Moores Creek

The Moores creek watershed drains a large portion of University central grounds including most of the Lawn, the Hospital Complex, the Stadium, the Engineering school, and the Gooch-Dillard and Hereford residence areas. The stream itself is not found anywhere on grounds, but smaller streams, such as Rock Creek and Morey Creek are tributaries that drain into Moores Creek. Moores Creek is classified as a stressed stream, meaning that suffers from significant pollution, flooding, and erosion problems. The UVA Moores Creek Master Plan seeks to ensure that water leaving University property does not further contribute to Moores Creek’s stressed condition. Future development on Grounds will improve stormwater leaving University Property which will help to improve the overall quality of Moores Creek.

Moores Creek Master Plan

The Moores Creek Stormwater Master Plan covers the south and east side of Grounds, including the Stadium area, the South Lawn Project area, and the Hospital and Health Sciences area. The plan is designed to manage all stormwater generated within this area and deals with both current and future conditions. Water quality and quantity parameters are managed to ensure that UVA’s impacts to the Moores Creek watershed are minimized and potentially reduced.

Stormwater retention ponds (sometimes referred to as wet detention ponds) are one way to control and treat excess stormwater from highly developed areas. The Health Sciences retention pond at the South Parking Garage is one example of a pond used to store and treat runoff from the Health Sciences area. Retention ponds remain at least partially full of water even during dry weather conditions. Under the Master Plan, the total storage volume of the pond during dry and storm conditions is calculated. Next, the total land area draining into the pond is analyzed to determine the runoff characteristics that in turn lead to a calculation of how much runoff will be generated during various storm events. The runoff information is used to determine how much capacity remains "banked" in the pond. In addition, the treatment capacity of the pond is also determined. Each of these leads to the banked storage/treatment capacity that is used to manage this stormwater facility. Future development projects in the area will be required to find other ways to manage their stormwater in the event that the banked capacity is exhausted.

The Heath Sciences Pond is not the only storage pond in the Moores Creek watershed on Grounds. Although they are not true ponds in the literal sense, the Gooch-Dillard and Gilmer ponds have the ability to hold excess volumes of water during periods of heavy rainfall. These types of stormwater ponds are typically called detention ponds. During non stormwater conditions, these ponds are typically dry or at most a natural streams may flow through the dry pond. During storm events, stormwater is held in the ponds and slowly released downstream. Other than some settling of sediment, very little treatment occurs in these types of detention stormwater structures.

Click here for information on Stormwater Detention Ponds from the EPA website (PDF)