Don Waye, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Nonpoint Source Control Branch, recently sent out an invitation to communities and states to work with EPA on opportunities to use green infrastructure to reduce nonpoint source pollution.

Green infrastructure can be both a cost effective and an environmentally preferable approach to reduce stormwater and other excess flows entering combined or separate sewer systems in combination with, or in lieu of, centralized hard infrastructure solutions.

Several cities, searching for alternatives to traditional hardscape solutions to wet weather discharge problems, have initiated some green infrastructure approaches. The Natural Resources Defense Council recently published a special report with information and case studies on these efforts.

“I strongly support the use of green infrastructure approaches described in the NRDC report and I suggest you share the report with States and promote other tools for green infrastructure,” said Waye.

Green infrastructure approaches essentially infiltrate evapotranspirate or reuse stormwater, with significant utilization of soils and vegetation rather than traditional hardscape collection, conveyance and storage structures.

Common green infrastructure approaches include green roofs, trees and tree boxes, rain gardens, vegetated swales, pocket wetlands, infiltration planters, vegetated median strips, reforestation, and protection and enhancement of riparian buffers and floodplains. Green infrastructure can be used where soil and vegetation can be worked into the landscape.

It is most effective when supplemented with other decentralized storage and infiltration approaches, such as the use of permeable pavement, and rain barrels and cisterns to capture and re-use rainfall for watering plants or flushing toilets.

These approaches can be used to keep rainwater out of the sewer system to reduce sewer overflows and to reduce the amount of untreated stormwater discharging to surface waters. Green infrastructure facilitates or mimics natural processes that also recharge groundwater, preserve baseflows, moderate temperature impacts, and protect hydrologic and hydraulic stability.

Green infrastructure has a number of benefits:

· Cleaner Water - Vegetation and green space reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and, in combined systems, the volume of combined sewer overflows;

· Enhanced Water Supplies - Most green infiltration approaches result in stormwater percolation through the soil to recharge the groundwater and the base flow for streams.

· Cleaner Air - Trees and vegetation improve air quality by filtering many airborne pollutants and can help reduce the amount of respiratory illness;

· Reduced Urban Temperatures - Summer city temperatures can average 10 degrees higher than nearby suburban temperatures. High temperatures are linked to higher ground level ozone concentrations. Vegetation creates shade, reduces the amount of heat absorbing materials and emits water vapor - all of which cool hot air;

· Increased Energy Efficiency - Green space helps lower ambient temperatures and helps shade and insulate buildings, decreasing energy needed for heating and cooling;

· Community Benefits - Trees and plants improve urban aesthetics and community vivability by providing recreational and wildlife areas and can raise property values;

· Cost Savings - Green infrastructure may save capital costs on digging big tunnels and stormwater ponds, operations and maintenance expenses for treatment plants, pipes, and other hard infrastructure; energy costs for pumping water; and costs of wet weather treatment and of repairing stormwater and sewage pollution impacts, such as streambank restoration.

“The Office of Water is working with a coalition of organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the Low Impact Development Center, to develop additional strategies for green infrastructure approaches to water quality challenges,” said Waye.

Rooftops to Rivers: Green Strategies for Controlling Stormwater and Combined Sewer Overflows is available online.

Contact Don Waye at 202-566-1170 or send email to: waye.don@epa.gov .

3/9/2007