Metro Water moves stream for Omohundro upgrades; restores channel at Shelby Bottoms golf course

Metro Water Services staff and a Jacobs representative told the Stormwater Management Commission that the agency relocated roughly 1,000 feet of stream and completed mitigation work at Shelby Bottoms golf course to enable process improvements at the Omohundro water treatment plant.

The work is tied to plant upgrades that increase capacity from 90 million gallons per day to 150 million gallons per day and implement new treatment processes to meet updated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidance, the Jacobs representative said. Relocating the stream, the presenter said, allowed Metro Water to keep historical on-site buildings and to reduce overall land disturbance for the water plant construction.

Commissioners and staff said Metro Water selected the Shelby Bottoms golf course across the river as the mitigation site. Construction removed a concrete, straightened channel and replaced it with a meandering bed, in-stream rock structures, logs and planted riparian buffers intended to slow flow, reduce erosion and create habitat. The presenter said crews reused trees removed for alignment to create habitat features and planted native tree and meadow mixes intended to establish a long-term riparian buffer.

A Metro Water staff member said the mitigation work cost about $2,000,000; the presenter added that purchasing mitigation credits would have cost on the order of $3,000,000. The construction team reported installing roughly 600 feet of formal mitigation but ultimately completing about 1,000 feet of restored channel and buffer in total.

Speakers said the project required negotiation with Metro Parks, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Metro staff described roughly a year of coordination and several in-person sessions to align maintenance expectations and golf-course redesign. The commission noted KCI will handle post-construction monitoring to confirm vegetation establishment and buffer performance.

Commissioners and staff discussed lessons for future projects and emphasized early, in-person coordination with partner agencies. One commissioner summarized the approach informally: convene agencies early and keep them engaged. Metro Water staff posted project updates on the agency website advancingmwswater.org, the presenter said.

No formal commission action was taken on the mitigation update; staff framed the briefing as informational.