Latest environmental project allows patients to see green out their windows
Munson Medical Center continues its green efforts this fall by installing a green roof that will help reduce storm runoff into Kids Creek and offer patients a more pastoral view outside their windows.
The project is part of the hospital’s partnership with The Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay and is funded with federal money granted through the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Munson Medical Center Vice President of Facilities Steve Tongue said the 3,900-square-foot green roof will involve the use of succulent plants in trays that are placed on top of a specially prepared roof membrane.
“The green roof material comes in trays that are four inches deep with a special soil,” he said. “This project will complement what we are doing in other areas of the hospital campus to reduce stormwater runoff and discharge into Kids Creek.”
The project is funded by The Watershed Center through part of a $598,573 grant through the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
“We are happy to be continuing our partnership with Munson Medical Center on our Kids Creek Restoration Project. These efforts will complement what we’ve already done along the creek to effectively and noticeably reduce the amount of runoff making it to the creek during rain events and snowmelt,” said Sarah U’Ren, program director with The Watershed Center. “In addition to reducing the volume of water to the stream, it will also reduce sediment, phosphorus, nitrogen and other pollutants commonly related to stormwater runoff.”
The hospital also is partnering with the Watershed Center and Grand Traverse Pavilions to redesign a constructed wetland at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Medical Campus Drive. The marshy area always holds water so when it rains, there is a large influx of storm water into Kids Creek. Tongue said plans call for reshaping the area and new landscaping to make it more functional and hold more water.
“It will be full of wetland plants, so when it rains the stormwater will go in, the sediments will settle out, and the plants will take up the nutrients and cool the stormwater,” he said. “The basin will hold a lot more stormwater and release it slowly to the creek.”
Construction on the basin is expected next spring.
Among the hospital’s past green efforts are a 3,304-square-foot green roof on the Cowell Family Cancer Center, installation of underground infiltration trenches at the cancer center to filter stormwater runoff, daylighting Kids Creek north of Sixth Street and establishing a floodplain, as well as a rain garden on Medical Campus Drive.
Over the past several years the hospital also has installed more efficient motors in HVAC units, low-energy lighting, and several other green measures.
“We have always strived to be good stewards of the environment we live in,” Tongue said. “A healthy environment is a fundamental building block of a healthy community.”
For more on the history of the Kids Creek restoration project, go to munsonhealthcare.org/kidscreek.