Green Renter: Mind in the Gutter: How Street Trees Can Manage Stormwater From the Street and Improve Local Water Quality – with Kate Zidar

Mind in the Gutter: How Street Trees Can Manage Stormwater From the Street and Improve Local Water Quality.

with Kate Zidar, Storm Water Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.)

On rainy days, New York City’s sewer system combines everything that is flushed from your apartment with the rainwater that drains from the street. Often the total volume of this combination exceeds the capacity of the city’s waste treatment facilities to process it in its entirety. As a result, the system shoots significant quantities of untreated sewage into the local waterways through hundreds of points called combined sewer overflows, or CSOs. The phenomenon, which occurs regularly throughout the year, negatively impacts the water quality of our harbor, compromises ecosystems, and limits healthy human use of the estuary.

Decreasing the quantity of stormwater that reaches street drains would reduce the incidence of sewage outflows on rainy days. One way to do that is by Increasing the number of street trees in the five boroughs. Unlike impervious surfaces like asphalt and concrete that shuttle water into the sewer system, trees create an absorptive buffer that retains water.

In this talk urban planner, CSO expert and founding member of the S.W.I.M. coalition will explain how street trees can help mitigate our most chronic water quality problems, and discuss planning strategies that the city is or should be pursuing to maximize this potential.


Posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 7:59 am | Tagged in CSO, East River, stormwater, street trees | posted by Neidl

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