Accelerating Innovative Stormwater Management Towards a Net Positive Future This article is inspired by Dominique Lueckenhoff’s keynote address at the Green Cities Clean Water Exchange September 2015 convening in Philadelphia. Ms. Lueckenhoff posited that green stormwater infrastructure provides cities with both the medium and programmatic flexibility to reform local economies, remake communities and retrofit infrastructure. […]
Month: July 2016
Member Spotlight – Jane Bacchieri
Jane Bacchieri Watershed Services Group Manager City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services and much appreciated Exchange Programs Committee Member By Tawnee Milko Portland Oregon is a metropolis enmeshed in water. Bordered on the north by the great Columbia River and bisected by the Willamette River, the city provides water-related utilities to more than 600,000 […]
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Green Bonds – A First
This May, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) became the first issuer of a green bond certified under the Water Climate Bonds Standard. The Climate Bonds Standard lays out criteria for bonds labeled “green” and designated for funding water-related, low carbon initiatives. Proceeds from the $240 million Wastewater Revenue Bond will support sustainable stormwater management and […]
Green City, Clean Waters Exceeds 5 Year Compliance Target
Great news for the field of green infrastructure: Philadelphia’s ambitious green stormwater infrastructure plan, Green City, Clean Waters has exceeded its 5 year compliance target of 744 greened acres by almost a hundred acres, achieving 837 greened acres. Congratulations to the entire Philadelphia team! More on Philadelphia’s achievement here.
Public Money on Private Lands: WMRD Proposed Legislation and GSI Cost Sharing
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) is currently promoting pending House Bill 4659, which advances a Residential Cost Share Program that seeks reduction of basement backup flooding, and elimination of sewer system infiltration and inflow. The proposed legislation would permit MWRD to help fund work on private property, via cost share programs […]
DC Water Green Certification Program
DC Water and the Water Environment Federation have announced that they are developing a National Green Infrastructure Program, which will certify workers who install, inspect and maintain green infrastructure. It is expected that the program will be refined over next two years.
St. Louis Starts ‘Greenscaping’ on Vacant Lands
The Metropolitan St Louis Sewer District is piloting a green infrastructure program on vacant lands as part of its Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan (CSO LTCP). MSD’s program includes several important approaches which will be illuminating to other cities with large supplies of vacant lands. The partnership pilot with a local economic development […]
Vancouver City Council Passes “Rainwater Plan”
Vancouver City Council has just passed a new Rainwater Management Plan and Green Infrastructure Strategy to capture 90% of the city’s stormwater. The strategists behind the plan were able to achieve understanding of the plan though key approaches such as calling it a ‘rainwater’ plan and explaining it in non-technical terms that demonstrate how the […]
Green Infrastructure and Public Health
A new Routledge book, Green Infrastructure and Public Health, by Christopher Coutts, attempts to comprehensively convey the relationships between green infrastructure and public health, helping to advance data-driven case making for
National Study on Urban Flooding
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is reviewing options for a national review of urban flooding. The FY2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act directs FEMA to conduct a nationwide review on the prevalence, causes, and costs of urban flooding. In a letter to Senator Durbin and Representative Quigley, Roy Wright, FEMA Deputy Associate Administrator, outlined next steps […]
12