STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
- The Reedy Creek Trenton Corridor lies within the Richland and Crabtree drainage basins. Richland Creek feeds the two Richland Creek stormwater control lakes constructed by Wake County in the 1980’s. The stormwater then flows into Crabtree Creek near William B. Umstead State Park. The lower Richland Lake is pictured above.
- The Richland basin collects stormwater from roughly Duraleigh Road in the north to Chapel Hill Road in the south and from Blue Ridge Road in the east to Trenton Road in the west. The area includes some of the State Fair Grounds, PNC Arena, Carter-Finley Stadium, the Inside Wade residential/commercial development and numerous other residential and commercial developments.
- Richland stormwater control lakes have flooded Reedy Creek Road during extreme weather events on at least three occasions since the 1990’s. The picture below, taken in November 2021, shows the amount of sediment that has come into the upper Richland Lake during the last year. This sediment prevents the lake from effectively managing stormwater.
- Richland Creek is a 5.25-mile long 2nd order tributary to Crabtree Creek in Raleigh that rises in a pond on the North Carolina State Fairgrounds. The creek then flows north under Wade Avenue and through Carl Alwin Schenck Memorial Forest to join Crabtree Creek near the south-eastern boundary of William B. Umstead State Park. The watershed is mainly developed with about 30% of it forested.
- Richland Creek drains 4.44 square miles of area and is underlaid by the Raleigh terrane geologic formation. The watershed receives an average of 46.3 inch/year of precipitation and has a wetness index of 407.29.
