permaculture

["Saor Stetler" <sstetler@earthlink.net>]

Why a New Water Plan May Make Phili One of the Greenest Cities Yet


By Tara Lohan, AlterNet
Posted on September 29, 2009, Printed on September 30, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/www.alternet.org/142985/


Finally, a city that really wants to work with nature and not against it.
The Phili
<http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20090927_breaking_ground_with_a__
1_6_billion_plan_to_tame_water.html?page=1&c=y>  Inquirer reports:

Philadelphia has announced a $1.6 billion plan to transform the city over
the next 20 years by embracing its storm water - instead of hustling it down
sewers and into rivers as fast as possible.

The proposal, which several experts called the nation's most ambitious,
reimagines the city as an oasis of rain gardens, green roofs, thousands of
additional trees, porous pavement, and more.

Like most cities, Phili has an issue when it rains too much. Overflow
"gushes from 164 pipes directly into the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and
Tacony, Pennypack, and Cobbs Creeks. Bacteria levels skyrocket." So, in
looking for solutions to having to pay to treat stormwater and to deal with
overflows of toxic waste, the city has gone away from the typical route of
building new tunnels and massive infrastructure and instead chosen an
incredibly ambitious and incredibly green plan that will hopefully be
followed through on. They've also projected some added
<http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20090927_breaking_ground_with_a__
1_6_billion_plan_to_tame_water.html?page=1&c=y>  benefits:

The Water Department says the city's greening would result in more jobs,
higher property values, better air quality, less energy use, and even fewer
deaths - from excess heat.

Here's how it would work:

 

The idea now is to "peel back" the city's concrete and asphalt and replace
them with plants - with rain gardens, green roofs, heavily planted curb
extensions, vegetated "swales" in parking lots, and mini-wetlands.

Everything from impervious streets to basketball courts would be replaced
with paving made out of larger particles that let rainwater flow through and
leave no puddles behind.

And what about commercial and residential properties?

As for commercial properties, the city now requires that large developments
or redevelopments - ones that disturb 15,000 square feet of land or more -
install systems to capture runoff.

For many projects, that means a green roof, which costs more but reduces
heating and cooling costs and lasts longer. The one installed on the
Philadelphia Museum of Art's parking garage - with one to five feet of soil
- supports a sculpture garden.

In July, the Water Department will begin phasing in commercial rates based
not on how much water a facility uses, but on how much impervious surface it
has.

For a parking lot with, say, three acres of asphalt and two bathrooms, the
rates will jump, giving owners incentive to repave.

As for residences, officials are hoping rain barrels on household downspouts
become as common as the city's blue recycling buckets.

All this stuff in their plan has been done before and it's highly effective.
But at a citywide level, this is super encouraging. Kudos to Phili, let's
hope they become an example others cities will follow.

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.