River Linked: Junkyard to Park

RiverLink is a regional non-profit spearheading the economic and environmental revitalization of the French Broad River and its tributaries as a destination for work, life and play. In 2006, they purchased a 5.33 acre former junkyard property on Amboy Road along the French Broad River. Immediately, the first obstacle arose in the process, to recycle 100,00 tons of concrete into asphalt.

The 2009 Founders Fund Award was given to provide a master plan, the necessary keystone for this area which had been renamed the Karen Cragnolin Park. Extensive soil samples were taken and an environmental scientist was employed to develop and document how phytoremediation (use of microorganisms to stabilize or reduce contamination) can remove pollutants known as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) from the old junkyard.

This green technology uses plants to vacuum VOC’s from the soil through plant roots in a process referred to as nature healing nature. The plan called for the use of all native grasses infused with a bacteria cultivated from the site that can only survive on VOC’s found in the soil at the old junkyard. While realizing to be a more complicated process than anticipated, this project serves as a model for many other communities looking to establish a public open space in a former industrial area.