1. NYC Green Infrastructure Program
The Sustainable City: Roundtable on Science, Urban Ecosystem Services, and Green Infrastructure
May 19, 2015

2. NYC Combined Sewered Area
4/17/2017
7,400 miles of sewers
3,337 miles of combined
2,271 miles of sanitary
1,801 miles of storm
400 acres of Bluebelts (draining 14,500 acres)
Combined sewers in 60% of the city
*Above statistics in process of being updated
NYC’s Combined Sewer Area

3. Water Quality in New York City Harbor
= does not meet water quality standards
(pathogens/DO)
75% of Harbor meets pathogen standards for swimming
19% meets standards for boating and fishing
7% of our Harbor is made up of tributaries that do not meet secondary contact standards
WQ better than it has been in over 100 years of testing. $10B spent in last 10 yrs. (new WWTPs, upgrades, etc.) We meet WQ in most of harbor. Red is where we don’t currently meet WQ.

4. GI Application Rates and Milestone Schedule
DEP has committed to spend $1.5 billion in green infrastructure projects through 2030.
Overall Goal: To manage 1” of stormwater runoff from 10% of impervious surfaces in combined sewer areas by 2030
1” because 90% of our storms are 1.0” or less and 70% are 0.5’ or less - so we’re managing a vast majority of our storms. Green infrastructure works every time it rains. Grey may only be used a few times per year. VOLUME-BASED

5. GI Program Overview Programmatic Areas:
Right of Way GI Design/Construction:
Area-wide implementation of Bioswales and Stormwater Greenstreets
Adding GI to scope of existing capital highway and sewer projects
Public Property Retrofits:
School yards, playgrounds, public housing, parklands, parking lots
Green Infrastructure Grant Program:
$ 11.5M committed to 29 projects
Additional Program Areas:
Research and Development
Neighborhood Demonstration Areas
O&M/Asset Management Program
Outreach and Engagement Program
Talk about today #1 – implementation of area wide approach

6. Area-wide Right of Way Construction
The Area-wide Approach allows OGI to:
Focus resources on selected CSO tributary areas (Priority Areas)
Saturate these CSO tributary areas with as much GI as practical
Achieve efficiencies through standard designs, specifications and procedures
Example: 26th Ward/Jamaica Bay CSO Area
Anticipated construction completion December 2015

7. Right-of-way Bioswale
1) AREA WIDE APPROACH; Majority 2) “Schoolyards to Playgrounds with DOE, SCA, TPL – permeable pavers, bioretention, turf field with storage; School yards, playgrounds, public housing, parkland, parking lots 3) $11.5 million committed for 29 projects over 3 grant cycles
Also: Neighborhood Demonstration Areas, Research and Development Program, O&M/Asset Management Program, Outreach and Engagement Program

8. Stormwater Greenstreet

9. Public Property Retrofit Projects

10. Hope Gardens Houses, Brooklyn - Before
Seth Low Houses (like most of New York City) is dense and impervious- when rain falls here it goes directly into the combined sewer system. The work DEP is proposing to do, will capture the rain and allow it to absorb slowly into the ground.
Click Photo

11. Hope Gardens Houses, Brooklyn - After

12. Type of green infrastructure
Edenwald Houses, Bronx
Construction Start: Spring 2015
Construction End:
Spring 2017
Type of green infrastructure
Rooftop collection=diverting building’s roof drain pipes from sewer connection into infiltration system (rain garden or paving)
Porous paving=combination of porous asphalt, porous concrete, and permeable pavers throughout the site
48 acre property; managing acres of impervious trib area
13 buildings redirected to green infrastructure
Impervious sidewalks and parking lots directed to green infrastructure
Current anticipated storage volume capacity of entire site is 37,810 (CF)
Some of the bioretention areas will be accepting diverted roof runoff.
ROW Bioswales will be installed in addition to Hutchinson River Neighborhood Demonstration Area
Downspout Disconnect
Rain Garden
Porous Paving

13. Schoolyards with DOE and TPL
Before
After
According to the final construction costs of the project, DEP Contribution for GI construction was appx. 44% of total construction cost.
Costs for GI elements vary from site to site

14. Private Property Grant Projects

15. Brooklyn Navy Yard – Rooftop Farm

16. Bishop Loughlin – Green Roof

17. Queens College – Rain Garden and Pavers

18. Lenox Hill Neighborhood House- Green Roof

19. New York Restoration Project – Rain Garden/Pavers

20. Measuring Co-Benefits of Green Infrastructure

21. Cost and Benefit Comparison Tool
So we added all of these analyses, the pilot monitoring, the literature review and the life cycle analysis in a tool where we can compare all of the benefits as well as costs. I’ll show you the tool.

22. Jamaica Bay/26W-003, CB 16 – Current Construction

23. Additional Benefits for Community Board 16
For the 423 bioswales and stormwater greenstreets to be installed in CB16, the possible co-benefits per year could be:
Public Health Benefits:
Individual bioswales show
Ecosystem Benefits:
Temperatures can be 15% lower than
Improved ecosystem, greenspace,
sidewalk and street.
and well being for residents and
63 lbs of ozone removed per year
desirability of neighborhoods.
46 lbs of PM10 removed per year
46 lbs of nitrogen dioxide removed
Economic Benefits:
per year
245 jobs supported over lifetime
25 lbs of sulfur dioxide removed
Potential for property increase: 9%
No net CO2 reduction if you account for LCCA, if you don’t account for LCC you will see CO2 reduction from the tree.
This cost-benefit calculator is in beta version, these are estimates based on a comprehensive literature review, monitoring, and life cycle analysis (which takes into all energy and materials used to build the infrastructure) of the green infrastructure. By inserting the green infrastructure asset characteristics in the tool, the outputs are calculated in the column in the right.
These are direct, indirect, induced and supported jobs. In the tool we currently have the cost of this bioswale at $250 per sq. ft and maintenance at $4.09 sq. ft per year. These are easy to change inputs. If we change these, it changes the jobs created figures.

24. Preliminary Analysis
This table shows estimated additional benefits for first phases of construction in area-wide ROW contracts.
1,200 Right-of-way Bioswales
Total
Total GI Footprint (ft²)*
90,000
Total Net CO2 Produced (lb/yr)
181,200
Total CO2 Produced (lb/yr)
274,800
Total Carbon Sequestered (lb/yr)
86,400
Total Inferred CO2 Reduction (lb/yr)
7,836
Total Ozone Removed (lb/yr)
180
Total PM10 Removed (lb/yr)
132
Total NO2 Removed (lb/yr)
Total SO2 Removed (lb/yr) 72
Total CO Removed (lb/yr) 24
Total Jobs Supported
374
Total Treatment Savings ($/yr)
408
Urban Heat Island Reduction (%) 14
*ROWBs vary in size from 10’x5’ to 20’x5’ pending siting procedures. These estimates are based on 15’x5’
**While Net CO2 Production for ROWB is positive, DEP assumes that this number is significantly less than what would be produced by gray infrastructure construction.

25. Thank You. Margot Walker Director, Capital Planning and Partnerships Office of Green Infrastructure