LOUISVILLE, Ky. –A concrete waterfall that adds oxygen to polluted Beargrass Creek. A pilot water treatment plant that uses no fossil fuels or chemicals. A rain garden that drains storm water away from sewers.
Those are just some of the projects underway at Beargrass Falls, a new environmental park in Karen Lynch Park at Brownsboro Road and Story Avenue in Butchertown.
Ninth District Louisville Metro Council Member Tina Ward-Pugh, Metropolitan Sewer District Executive Director Greg Heitzman, UofL environmentalist Russ Barnett and others will dedicate the site on Earth Day, April 22, at noon.
Beargrass Creek, which drains 61 square miles of Metro Louisville, has three forks—Muddy, Middle and South—that empty into the Ohio River. Much of the ground around the creek has been paved or built on, and pollution and bacteria has built up in the stream for decades.
The goals of the park, located next to MSD’s Beargrass Creek Pump Station, are to improve water quality in the creek, serve as a site for environmental research, show people how to make sustainable choices and offer a model for other neighborhoods, its founders say.
Besides Louisville Metro’s Ninth District, MSD and UofL, the Butchertown Neighborhood Association, WaterStep, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana, Louisville Metro Parks, Jefferson County Cooperative Extension Service, Get Outdoors Kentucky, Youth Build Louisville, University of Kentucky and others have contributed to the park’s development.
“We want this to be a place to experiment with and showcase innovative ideas to help restore the creek and make our community more sustainable,” Ward-Pugh said.