From the American Society of Landscape Architecture…

ASLA Applauds Bill’s Sustainable Approach to Infrastructure Development.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced a campaign to rally support for new Senate legislation designed to encourage green infrastructure - a novel, sustainable approach that uses natural systems of trees, plants and soils to manage rainwater instead of the overburdened and outdated infrastructure that currently exists in cities.

In most instances, rainwater picks up pollutants as it flows from driveways, parking lots, roofs and roadways before pouring untreated through the sewer system into the nearest watershed or drinking water supply. Introduced by U.S. Senator Tom Udall, the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act (S.3561) offers grants and technical assistance for communities to use green roofs, rain gardens and other sustainable approaches that naturally capture and clean the rainwater - often preventing the water from ever entering the sewer system.

Green infrastructure techniques can save cities millions of dollars each year on water management and billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades. In addition, these natural systems actually remove pollutants from the water while helping clean the air, reduce the urban heat-island effect and lower energy consumption. We applaud the leadership of Senator Udall for this legislation, and encourage swift action.

–Nancy Somerville, ASLA Executive Vice President and CEO

The legislation would create between three and five centers around the country to research best green infrastructure practices and provide technical assistance to communities. S.3561 also provides community grants to implement these practices and create a green infrastructure program within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Learn how to Get Involved in ASLA’s Campaign for Green Infrastructure>>

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Highlights of PennFuture’s 7^th Annual Watershed Workshop

With a clear focus on Philadelphia’s remarkable new stormwater management program, including its relatively new stormwater management regulations for new/redeveloped projects as well as the revolutionary new stormwater fee rate program, PennFuture hosted a large audience at the Quaker Friends Center on Saturday April 17.  The platinum LEED Friends Center is itself testament to “new wave” stormwater thinking, with its vegetated roof, rain gardens, and runoff cistern storage/toilet recycling of captured rainwater.

Speakers included an array of leaders from the Philadelphia Water Department, including Christine Marjoram who outlined the new stormwater regulatory program and Joanne Dahme who described the stormwater fee rate program.  Dahme also detailed Philadephia’s unique Green Cities, Clean Waters effort to achieve dramatic progress in combined sewer overflow pollution reduction through “green infrastructure,” rather than the conventional gray structural systems.  Senior Attorney Brian Glass chaired the event; Pennfuture’s Rachel Vassar closed the conference with a summary of Marcellus Shale issues and challenges.

StormwaterPA’s just-released video on Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters program is receiving accolades. It’ll be available soon on our Volume Two DVD (learn more about Volume One here if you haven’t seen it yet), but you can check it out here now:

Green City, Clean Waters from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.

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There has been alot of talk about “green infrastructure” over the past couple of years–and communities all across the nation are slowly bmoving towards this more natural approach.

From USEPA:

Green infrastructure is an approach to wet weather management that is cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Green Infrastructure management approaches and technologies infiltrate, evapotranspire, capture and reuse stormwater to maintain or restore natural hydrologies.

At the largest scale, the preservation and restoration of natural landscape features (such as forests, floodplains and wetlands) are critical components of green stormwater infrastructure. By protecting these ecologically sensitive areas, communities can improve water quality while providing wildlife habitat and opportunities for outdoor recreation.

On a smaller scale, green infrastructure practices include rain gardens, porous pavements, green roofs, infiltration planters, trees and tree boxes, and rainwater harvesting for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and landscape irrigation.

In Pennsylvania, these ideas are starting to take hold–and the Philadelphia Water Department is at the forefront of using green solutions to meet the challenges presented by rain. The Philadelphia Art Museum’s new Parking lot features a green roof and other landscape features to control runoff,  and the Water Department has started phasing in a new parcel based fee structure that encourages landowners to manage runoff on their properties rather than shunt it to the nearest sewers. The Inquirer looks at the city’s plan in an article published today.

EPA’s Managing Wet Weather with Green Infrastructure website is a great resource to learn more.

So are we: Stormwater PA is in the process of developing a series of video case studies that look at green infrastructure, so keep checking back; they’ll be available soon!

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