1. Cities’ Initiatives
As environmental protection and ecological degradation become
increasingly severe, many cities like Philadelphia are eager to change
their way of urban development through various initiatives such as
Greenworks Philadelphia and GreenPlan Philadelphia. Greenworks
Philadelphia is a six-year plan to help make Philadelphia the greenest
city in America. Some of its target include: improving air quality toward
attainment of federal standards, increasing tree coverage toward 30
percent in all neighborhoods by 2025.8
Although G.I construction is
advocated in the section on managing stormwater to meet federal
standard, the two targets mentioned above can also benefit from G.I
construction. One form of G.I is urban forest which can both increase
tree coverage and improve air quality, in addition to reduce stormwater
runoff.
Regulatory Innovations on Stormwater Runoff
Nathalie Baer-Chan, Rebecca Griest, Susie Siyu Jiang
Engineering 004 Environmental Protection, Professor Arthur McGarity
Background
This group project researched the government regulatory innovations
that promote or even mandate effective stormwater runoff green
infrastructure in the Philadelphia area. Our goal is to identify what
policies or regulation have helped the construction of Green
Infrastructure (G.I) and what improvements on policies and regulations
will help turn more potential sites into actual G.I sites.
Our research methods include reading successful G.I implementation
case studies throughout the nation and interviewing administrative
officials including Jane Billings, the Swarthmore Borough Manager. We
discovered that there are four main drivers for G.I implementation, and
we believe further governmental regulation on all four drivers will help to
promote the construction of G.I. in Philadelphia.
Driver 4: Education and Pilot Sites
References
1
“Stormwater Management.” Swarthmore Borough. N.p. 2016. Web.
2
Stormwater fact sheet. (1990). Asheville, NC: Land-of-Sky Regional Council.
3
Sullivan, M., Busiek, B., Bourne, H., & Bell, S. (2010). Green Infrastructure and NPDES Permits:
One Step at a Time. Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation Proc Water Environ Fed, 2010(8), 7801-7813. doi:10.2175
/193864710798207585
4
EPA Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds, Environmental Protection Agency, Green
Infrastructure Case Studies: Municipal Policies for Managing Stormwater with Green Infrastructure. August 2010. PDF file.
5
“Stormwater.” City of Philadelphia. N.p. 2016. Web
6
”Stormwater Grants.” City of Philadelphia. N.p. 2016. Web.
7
“Rain Check: Learn More.” Philadelphia Water. 2016. 2016. Web.
8
“Greenworks Philadelphia.” City of Philadelphia: Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. 2013. 2016. Web.
Debo, T. N., Reese, A. J., & Debo, T. N. (2003). Municipal stormwater management. Boca Raton,
FL: Lewis.
"Green Streets Program." Philadelphia Water. N.p., 2016. Web.
"History of the Clean Water Act." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 1 June 2015. Web.
"NPDES Stormwater Program." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 25 Apr. 2016. Web.
Driver 2: Financial Incentivization
Driver 3: G.I’s Multiple Benefits
We would like to thank Professor Arthur McGarity for his help and
guidance, Jane Billings for taking the time to interview with us
Clean Water Act and NPDES permit
Clean Water Act requires that stormwater discharges can only occur if
covered by a NPDES stormwater permit. NPDES stands for National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). It requires regulated
municipalities to use Best Management Practices (BMPs) to reduce
pollutants. “BMPs are designed to reduce stormwater volume, peak flows,
and/or nonpoint source pollution through evapotranspiration, infiltration,
detention, and filtration or biological and chemical actions” 3
.
Pilot Projects as Testing Land
Building pilot projects lays foundation for future big-scale G.I.
construction throughout the city. As stated in the EPA executive
summary, “small projects in locations with fewer physical and
political complications provide important testing grounds for the
partnerships so often needed for successful development of these
programs” 4
Monitoring Is Key
A adequate monitoring system can show the efficacy of G.I.
By measuring the success and efficacy of the G.I. on pilot projects,
one can extrapolate to G.I. installments on a larger scale
throughout the city and their relative impact on stormwater runoff.
Education
Recommendation
● Require adequate data monitoring on G.I sites.
