A-B Tech and RiverLink Create Wetland Area
Area will reduce environmental impacts on surrounding community and serve as outdoor classroom.
A-B Tech and the nonprofit RiverLink have partnered to create a campus wetland area that is reducing stormwater runoff, improving water quality in Haith Branch and the French Broad River, and serving as an outdoor classroom.
An asphalt parking lot on A-B Tech’s main campus has been transformed into a wetland that collects and cleans stormwater runoff from 16 acres of hard surfaces across the campus. Instead of flowing into storm drains or adjacent neighborhoods, rainwater now spreads out and soaks into the ground, allowing native plants and soils to naturally filter out pollutants.
The project was identified in 2021 by a Blue Earth Engineering study that explored water quality issues impacting the French Broad River and smaller tributary streams that flow through the Central Asheville Watershed, according to RiverLink Programs Director Renee Fortner. She said it took four years from project conception to securing grant funding to completing construction. A groundbreaking ceremony had been planned for October 1, 2024, but Tropical Storm Helene hit the region four days before the ceremony. The storm delayed construction, but the project was completed in September 2025.
Fortner said that former A-B Tech CFO Dirk Wilmoth “… connected our staff and the design team to the college’s Sustainability Committee, which allowed us to form collaborative relationships with other A-B Tech staff, faculty and students.” Among them were Survey/Geomatics instructor Christopher Milan, whose students conducted a topographic survey of the gravel parking lot where the pond now exists.
“Haith Branch was previously inundated with large sediment loads caused by erosion from the volume of stormwater entering from campus parking lots,” said A-B Tech Biology Instructor Helen Burrell. “For years, I have taken students to sample macroinvertebrates and chemical parameters in Haith Branch. We sampled areas above and below where the sediment entered the stream.
“We have seen differences in the numbers and kinds of animals present in the two areas. I’m excited to sample again in these same areas now that the wetland is in place and see how the numbers and kinds of animals may change over time.”
Burrell said the second phase of the project includes purchasing equipment for students to conduct chemical and macroinvertebrate sampling of the wetland and for visualization of organisms living in the wetland, among other uses.
“Biology students will be sampling for aquatic macroinvertebrates and performing chemical testing and microbiology students will be testing for bacteria,” she said. “Chemistry and physics classes are also looking to use the wetland for some labs. Construction management students are currently building a storage pod for the outdoor classroom area. The art department is planning to reuse leftover clay to make tiles that can decorate the concrete area where water enters the wetland.”
Since Hurricane Helene, Burrell said more people are aware of stormwater impacts. “We hope that this project at A-B Tech can provide an example of what can be done to reduce the flow of stormwater entering streams, especially during large rain events.”
