Stoney Creek Pond at NIH
Bethesda, Maryland
Stoney Creek Pond was conceived as a collaboration between the Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to meet the county’s pollution discharge elimination goals. AMT designed a stormwater management facility on six acres at the southeast corner of the NIH campus in Bethesda.
Stoney Creek Pond treats 61 percent of previously untreated and polluted runoff from the impervious surfaces of more than 200 acres of downtown Bethesda. The facility includes a 3.5-acre, multi-cell wet pond located at the headwaters of the Lower Rock Creek watershed which ultimately drains into the Chesapeake Bay.
The pond reduces pollutants by collecting floating trash in two underground collection structures by capturing sediment in a pre-treatment area where the water enters the facility, and by detaining the water and releasing it gradually to reduce downstream flooding and stream erosion. The pond features a 700-foot-long, 60-inch permanent clean-water pressure head bypass system with sluice gates to divert stream flows to the riser for maintenance and dredging.
The pond also includes two surface aerators for enhancing water circulation. The project required extensive permitting and coordination through local and federal government agencies and coordination with the Washington Metro Transit Authority to move the electrical conduit the feeds a nearby station and affects the entire Metrorail Red Line through Washington, D.C.
The result is an effective pollution control facility that contributes to a cleaner Lower Rock Creek Watershed and Chesapeake Bay. The American Council of Engineering Companies of Metro Washington awarded the project an Honor Award in its Engineering Excellence Competition. It also won a National Recognition Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies.
