Volunteers needed Saturday for Batavia basin planting

Help rebuild a wetland Saturday at Windmill Lakes Basin in Batavia.

The Conservation Foundation, the city of Batavia and Holy Cross Catholic Church are having a ribbon-cutting on their joint venture at 10 a.m. at the stormwater detention basin, which is south of the Mobil gas station on the southwest corner of Main Street and Randall Road. Parking is available at Holy Cross, on the lower level next to the basin, and in the Windmill Lakes shopping center.

Volunteers will work from 10 a.m. to noon planting plugs of native wetland plants to stabilize the channel in the basin. The basin drains to a sedge meadow, then to Mill Creek. Wear boots or shoes that can get wet.

For details, contact Jennifer Hammer at the Conservation Foundation, jhammer@theconservationfoundation.org.

The basin was built to handle a smaller territory than it really does. Commercial development to the north has sent greater water flow through it, causing severe erosion and sedimentation. The church and the shopping center were responsible for the basin, but the problem was not rectified.

The Conservation Foundation discovered the drainage problem four years ago and brokered a deal in September 2010 in which the Army Corps of Engineers gave the city $200,000 to fix the problem.

The deal calls for the foundation to take over maintenance of the drainage, with the city paying the costs. The shopping center and the church will pay the city $3,900 a year for five years toward that maintenance. The church will then pay $900 a year.