WHAT IS GREEN
INFRASTRUCTURE?
November 17, 2010
Khris Dodson, Environmental Finance Center
Why use Green Infrastructure?
Stormwater/combined sewer benefits
 Eliminates pollutants at the source
 Reduces discharge volumes to creeks, rivers, lakes, and Wastewater
Treatment Facilities
 Reduces flooding
Provides other benefits to the community & environment
 Reduces consumption, Gray O&M costs, energy and heat island
effects
 Improves neighborhood aesthetics, habitat, biodiversity, and air
quality
 Can be less disruptive than large Gray Infrastructure projects
 Green Infrastructure is often more cost-effective than Gray
Infrastructure
Jennifer Molloy, USEPA, 2009
Water Quality Suffers
•
•
•
80% of pollution to the aquatic environment
comes from land-based sources, such as runoff
pollution.
New York has identified nonpoint sources as the
primary cause of water quality problems in 91% of
its priority waterbodies
Once a watershed’s impervious cover exceeds
20%, water quality suffers
Combined Sewer Overflows

In 1994, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) adopted a
Combined Sewer Overflow Control
Policy designed to reduce and eliminate
combined sewer overflows
nationwide. The purpose of the CSO
Control Policy was to elaborate on the
1989 EPA CSO Control Strategy and to
facilitate compliance with Clean Water
Act (CWA) requirements.

The three objectives of the
1989 CSO Control Strategy are:
•
Ensure that if CSOs occur, they
are only as a result of wet
weather.
•
Bring all wet weather CSO
discharge points into
compliance with the technologybased and water-quality-based
requirements of the CWA.
•
Minimize the impacts of CSOs
on water quality, aquatic biota
and human health.
During dry weather, sanitary flows are collected in combined sewers for
treatment at Wastewater treatment facilities
Catch Basin
Combined
Sewer
Dry Weather
Flow
Interceptor Sewer to
Wastewater Treatment
Facility
Sanitary
Sewer
Creek
During wet weather, inflows exceed the collection system’s
capacity and trigger a CSO
Roof Leaders
Stormwater
Runoff
Catch Basin
Combined
Sewer
Sanitary
Sewer
Combined
Sewer
Overflow
Creek
Interceptor Sewer to
Wastewater Treatment
Facility
Green solutions intercept and reduce stormwater flows to
sewers, providing storage, infiltration, and treatment
Roof
Leader
Vegetated
Swale
Stormwater
Runoff
Porous
Roadway
Dry Weather
Flow
Interceptor Sewer to
Wastewater Treatment
Facility
Sanitary
Sewer
Creek
Paradigm Shift:



Rain is a Resource!
Shift from the curb, gutter and big basin approach
to the way mother nature would manage
stormwater
Region or watershed  Neighborhood  Site
From Traditional to Integrated
Traditional
Drainage Systems
Reactive (solve problems)
Engineer-driven
Protect property
Pipe and Convey
Limited Community consultation
Local Government Ownership
Extreme Storm Focus
Peak Flow Thinking!
Integrated
Ecosystems
Proactive (prevent problems)
Interdisciplinary Team-driven
Protect Property and Habitat
Mimic Natural Processes
Extensive Consultation
Partnerships with Others
Rainwater Integrated with Land Use
Volume-based Thinking!
Integrated Design



Integration of seemingly unrelated aspects of building
design and/or construction
Key: Collaboration of people from different disciplines
throughout the design process
Goal: to achieve high performance and multiple benefits
What if we looked at Stormwater
Planning through this lens?
Green Infrastructure improves:

Water quality

Air quality
Neighborhood aesthetics
 Habitat and biodiversity
 Recreational and transportation opportunities
 Property values
 Community health and vitality

Green infrastructure reduces….

Flooding

Erosion

Stormwater runoff volume

Stormwater pollutant loadings

CSOs

Gray infrastructure operation, maintenance, energy
and treatment costs
Water pillow
Green Wall
Bioswales
Rain Barrels
Rain
Gardens
Green Roofs
Walters Hall, SUNY ESF
Jamesville Correctional Facility
Porous Pavements
New porous parking lot at Dunbar Center
in Syracuse
Sidewalk at MOST in Syracuse
Bringing people together…
Want to know more?
US EPA’s Green Infrastructure website:
www.epa.gov/greeninfrastructure
 NYS Department of Environmental Protection:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8468.html
 Save the Rain Website:
www.savetherain.us
Center for Watershed Protection:
http://www.cwp.org/

Contact me:
Khris Dodson
Communications and Program Manager
Environmental Finance Center
315-443-8818
kdodson@syracusecoe.org