 Good morning or a good evening or whenever you're listening to this. This is Andy Simon from save open space and this is the save open space show save open space Burlington. With me today are Diane Gayer and Ruby Perry, all of us are South and residents and we work together on save open space Burlington also not present but very much active in our group is Jess Rubin who is the director of Michael Evolve private company, she has an MS in environmental studies and is in doing an MS again in plant and soil sciences in ecological landscape design. So today we're here to talk about the Pine Street barge canal and I'm just going to give you a brief overview of what the Pine Street barge canal is we're talking about a piece of land along Lake Champlain on the south end of Burlington. And in what's called an environmental or I mean enterprise light manufacturing zone. So a historically manufacturing zone in the south end of Burlington. You can see on the map right next to next to the this piece of vacant, what they call vacant land of forested land is the Burlington Electric Department just down from that word says St. John's very trucking is actually now Department of Public Works and to the left bottom corner of the screen is Callahan Park. We talk about it as an industrial zone but actually prior to any of this. It was a wetland that was just along Lake Champlain and what happened to this land in the 19th century was first the railroad came in so cut it off pretty much cut it off from the from the lake, but there still was a connection to the lake and then this what's called the barge canal was dug as a way of storing lumber for the lumber industry in the area which was the primary industry in that part of the 19th century. So this this is a glimpse of or a rendition of the part of the barge canal where where lumber was stored and this is actually why it was why it was created the canal itself as a way in from the lake to bring lumber in so they could store it for the winter. When the lake froze up and the mills could keep keep operating with Canadian lumber that was brought in on on barges. And so these are the piles of lumber just piled up all around this area that we were looking at just a second ago as a natural area. Most of that area is filled that was filled in from various sources, including the sawdust from the lumber mills themselves so there's a huge peat layer in this area. What happened after the lumber industry stopped using it was that in that area that you see on the map that the little red rectangle that was created a manufactured gas plant. Manufactured gas plant made gas from coal, and that operated from the very beginning of the 20th century to 1966. It was decommissioned in 1966, but in the course of the manufactured gas plant operation, there was a huge amount of toxic waste that was dumped into the into the canal and into the land behind the manufactured gas plant this includes coal tar, which which contains benzene toluene various other hydrocarbons and heavy metals. In fact, the EPA has a list of 56 contaminants of concern in this area so in in the early 80s, the Superfund legislation was created by Congress, and this site was designated as a Superfund site which is under the control of the the United States Environmental Protection Agency, and that sort of sets the scene for what we're looking at now, and and what we would like to propose doing with this area. Yeah, let me give you a brief vision to start with. What you'll see is that in the center of it is a parcel that has maltex pond it's a big it's it's really the core of it. That is city owned land that is already conserved. It was going to be part of the Southern connector and and when they discovered how much pollutants are in the water and and how they, they could not do what they had planned to do so. Luckily now it is conserved and has been for 30 years as has the whole land. So what I'm suggesting and what I want you to imagine is that as the core of conserving the entire piece of land right now you see it cut up into several parcels that go between Pine Street and the railway. It is all wetlands and what our vision is is that the entire piece come together. And we want to invoke perhaps and mentioned that this land was the land of the abnaki people and had been for 10,000 years and we have as part of our work as permission for them of the chief of the Nalhegan tribe to do this work on the land to even begin to envision it. And we have also begun conversations with the with current abnaki people about reading that land and how we might best we might best serve the true purpose of the land. So we've been speaking with Judy Dow and Chief Menard and also make data as as being as our advisors, and I want to mention them now, but also mentioned that we will be doing a show with them about what happened before the industry came to town. At another time so watch for that. Diane, why don't you go ahead and begin to talk about the water part of it. Okay. So, sort of the reason I've been on the land multiple times and and looked at the stormwater is I've run to design charrettes about this part of Burlington, and one was for a mayor 30 years ago. Who did who wanted us to put together teams and interpret what we were seeing at the time and this is probably 25 years ago, and then subsequent to that about 10 years ago. And we did another community call for all the neighbors in the south end to look at