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The John Bunker Sands Wetland Center at night. Photo courtesy of Good, Fulton and Farrell Architecture. |
Cleaner Water Through Sands
By Katrina Huffstutler
One man's dream and a family's legacy of conservation lives on in a state-of-art facility.
The late John Bunker Sands had a vision. The holistic ranch management advocate with a deep-rooted passion for the land wanted to turn half of his family's Seagoville ranch into a wetland — an idea that seemed a little out there at the time, but came to fruition a few years after his death in ways likely beyond his imagination.
Sands was the son of Caroline Rose Hunt and Loyd Bowmer Sands, and came from a long line of conservationists who inspired him from any early age. As a young man, he spent a lot of time on the family's 5 ranches and grew increasingly interested in treating the properties as whole ecosystems, rather than individual farms or ranches.
John DeFillipo, director of the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, says that's where it all began — on the family's Seagoville ranch, which is located about half a mile from the East Fork of the Trinity River.
"There were little pockets of this ranch that would flood naturally," DeFillipo says. "So, he decided that instead of fighting to remove the water, he'd just let the water stay. He did, and soon the property was filled with migrating ducks and wildlife. He liked that."
About 20 years ago Sands thought, wouldn't it be interesting to turn part of this ranch into a wetland?
"Of course, the idea was pretty crazy at the time," DeFillipo says.
But Sands thought it might just work.
He wanted to take storm water in from the surrounding communities, process it through the wetland, let the wetland plants purify the water and then put the water back into the river.
"So instead of the runoff just going into the river, it would come through the wetland and the wetland would do what it does best," DeFillipo says.
Sands decided to call in the experts. He contacted Alan Plummer Associates Inc., a Dallas-Fort Worth area-based firm that creates man-made wetland systems worldwide.
Not long after, one of the firm's wetland ecologists came out to discuss the plan with him. Unfortunately, it just wasn't practical at the time, so DeFillipo says it was put on hold.
Sands continued to farm, ranch and enjoy the wildlife and birds that frequented the small wetlands on the outskirts of the ranch. Word got out and other ranchers often came out to see the operation and talk about how to construct their own wetlands on frequently flooded portions of their own land.
Unfortunately, that's as far as the dream got during Sands' too-short life. The conservationist lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2003. He was only in his 50s.
A public partnership
About that same time, the North Texas Municipal Water District, which supplies water to about 1.5 million people in North Dallas County, Collin County, Denton County, Rockwall County and Kaufman County, was looking for a place to build a wetland for its own use.
They found the perfect spot through an ecologist with Alan Plummer Associates Inc. — the same ecologist who had visited several years prior and discussed plans with Sands himself.
DeFillipo says the ecologist knew Sands' land would be ideal for what the water district wanted, since it is close to the river, located downstream and has levees. It would require only some manipulation.
"They moved quickly," DeFillipo says, "within about 1 to 2 weeks, North Texas had contacted [the family's] Rosewood Corp. and they agreed to provide an easement on the land to North Texas for 50 years.
"They loved the idea, as you can probably understand — it would bring John Bunker Sands' dream to fruition in a way that he probably never thought of. The family was so excited."
Within a matter of months, the water districts' contracted engineers started constructing the East Fork Wetland Project, a venture that took about 5 years to complete.
(DeFillipo adds that while the wetland is usually called the East Fork Wetland Project, its official name is the East Fork Raw Water Reuse Project — "but ‘raw water' just doesn't sound that good.")
"It was just a dream come true," DeFillipo says. "And, as we were doing this, we just started thinking about what an amazing teaching opportunity it could be. Wouldn't it be great to build a nature center as well?"
So, in an equal partnership with the North Texas Municipal Water District, Sands' family began building the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, which would focus on education and research in the areas of water conservation, wetland systems and wildlife management. The center opened in October 2010.
Teaching, researching, spreading the word
Since its opening last fall, the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center has moved full speed ahead to reach its goals, but won't be slowing down any time soon.
