Following up from my previous blog and our most recent issue of River Voices which focused on green infrastructure and urban rivers, it’s worth our time to look at the many components that factor into making green infrastructure a reality. How do we move from demonstration rain gardens to a comprehensive approach that can help create vibrant urban creeks and rivers?

To get there, we have to align planning, community engagement, funding and policy drivers. Chris Dreps, for instance, writes about the planning process to identify opportunities for green infrastructure retrofits in Durham’s Ellerbe Creek watershed and Bob Zimmerman identifies the scientific principles underlying the transformation of our water systems. River Network and Groundwork USA together coordinate the national Urban Waters Learning Network, a peer-to-peer network of people sharing practical experiences about how to improve urban waterways and revitalize the neighborhoods around them, including great examples of community engagement.

On the policy side, many policies, like the Clean Water Act’s stormwater requirements, have ended up favoring more structural approaches, like detention ponds that have generally failed to achieve clean water. As practitioners and scientists have come to understand the benefits and applicability of green infrastructure, regulatory policies have not always followed so quickly. River Network was part of a coalition advocating for EPA to update its stormwater regulations to better drive the use of green infrastructure through volume-based performance standards, requiring a certain amount of water to be captured on-site. Although EPA abandoned this effort, efforts at the local level are fortunately paying off and there are now many examples of communities with clean water policies that increase the use of more sustainable stormwater management approaches. These include:

• Washington, DC – as featured in River Voices, DC recently adopted local stormwater regulations with an innovative trading program that catalyzes green infrastructure retrofits and provides a financing mechanism for expanding to additional areas.
• Los Angeles – Tree People is working to build on their success with demonstration projects like Elmer Avenue by working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on a stormwater capture master plan that will help replenish drinking water supplies.
• Communities nationwide – including Cleveland, Philadelphia and San Francisco are all using some amount of green infrastructure as part of their strategy to reduce combined sewer overflows.

While green infrastructure cannot fix all problems and may not be appropriate in all situations, it’s increasing use along with new ideas and opportunities about how to finance and fund these approaches, reflects its important role in creating healthy rivers and places to live.

What are your best examples?

by Katherine Baer