Beside the stretching waters of their neighbor, Lake Erie, the ponds of Detwiler Park Golf Course, dug by early course developers, seem shallow and insignificant.
And though it might not look the part, the city’s public golf course sits atop a critical Ohio watershed. With heavy rain, water from the ponds will flow into Detwiler Ditch, which empties into Maumee Bay and the open waters of Lake Erie. And according to a 2018 EPA report, these riverbeds are awash with polluted runoff from urban land use and contaminated sediments, where Toledo’s industrial history still lingers.
This summer, a group of Toledo engineering students and environmental professionals are designing a project to improve Detwiler Ditch’s water quality, with the hopes that their proposals will be implemented by the city in the coming years.
Detwiler— one of three municipal golf courses in Toledo — was in disrepair as recently as last year, but Toledo’s Commissioner of Parks, Recreation,and Forestry, Karen Ranney Wolkins, said that the issue — a change in management and inadequate facility supplies — has since been resolved.
“We want to continue to have [Detwiler golf course] be a positive experience for golfers, but incorporating environmentally responsible enhancements will make it a more positive piece of property for players, the environment, and our community,” said Ms. Ranney Wolkins.
The project has flouted convention from the start.
“I enjoy making order out of chaos,” said Wendy Carr, a University of Toledo environmental engineering major and team leader. “But the past few months have taught me I have to get comfortable with chaos at the beginning.”
As University of Toledo students watched the pandemic upend their summer co-op jobs — a graduation requirement — Professor Defne Apul, the chairman of the school’s department of civil and environmental engineering, helped place engineering majors to an alternative project overseen by the city and Hull & Associates, a Toledo-based environmental consulting firm.
Should their proposals be taken up by the city, then the students will have salvaged their co-op program while also contributing to local water restoration efforts.
However, the opportunity to conduct in-person samples has been made more difficult by the pandemic. What the students know of soil and water samples comes from past reports filed by the EPA and other organizations.
According to project team leader Arielle Ahmed, past reports have indicated poor aquatic health in Detwiler Ditch’s benthic zone, where bottom-dwelling organisms like snails and crustaceans live. The waterway is also populated by pollution-tolerant or invasive species, like bluegill sunfish and common carp.
Over 10 weeks, the students have researched and brainstormed proposals remotely under the supervision of Professor Apul. They’ve also been supported by a professional civil engineer and an environmental engineer at Hull & Associates.
“It’s hard to collaborate remotely, in the summer,” she said. “But the experience itself really has been positive. Everyone has picked up their parts.”
The student researchers have identified several primary proposals to enhance the design of the golf course. These include aerating the water with riffles, rebanking the riverbed, incorporating gentle slopes on the course, and adding floating wetlands to the three ponds, which would contribute additional habitat and passively clean the pond water.
“Since we can’t improve the water quality of the source, we’ll remediate it by adding vegetation, wetlands, and other designs,” Professor Apul said.
The team is set to present their final proposals to Hull & Associates partners and Toledo’s Parks, Recreation, and Forestry commissioner in early August. The Maumee Area of Concern advisory committee has already approved the Detwiler project — and 33 other local projects — for funding, Ms. Ranney Wolkins said.
Provided the federal government continues to fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the project should receive additional funding over the next five years. The city could then take the student team’s proposals into account while the golf course undergoes construction.
“These students are our voice for environmental responsibility moving forward. We want to give them an opportunity to have a real-life experience,” Ms. Ranney Wolkins said.
First Published July 25, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
