Volunteers Plant to Protect Future of Windmill Lakes Basin

Madison Goodwin is usually not a fan of getting her hands dirty. But Saturday morning she didn’t mind.

She was one of several people who came out to help plant native wetland plugs along the Windmill Lakes Detention Basin in Batavia to help stabilize the channel within the basin.

“I don’t like to get messy,” said Madison, who volunteered along with fellow members of the American Heritage Girls Troop 224. “But I will if it’s helping.”

The Windmill Lakes Detention Basin restoration project has been a collaboration between the city of Batavia, the Conservation Foundation, the Windmill Lakes retail development and Holy Cross Church.

The basin, located about one block west of Randall Road and Main Street in Batavia, was created several years ago as part of the Windmill Lakes development. Over the years, city officials said the basin’s maintenance and operational problems have resulted in polluted and sediment-laden stormwater being discharged into Mill Creek and its surrounding wetlands.

“It’s causing ecological damage,” said Dan Lobbes, director of land preservation for the Conservation Foundation.

A few years ago, the developer of the site agreed to dedicate the basin to the city as well as several other lots; Holy Cross Church donated its portion north of the basin, so the city owns the entire drainage area.

The basin has since been reconstructed, with the help of a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to minimize the environmental damage of downstream wetland habitat and protect against the eventual complete deterioration of the berm.

Lobbes said the plantings will also help better manage the stormwater flow.

“And the water will be much cleaner by the time it leaves the area,” he said.

Lobbes was thrilled with the volunteers who came out to help with the planting.

“Everybody seems to be getting into it,” he said. “And they’re really doing a lot of good.”

Fellow American Heritage Girls Troop 224 member Alyssa Mertka, 14, was happy to come out and help.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said. “I’m excited to see what it will look like when it’s all grown. I’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, I planted that.’”