Heading For Cleaner Waters

Though the vote on the electronics recycling bill was pushed back by another week or two, the City Council did manage to pass another important piece of environmental legislation this week. Intro 630 calls for “developing and implementing a sustainable stormwater management plan.” Here’s one relevant part:

Source control strategies that decrease the amount of stormwater entering the wastewater treatment system are valuable tools to reduce the occurrence and volume of CSOs and other stormwater discharges. Effective source control strategies also provide other benefits, such as decreased energy consumption and economic benefits associated with supporting local markets for source control strategies. The Council finds that the development and implementation of a sustainable stormwater management plan is vital to improve water quality in the City and thereby better protect the public health through the restoration and protection of the ecological health of the City’s waterbodies and to the enhanced use and enjoyment of the City’s waterbodies for recreational activities.

Among the strategies to be considered in drawing up the plans are green roofs, permeable pavement, cisterns and rain barrels, and tree/vegetative cover. This is all great news for the city and its waterways, which currently absorb up to 27 billion gallons of untreated waste water each year via CSOs. It’s also great news for beaches and other water-based recreational opportunities as part of the plan will include a more comprehensive system of warnings to protect public health when CSOs do happen.

Of course, legislation like this doesn’t happen without the hard work of a lot of dedicated people, in this case the folks at the S.W.I.M. coalition. Congratulations to them for everything they did to get this legislation passed.

For more information on water resources, check out our East River resource page. And if you haven’t already, take a look at our plans for Solar 2, which will include many water-saving and recycling techniques.


Posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 12:41 pm | Tagged in East River, Legislation, Pollution, Water | posted by Jamie

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