this and walk the land and start to wrestle with what is it doing whatever its qualities. How is it functioning, all with ecological design sense. So that leads to the stormwater in the south end. If you look at the purple. That's predominantly downtown it's sort of from, you know, Union Street and Willard and it and it goes into Burlington proper. But the lime green in particular. There's two zones of lime green and then there's a zone of dark green dark green is all of the angles be brook watershed. And that is flowing straight towards the lake. So you can see it sort of is the light blue is the barge canal zone and the wetland zone. So everything that's lime green and dark green are flowing through the barge canal in the wetland. That means predominantly the whole south end. Angles be both comes into this wetland zone as well as is its own little river watershed, small, small watershed. It's the most degraded stream in Burlington proper. So the functioning of this land as a wetland zone is absolutely critical for the stormwater and sewer lines in Burlington. Because in the south end, they're not disconnected. There's only a small part of the south end that's actually piped into a suit sewage treatment plant. The rest is going direct to the lake through this mitigating function of of the barge, what we're calling the barge canal as a whole location. Part of what's also interesting is that there are ARPA funds from the federal government currently for stormwater mitigation in urban areas, and this would be a place that the city plus the state could apply for federal funding to help this particular land continue to function in its water storage flood control and pollutant mitigation properties. Yes, there are pollutants there but they're also all the pollutants of urban overflow that are currently coming through there. So it's a critical function for all of those natural resources and of course our lake is is the most critical thing of all. So it, it's directly linked to that. Should I continue. Diane do you want to say anything about flood control at its role in flood control as well or could we should we pass that off to somebody else. It's sort of wake somebody more engaged with lake research would be good, but just so that we know it, that land is blocked by the railroad which is all fill and high. And so you sort of have this barrier between this land and the lake proper with just a tiny channel that connects the two. So, all the water is backed up into this bowl, it acts as a ball, both a water bowl as well as a sponge of land. So it is critically functioning for the whole south end. And as we develop more of the city. And so to protect stormwater and lake flooding, the better. As we've seen they've had to rebuild that whole part of the bike path, because of flooding and storm surges. So this becomes even more critical for all of those future climate impact storms. Yeah, I think there's, I think the key point of that is that this land is already performing a incredibly important function for the city. And we don't know how to really, we don't, we modern humans aren't really able having aren't calculating the resources that are inherent in the land in terms of flood control. But city of Burlington and the, all of us, the people are aware of climate change, and that those things are going to are already critical and are going to become only more so. And the city has begun to talk about natural nature based solutions to climate change. A wetlands a functioning diverse biodiverse wetlands is key to that in that our vision is of a functioning. A biodiverse wetland that is an eco tone between the city and the transition zone to between the city and the lake. And I don't know if we need to remind people that our drinking water comes from the lake. This is a result of a community wide, or South and community neighborhood gathering over three days. But the reason I'm bringing it up is because in this case at the bottom you can see where the railroad track is the gray line, and below that in light gray is actually the lake. In blue is the turning basin and the canal and then a wetland zone where there's a little later, maybe it's an H or I. So, all of that all the way up to pine street is all water retention and is all acting functioning ecosystems that are currently thriving and healing all of the previous industrial uses that were there. And I think this is so critical to conserve as an acting ecosystem for the city. You can see those relationships and just to the right, there's the parking, you're immediately at the paved parking of what was once the GE plant. As a community, people thought about very light use keeping this wild. Perhaps putting in some trails, maybe they would be more like boardwalks. So that you're separating people from the land and the sponginess that has to happen for it to be active. And in places that are perhaps already built up, you could have collection points for folks. But the critical thing is how to turn it into an environmental learning lesson so that people understand how land is dynamic and how land that we think of as unused or invisible to us is actually highly functioning and highly critical to the rest of our city. So I think there are different examples of environmental research places that talk about bio remediation and ecological systems. And one of those examples is along the Hudson where it was also a huge brownfield site. And they