because there’s no sediment control and (storm-water) flows right into the creek, so I hope the city will step up and help us with this project,” he added.
While the airport has one of the largest impervious surface areas — meaning ground that does not absorb water — among properties in the city, just a portion is in the watershed that feeds the impacted section of Brushy Fork.
“Just looking at the watershed, there are probably 600 to 700 acres that drain to their property and all this impervious surface really increases the amount of flow that gets to a stream when it rains,” explained Summer, the NCLWF executive director.
Vegetation has grown on the 250 acres since the trees were removed, Summer added.
“It’s not water running off all those briars and brambles,” he said. “I would still be more concerned about the amount of development, the amount of impervious surface in this area. But it’s a challenge a lot of urban streams face.”
Courtney Di Vittorio, a Wake Forest University engineering professor who specializes in water management and is familiar with the Brushy Fork site, agreed that pinpointing a cause of the erosion is complicated.
“I am coming from the engineering perspective, which emphasizes acknowledging unknowns and uncertainties,” she explained. “I do think this anecdotal evidence from residents regarding the rapid erosion is important and helps to tell the story, but it is difficult to prove this given the data we have available.”
Observing changes in the creek over time using high-resolution satellite images, as well as rainfall data and the frequency of extreme weather, then using the data to create model simulations designed to match those conditions could add some insight, Di Vittorio added.
“Even after doing this analysis, I still think there would be significant uncertainty when trying to determine the predominant cause of erosion,” she said.
As warming tied to climate change fuels increasingly intense rainfall, creeks and stormwater infrastructure, much of it several decades old, will be tested.
City officials, citing extreme weather, have identified at least a half-dozen areas for expedited stormwater improvements, and creek erosion is widespread.
‘Step up’
Winston-Salem’s willingness to pitch in on the cost of the Brushy Fork project is tied to an informal deal with the county involving Smith Reynolds.
A bill filed by Republican N.C. Rep. Donnie Lambeth in March called for “de-annexing” the airport property. The aim of the legislation was to prevent aircraft owners from continuing to pay both city and county taxes when keeping their planes at Smith Reynolds.
That would make the Winston-Salem facility competitive from a cost standpoint to other airports in the region where plane owners are not double-taxed.
“If you lived in Kernersville and you bought a new Honda jet for $4.2 million, and you were deciding where to park it, you’d pay $17,000 more to park it on this ramp than you would in Greensboro,” Davidson explained recently in his office overlooking the Smith Reynolds runway. “I’d like to have a level playing field. That’s all I care about. I’m not trying to cheat the school system or anything like that.”
Winston-Salem leaders, who say they were blindsided by Lambeth’s bill, worked with the county on a compromise that would leave the airport within the city limits but still slash local taxes for plane owners. The pact calls for creating a special tax district that would cut both their city and county taxes in half, making de-annexation unnecessary.
Lambeth’s original bill has not been withdrawn, and no measure reflecting the city-county deal has been filed.
“There is no timeline,” Lambeth said when asked about new special tax district legislation. “Sometime before we adjourn for the summer we will try and get this done.”
Meanwhile, Davidson reiterated that the airport wants to do right by its neighbors.
“When I heard about us possibly being contributors (to the erosion), we got the grant application going, we started acting,” Davidson said. “And that’s where I get back to the city. I’d like them to step up.”
Summer and his NCLWF staff will review and score all of this year’s grant requests, and the fund’s board of trustees will make final decisions in September.
He added that the county moving ahead with the design aspect of the project is a plus.
“It definitely helps move things forward faster and gives us a better idea of what you’re spending construction funds on,” Summer told Davidson during his recent visit.