Green Infrastructure Saves Money and Improves Greater Chicago’s Water Quality
On July 12, CNT was at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) presenting recommendations for green best practices in stormwater management.
Back in May, CNT and the MWRD held a meeting, bringing together national and regional experts, to discuss and consider the application of Green Infrastructure (GI) stormwater best management practices in the MWRD’s recently adopted stormwater management program. Since then, CNT and MWRD have been collaborating, looking at previous research and demonstrations of other cities that were presented at the meeting, where experts from Milwaukee, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Seattle addressed the environmental and economic benefits of implementing green infrastructure on a broad scale.
“Practices like raingardens, disconnecting downspouts, rain barrels, and porous pavements are highly effective at reducing stormwater runoff and filtering the pollution stormwater otherwise carries into the rivers and lakes. Green infrastructure also saves money compared to conventional stormwater treatment and helps improve communities’ health and vitality,” said Wise. “We are pleased to work together with the MWRD to bring these benefits to our region.”
At the July 12 followup, CNT presented to the MWRD Board a set of recommendations to move forward with implementation in the district. Read the full conference report from May 31, complete with recommendations here.
Learn more about CNT’s work to promote Green Infrastructure, including the online calculator, Green Values, the do-it-yourself green solutions manual, “Water: From Trouble to Treasure”, and a series of fact sheets.
MWRD Green Stormwater Solutions Meeting Recap
On May, 31, 2007, members of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) of Greater Chicago, along with national and regional experts in stormwater management, got together to consider the application of Green Infrastructure (GI) stormwater best practices in the MWRD’s recently adopted stormwater management program. See the agenda here.
CNT Natural Resources Director, Steve Wise, began the conference with three information objectives from conference participants. The goal of the meeting was to address and answer the questions:
- How can we bring together all the good work being done to advance GI in order to overcome the remaining obstacles to implementation?
- How will the MWRD Stormwater Ordinance include BMPs?
- How can we use our knowledge of soils and geology, and our existing databases, to encourage BMP implementation at the lot-level?
The final discussion period raised questions ranging from the issue of handicap accessibility in green street design to the changing public perceptions of the aesthetic value of naturally landscaped areas. The session ended with some final considerations from CNT President, Scott Bernstein, including a repeated offer to MWRD to continue to partner on ways to incorporate GI into MWRDs new authority.
See the Powerpoints from the meeting here.
Read the bios of the participants here.