put in a barge that's a learning center for researchers and students, schools, children to learn about living systems. And that was highly successful. It's been there for 20 years now. So I just want to say a word. Also, I want to speak a little bit about our image and and Jess Rubin who's not joining us today but who has been working with us did want to focus on the remediation piece and the possibilities for academic and citizen science research and I think that that's really important and what Diane was saying really leads into that. But I want to point out that this area that is now not built on is all forested and is habitat for beavers and herons and and Canada geese and various mammals and fish and amphibians. At one point that the in the early 90s or the late 80s, the environmental protection agency decided that what we should do with it to remediate it is dig up all of the contaminated land which is most of the land that we're talking about right now within the the Superfund area which is the yellow line here should be dug up and piled into a giant toxic waste container right on the lake. That was their, their preferred remedy. And they suggested this to the Burlington community and the Burlington community, pretty much as a whole said no to this. Over a period of five or six years after that. There was much consultation and what happened was that the land within that Superfund boundary was pretty much left alone. There was a alternative solution to basically digging and dumping all of this contaminated soil. There was some remediation in the, the water area the canal area that you see and a cap was put on to keep the coal tar from migrating out into the lake. But otherwise, besides monitoring the situation, nothing much has been done to that land. This land besides having a public function and potential access on boardwalks into the land for education is also a potential hub for academic research into phytoremediation that's using plants to remediate it, micro remediation with mushrooms, bio remediation with bacteria. An area that's especially in northern climates is has not been adequately studied but many people are interested in it this semester, for instance, Professor Joshua Faulkner is going to be at working on the site with his students. He's working at trying to document and catalog the contaminants that are in the soil and also strategies for bio remediation so there's a bio remediation class that already is going to be on working on the site but there's so much potential for this, both for UVM research, other academic institutions and also citizen science research that can be done by Burlington residents to inventory the the species that are on the land to help and assist the academic research that's going on, and to do grassroots remediation that's also another strategy for remediating this. So this, this land is critically important for the flow of water, the sequestration of carbon, the stabilization of the soil and for transforming the toxins that are on on the soil in the soil right now, which are many. We should probably talk about what has been proposed by various developers and sit in the city to, and then want to, we want to talk really briefly about what we see needs to happen. Well, I think we should keep focusing on the the vision that we have and then okay, and then what the steps are, because there is pressure on that land to develop. And I guess I wanted to segue from from this education piece that we're talking about is actually about 26 acres, and it's 11 acres of it and is already owned by the city and and conserve. And of course that's where we'll start with the remediation and the assessment and the academic science that's happening there, but also a citizen science, but our vision is that we will acquire the two private parcels as well. So that that whole the parcel, the super funds I can come together as a whole and the wetlands can be reactivated. And we're not talking about the city owning that land we're we're talking about a separate entity that maybe perhaps a new model for public ownership. And that would be that would really involve the citizens in that land that I keep thinking of friends of the barge canal for things like clearly there is a huge amount of cleanup that has to happen there's a homeless site that was there for for years that needs to be cleaned up in order for the land to regenerate. But we also need to will need will need to remove invasives that have grown in and to plant and nurture and tend native species coming in. So, I think our work. I think we're coming. Our work is to we need to inform ourselves about what's happening and how critical that land is to Burlington, and that part of our vision is that it would not only be an education and training ground for bioremediation, but also about our past the ability that industrialization has left, because not only has it destroyed the land, it has the land has itself begun to heal itself, and that maybe we would have some kind of a walkway that would interpret would have signs so it would be interpretive so that people could walk along and learn, not only about the, the lumber business that happened there and that built Burlington is part of the roots of Burlington, but in the same way, learn about that land as a natural area of why Burlington began there, and the, the role that development of all kinds played in it. So, it's a it's a multifaceted vision that