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Cattails, shoreline trees, and water lilies abound in this pond that feeds Fever Creek. It’s a magnet for wildlife, water borne creatures, and birds.

St. Clair Pond

Cattails, shoreline trees, and water lilies abound in this pond that feeds Fever Creek. It’s a magnet for wildlife, water borne creatures, and birds.

St. Clair Pond is in the middle of the Fever Creek natural area and next to the Railroad Trail near Barkley Village.

What’s special about this place? This is one of the largest stormwater facilities in the City. This beautiful pond is a both a wildlife sanctuary and a key part of the stormwater controls for the Fever Creek watershed – a wooded corridor and nearby wetlands. To mitigate the loss of wetlands from the construction of Barkley Boulevard, a stormwater detention dam was built on the creek in 1984. The 3-acre St. Clair Pond and wetland system uphill of it were created in 1993. Ponds and wetlands are like nature’s kidneys flushing out harmful substances. This natural area boasts a wonderful variety of plants and serves as a home for many birds, mammals, reptiles, and aquatic creatures.

About Stormwater Ponds

A stormwater pond is a basin in the ground designed to collect and store stormwater runoff captured by storm drains and pipes. Stormwater ponds are very common in urban environments where natural processes that clean water and prevent flooding are no longer present. Stormwater ponds are a common and efficient way to collect large volumes of stormwater coming from hard surfaces like parking lots, roads, buildings, and compacted soil. A stormwater pond may look like a wetland, with water-tolerant plants and some wetland wildlife, but they aren’t natural. Constructed ponds require regular inspections as well as sediment and vegetation removal and replacement.

Water Quality Benefit: Much of the incoming sediment and other pollutants carried by the stormwater settle to the bottom of the pond, keeping those pollutants out of waterways.

Water Quantity Benefit: They are designed to hold stormwater and then release is slowly to prevent flooding.

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Drains 400 acres or about 250 city blocks.

What area does this stormwater runoff come from? St. Clair Pond collects water from the west side of Barkley Hill as well as the area north to Sunset Drive.

Where does this water flow next? Water from St. Clair Pond flows out of the pond and back into Fever Creek which then flows into Whatcom Creek.

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Brandywine Ct. Bioswale