In the short time since its opening, several schools have already visited the center and -DeFillipo says the recent hiring of an education manager means there are even more exciting things in store for visiting students.
"Part of my vision is to have her be able to take these education programs in a direction that hasn't been done before in a nature center," DeFillipo says. "We want to give students the opportunity to see the conservation efforts and see that they could have this kind of career someday. [We want] for them to see that research is fun and exciting."
He says they are looking at developing their programs in a way that "really immerses people in the experience of the wetland — bird watching, collecting samples, identifying plants, or just walking around."
So far, school groups have visited from as far away as Leonard and Flower Mound, and as close as Seagoville and Crandall. They focus on older students who can be more involved, and have recently started reaching out to homeschool groups. Visiting students learn about water conservation, wetland ecology and wildlife conservation. DeFillipo says the kids "get to do what scientists do," which means "getting out in the muck of the wetland" to collect samples to bring back to the lab for testing.
The center is also proud of its involvement with universities across the region. One of its partners, Baylor University, through its aquatic research department, is in the early stages of the site's first research project, which is focusing on water impurities.
The university's journalism and media department has also taken an interest and uses the beautiful, nature-rich site for its photography projects.
DeFillipo says the University of North Texas, University of Texas-Dallas, Stephen F. Austin University and the University of Oklahoma have also expressed interest in conducting research on the site.
For DeFillipo, it's all part of the vision.
"There are all of these small steps planned for getting the community involved, and then reaching out farther to other universities, across state borders and to people in other countries," he says. "I want us to be able to show people that this can be done in other areas."
Just like John Bunker Sands did.
How the wetland works:
DeFillipo breaks it down
1. The majority of the water entering the East Fork Wetland Project — an average of 40 to 80 million gallons per day — comes from the East Fork of the Trinity River composed of a mix of treated wastewater and natural flows.
2. Once it is pumped into the wetland by (3) 300-horsepower engines, the rest of the work happens by gravity and nature.
3. The water sits in 3 sediment ponds for roughly 1 day, the sediment falls out and the water begins its journey through the wetland.
4. The water flows through a series of wetland cells, with deep water zones and shallow water zones where more than 20 million wetland plants are planted. The plants are the work horse. The plant pulls out and stores phosphorus, nitrogen, ammonia and other impurities in their root system.
5. After 7 to 10 days in the wetland, the water gathers into a storage pond where it is later pulled out by (3) 3,000-horsepower engines.
6. The cleansed water is then pumped underground through a 7-foot pipe, 43 miles to the north where it flows back into Lavon Lake. There, the water mixes and blends with the water that is already there.
7. Roughly about 6- to 8- months later, a water droplet that came into the wetland would be taken out again and then disinfected for municipal water use.
8. That droplet goes back to the water tower and out to the community. Once a consumer flushes the toilet or takes a shower, it goes to the wastewater treatment plant to get clean, and then it flows back into the East Fork of the Trinity River and eventually the wetland where the process starts all over again. |
Did You Know?
Wetlands can be described as the transitional zones between uplands and deep water — they are areas that are dependent on the presence of water for all or part of the time. Because of this, wetlands that do not have water in them year-round can sometimes be difficult to recognize. However, their presence in the landscape is still significant, as they will fill with water during a flood or storm event and perform important wetland functions, such as sediment stabilization, flood attenuation and nutrient cycling, along with many others.
In the past, wetlands have been viewed as nuisance areas, and until relatively recently, the U.S. government has supported policies that encouraged the draining of wetlands, usually for conversion to cropland. Now wetlands are recognized for their value to human health and economics, and are protected ecosystems regulated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), as outlined in Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
It may come as a surprise to learn that Texas, often thought of as a relatively dry state, contains millions of acres of wetlands of varying types.
Courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. For more in-for-mation, visit tpwd.state.tx.us. |
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