● Mandate municipalities to educate G.I. For example: tours of
pilot projects, workshops for homeowners, G.I. school
curriculum, incorporating G.I structures in environmental
summer camps/schools, etc.
● Use stormwater runoff fee to achieve these educational goals.
Acknowledgements
Driver 1: Laws and Regulations
Harms of Stormwater Runoff:
● Stream Pollution: the runoff picks up chemicals, sediment, and other
pollutants along its course, and then deposits them in the stream with
minimal filtration. Potential risks including algae blooms, contamination
of drinking water supplies, injury to aquatic plants and animals2.
● Flooding: Increasing risks of flooding because water is unable to
slowly filter into the landscape. In addition, sediments carried by
stormwater deposit into streams, decreasing the depth of waterway.
What is Stormwater Runoff:
Stormwater runoff is often regarded as an inevitable result of
precipitated water or melted snowfall traveling down impervious
surfaces like pavement and roads instead of infiltrating into the soil and
groundwater table as they would without those impervious human-made
surfaces.1
Introduction
Types of Financial Incentivization:
1. Stormwater Runoff Fee
● Philadelphia has a standard fee based on the
average amount of stormwater runoff generated
on residential property for homeowners, and a
fee based on the amount of impervious surface
area on commercial property.5
● Funds generated are used to fund public G.I.
& storm-water management and increase public
awareness around stormwater runoff.
2. Grants:
● Philadelphia offers grants for non-residential projects to design and
implement best practices for stormwater management.
● Stormwater Management Incentives Program (SMIP) & Green Acre
Retrofit Program (GARP) in Philadelphia.6
3. Offering Stormwater Runoff management resources at decreased $
● Can be given at workshops/educational events7
Green Infrastructure as a solution to capture stormwater runoff
Grey Infrastructure vs. Green Infrastructure
Recommendation
● Recommend Federal government use more explicit language to
advocate the construction of G.I. in their regulations.
● Recommend permitting agencies advance the implementation of G.I
through requiring developers seeking NPDES permits to construct G.I
to capture stormwater runoff onsite. For example, requiring the post-
development sites to mimic the hydrology of pre-construction or even
requiring the post-development sites infiltrate as much stormwater as
the pre-construction sites did.
Portland, Oregon:
“the City considers its $9
million investment in green
infrastructure to save ratepayers
$224 million in CSO costs” 4
Olympia, Washington:
“ traditional sidewalks totaled
$101 per square yard while
pervious sidewalks cost only $54
per square yard” 4
Recommendations
● Consider a stormwater runoff fee in areas that do not have one to help
with funding costs of public G.I. and stormwater management.
● When fees do exist, encourage municipalities to communicate to the
public what they are paying for and why, to increase public awareness.
Recommendation:
● City planners should recognize that G.I can bring benefits
beyond the realm of stormwater management and the realm
of environment to their cities.
● Put G.I into a bigger context to fully realize its potential and
raise more social awareness on G.I and its benefits. For
example, incorporating G.I construction in urban planning
policies and regulations.
Different types of financial incentivization can help to motivate people to
decrease impervious structures, prioritize green infrastructure installment,
educate the public on stormwater runoff, and fund future projects.
In order to use BMPs to reduce pollutants from
stormwater runoff, municipalities face three
available options: grey infrastructure, green
infrastructure, and a combination of them.
Rain garden Permeable Pavement Bioswales Green roof
EPA Clean Water Act
Benefits in addition to Environmental Protection
G.I not only solves environmental
challenges, but also brings benefits
to health and welling, revitalizes
urban centers, improves quality of life
and places and so on. Increasing the
amount of greenery spaces in city
maximize social, economic, and
environmental benefits, giving
governmental officials more
incentives to construct G.I.
Using Education and outreach to raise
public awareness proves to be an effective
way to advocate more G.I construction.
More importantly, education and outreach
help to solve one of the biggest obstacles of
G.I. construction-- stormwater runoff is not
seen as a pressing or attractive issue to
general public and therefore the G.I. investment does not catch
enough attention.
Source: Philadelphia Water Department Stormwater Plan Review
Source: NYC Department of Environmental Protection
Source: Image from Gray to Green:
Jumpstarting Private Investment in
Green Infrastructure
Impervious structures shown in yellow:
Source: http://www.gaithersburgmd.gov/