we're carrying. And we want everybody to be involved in that and to understand what that vision is. I would, I would add to that that that it's, we're not. This isn't new ground, Lewis Creek Association. In, you know, the southern tier of Chittinac County has been doing citizen science now for 20 years, if not longer, and has huge support across the whole scientific community and the neighborhood communities and the towns that participate. And then there are also partnerships there are other nonprofits out there in the state, or federal nationally, who we've been talking to and are interested in helping promote how to move forward on this. And to understand why this is really important and it's our one critical piece in Burlington it's a Keystone site for for for all of this for the learning for the stormwater for the industrial heritage. And those assessments are out there. So it's really a matter of us teaming with others to piece it together, and to bring it forward. Yeah, we do have a petition out and we will. You'll see on your screen, a petition link for conserving and remediating this land. We have 450 people who signed already in the last two months and are hoping for many more. It's just another way of demonstrating the involvement that people have with this land and the caring that that the community has for years felt about about the barge canal land, and that it needs to be conserved it needs to be cared it needs to be remediated. So we hope that you will join us in that and and on the petition you'll find links to how to get in touch, you can also make comment and find out more information. So maybe we should talk a little bit if we still have time about what the next steps are. In terms of that there are two private parcels in particular that are key. The green area that you can see outlined in green and says RCO conservation is area that has been zoned to be conserved already some of that that middle pieces is public land publicly owned municipally owned land, the strip along to the left side along the road is private land. There's some indication since that can't be used for anything else that that will be donated to any kind of conserved land and we're hoping that that happens. The two pieces that are numbered five 453 and 501 are both owned by a long time developer in Burlington named Rick Davis. And he's indicated that he is willing to sell that land for for conservation and we're hoping that all of that can be included into a conserved forested park and wetland that will be a lasting legacy for the for the city and for the, you know, for the environment that it will be that the ecological restoration of that area will will be a benefit to everyone. I think, I think other than the petition. Once you sign the petition you'll you will be able to get updates on what on the work that we're doing and where you can participate, and really where we need your help. So when the, I don't know how when the petition link comes up, I guess you'll have to write it down right and then add it. We're hoping when weather permits as as the spring warms up a little bit to actually do walks on the land with people and we'll we'll try to get that out in various ways. But at this point, many people are using the land. There are people who walk their dogs there people who walk along the edge, and you can walk into that land pretty easily just to see it so if you're down in the south end of Burlington or you want to see what it looks like. You can definitely use that land just respectfully and with curiosity to see what what's down there because there's so many, even in the wintertime you know there's a big beaver lodge. There's active all all through the year there's animal tracks if you go in the snow it's amazing astounding how many animal tracks are down there raccoon fox dogs but you know, just you can you can see a lot of animal activity, or evidence of it. And skate, they're skating, they are barge canal freezes when it's when the ISIS is solid and it and it will be after this next little bit of time, you can enter through behind Myers bagel. A lot of people do wild skating there and it is a great way to see the to see the barge canal to be to be in that space. I think is special about it for Burlington, and the parks and rec does have sort of wild lands as a demarcation of a quantum, a type of property within the parks and recs for the city, and so I just want to bring up that it is wild. So, don't expect it to be safe and monitored, you know if you're going skating be skate safe. Yes. You know, and know that there are wild animals out there and know that there are potholes, you know, things, and but that's part of why this is so particularly good is it offsets the Callan hand parks that are totally manufactured green space, as opposed to being wild green space. And it's such a huge buffer to all of the rest of what goes on in the city. I think that the phrase that came up when we were talking to one of the land trust representatives last weekend was natural infrastructure. I really like that. Yeah, it's a key part of the natural infrastructure of Burlington and, and we are hoping that you will join us in working to conserve this land in in the coming months. Thank you. I think we get in there. Thank you CC TV. Thank you, Jordan and CC TV and we'll be back on the air, especially talking about an indigenous perspective on the Burlington waterfront to go along with this.