By ASU News Service

Appalachian State University has received $500,000 from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund and $300,000 from the North Carolina Department of Transportation to continue restoration of Boone Creek that runs through part of campus.

The funds along with an additional $200,000 from the university will be used to relocate a portion of the stream away from Rivers Street and closer to Varsity Gym. Work on the project will begin in April 2009.

Boone Creek is known locally as Kraut Creek because of the odor of discharge from a sauerkraut factory that once operated in the building now occupied by the Agricultural Conference Center on West King Street in Boone.

Approximately four years ago, the Kraut Creek Committee began studying ways to stabilize and restore the creek. The committee includes downtown Boone organizations, town of Boone officials, National Committee for the New River, MountainKeepers, and faculty and staff from Appalachian.

Work to date has restored and enhanced a 150-foot section of Boone Creek that runs behind the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce in downtown Boone.

The project behind Varsity Gym will repair the massive erosion that is currently threatening Rivers Street and return the creek to a more normalized flow, according to Patrick Beville with Appalachian’s Office of Design and Construction. Beville also is a member of the Kraut Creek Committee.

The design features rock structures that will mimic natural stream flow. It also will capture storm water runoff from several outflow pipes and contain the storm water in a wetland pond area that can be naturally filtered and absorbed back into the ground.

“The wetland pond area will be near the new pedestrian bridge across from the new central dining hall and should be a naturally aesthetic water feature for this area of campus,” Beville said. “Areas of natural vegetation will be expanded and enhanced to prevent further erosion and return the creek to a more natural habitat. The stream is a designated trout stream and we would love to see trout in the creek again.”