PRESS RELEASE
Board of Directors
Matt Dobson
Chairman of the Board
Aegis Group
Angela Calhoun
Vice Chairman
Mike Corn
Secretary of the Board
CEO, AquAeTer
Phil Pace
Treasurer of the Board
CEO, Conseco Group
David Bridgers
Attorney, Neal &
Harwell. PLC
John M. Dab
Senior Council, Nissan
North America, Inc.
Deborah Miede, Ph.D.
RAIN GARDEN BUILD with the
HARPETH RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION
Completed in September 2013
At the Brentwood YMCA on Concord Rd
Q & A opportunity, October 10th, 11am to 1pm
Those of you driving down Concord Road during rush hour will now have a wonderful site to peer
at thanks to The Harpeth River Watershed Association (HRWA) and their partners. HRWA has
installed a 4,000 square foot rain garden at the Brentwood YMCA on Concord Road in Brentwood,
one of the largest rain gardens in the area. What is a Rain Garden? It is a garden that is planted in
a depression and uses native plants, grasses, and shrubs to process pollutants carried by rain
runoff from paved surfaces. It also slowly allows rain runoff to soak into the ground and reduces
erosion. This rain garden is considered to be more like green infrastructure rather than just a
garden. It is designed to capture the first 1” of a normal rain event and allow the rain runoff to
soak into the ground instead of discharging into the stormwater pipe which drains directly to the
river. “This rain garden will give a vast improvement in water quality for the river as well as
provide a beautiful educational showpiece for all to enjoy” says HRWA Program Manager Michelle
Barbero. The native perennials and shrubs will grow and fill in, attract butterflies and birds, and
create a beautifully functioning filtration system along the Little Harpeth River.
Board of Advisors
Becky Barkley
Jeff Carr
Robert Crosby
Lisa Harless
Nancy Hiatt
John Ingram
Orrin Ingram
Robanne T. Legan
David Lemke
Emily A. Magid
Nathan Ober
Darrell Waltrip
VISIT US ONLINE
HARPETHRIVER.ORG
• donate and join
• order Harpeth River
specialty license plates
• learn about our
programs & activities
The rain garden project was a collaborative success by HRWA with the help of many partners,
most notably The City of Brentwood’s Engineering Department who was essential in the design of
the project. City of Brentwood’s Steve Foster and Matt White were an instrumental part of the
project, helping with the design phase, locating donated excavation work from Moody’s
Gradeworks and silt fencing from Mid-TN Erosion and Sediment Control, Inc. They even helped
with the physical labor of building the river rock channels and berm. A group of nearly 25
employees from Gobbell Hays Partners volunteered their Friday to build the river channels and
plant over 320 native shrubs and wildflowers from local provider Nashville Natives. The Gobbell
Hays Partners volunteers were extremely skilled and helpful in completing this project, which fits
in well with their goals of sustainable design and building. The Compost Company’s Ed Wansing
was also a wonderful addition to the project and provided topsoil, mulch, and plenty of manual
labor.
The overall design of the Brentwood YMCA Rain Garden includes features such as a forebay
structure to help slow the velocity of flow from the storm pipe, river channels to help direct and
distribute runoff, and specifically placed native plants to help absorb the rain. These design
calculations were based on Metro Nashville’s Rain Garden manual and will pose as a pilot project
for the City of Brentwood’s upcoming stormwater regulations which will take effect next year.
“This is a project that I am particularly proud of” says Barbero, “It’s really a showpiece of a garden
that will serve the community for years to come.”
Come and join HRWA and other available partners at the Brentwood YMCA Rain Garden to get a
firsthand view of the rain garden and ask questions. We will meet at 8207 Concord Rd on
Thursday October 10th from 11am to 1pm.
The Harpeth River Watershed Association is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
P.O. Box 1127 • Franklin, Tennessee 37065 • Phone: 615-790-9767 • www.harpethriver.org
Contact Michelle Barbero, Watershed Science Program Manager for more information at 615-210-1974.
The Harpeth River Watershed Association is a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
P.O. Box 1127 • Franklin, Tennessee 37065 • Phone: 615-790-9767 • www.harpethriver.org