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 RunoffNathalie 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

References1“Stormwater Management.” Swarthmore Borough. N.p. 2016. Web.

2Stormwater fact sheet. (1990). Asheville, NC: Land-of-Sky Regional Council. 3Sullivan, 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

4EPA 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 LandBuilding 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 KeyA 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 generatedon residential property for homeowners, and a fee based on the amount of impervious surfacearea 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/