Chesterton, IN-On March 9, 2001, Suzie Schreiber of Winnetka, Illinois, Elena Kusevanov of Irkutsk, Russia, and Lee Botts, President of the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center, visited Lake Erie Land Company in order to learn more about the innovative wastewater and stormwater processes at Sand Creek and Coffee Creek Center.
Irkutsk, Russia is home to Baykal Lake, which holds as much water as all of the Great Lakes combined. Baykal Lake is the size of Lake Michigan, but its depths are so great that it counts for 20% of the entire freshwater in the world. Due to the amount of development around Lake Baykal, Kusevanov and her colleagues are fearful that the same types of environmental disasters that have occurred in our Great Lakes will happen in Russia. Kusevanov traveled to Lake Erie Land Company in order to learn more about constructed wetlands in hopes that this technology would be the answer to their problems around Lake Baykal. Kusevanov, Schreiber and Botts spent the day with Don Ewoldt, Director of Resource Management for Lake Erie Land Company, and Dustin New, Marketing Director for J.F. New & Associates, learning about the benefits of constructed wetlands. "I think Elena was very pleased with the constructed wetlands at Sand Creek and Coffee Creek Center. I believe she went away thinking that this type of solution has great potential in her country," commented Ewoldt. Lake Erie Land Company is hopeful that their work to create constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment will help alleviate these specific problems in Russia. Representatives from Australia and England have also visited Lake Erie in order to gain insight on this technology. Kusevanov was also interested in the stormwater management system at Coffee Creek Center. Stormwater at Coffee Creek is treated through a level spreader system. The level spreaders are a system of leaky pipes installed throughout a native prairie that replaces conventional retention ponds with a system that infiltrates and utilizes water within the landscape. Water is infiltrated deeply into the ground through native root systems that can be over 15 feet long. After a period of weeks or even months, the cleaner water slowly seeps into Coffee Creek creating a healthier stream that better supports a variety of flow rates and animal habitat.