Support the “Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act”!
Green infrastructure has arrived on the national agenda, with funding to back it up. Thanks in part to CNT.
The federal stimulus act explicitly places a clear priority, and 20 percent of water infrastructure funding, onto green roofs, rain gardens, pocket wetlands, native vegetation, sustainable streets and parking lots, and other landscape-based water-conserving measures.
CNT recently advised President Obama’s Transition Team on the value of green infrastructure in federal water, housing, energy and other programs and was gratified to see that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 dedicates at least $1.2 billion to green infrastructure.
The act recognizes these and additional “environmentally innovative activities” as keys to shoring up the nation’s aging, over-stretched waste water and drinking water infrastructure. The allocation is part of $6 billion dedicated to the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving Funds and means $52 million for environmentally sustainable capital water projects in Illinois that improve community health.
CNT is also further promoting statewide conservation-based water infrastructure. We have proposed the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act in the Illinois General Assembly. Voice your support today: Call State Senator Iris Martinez, 217-782-8191, for Senate Bill 1489 and State Representative Elaine Nekritz, 217-558-1004, for House Bill 2434.
Public agencies interested in applying for funding for green infrastructure projects from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund should contact the Illinois EPA Bureau of Water in Springfield, 217-782-1654. Other state agency contacts can be downloaded here (.pdf).
More information:
Illinois EPA guidance on water funding under the stimulus
Guidance on water funding under the stimulus (.pdf)
Note that ” Attachment 7 on Page 42 focuses on the Clean Water SRF Green Reserve for 1) Energy Efficiency; 2) Water Efficiency; 3) Green Infrastructure; and 4) Innovative Environmental Projects.”
U.S. EPA guidance on green infrastructure and State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) applications
March 10th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
I wonder if you include PROTECTION OF OUR AQUIFERS in
the support of the CLEAN WATER ACT . We in Park
Forest have four wellheads within the proposed EJ&E
Canadien National easement . The majority of the
freight carried by CN is hazardous . The number of
trains will increase by 400%. As you know State
law bans all hazardous waste within a thousand
foot radius of the wellhead , which exposes the
aquifer to runoff down the well piping . As you
know aquifers cannot be cleaned , they must be
protected. Many of the municipalities along the
arc have their clean water source similarily
threatened .
It seems to me that transport of hazardous
waste ought to be banned in all urban
areas. The Draft EIS of the CN proposal states
that 300 jobs will be LOST by this
project . Hardly worth the risk.
Now is the time to plan our rail system to
benefit people. Passenger rail benefits
us; freight trains are dangerous , noisy, traffic
stoppers . Being “freight handler to the
nation” does nothing to improve the quality of life
in Metropolitan Chicago. Plan to move
freight from coast to coast through
rural America , with no on- grade
crossings , using easements along the
more lightly used truck routes . Do
it right. Decisions made now will be with us
for centuries.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
[...] The Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act (SB 1489), CNT’s effort to bring the benefits of natural systems for sustainable stormwater management into state plans, is headed for its first hearing in the Illinois House on Wednesday, April 29, having passed the Senate in March. That bill would instruct Illinois EPA to lead a study to establish state standards and goals for expanded, effective use of green infrastructure in urban areas statewide. [...]
May 28th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
[...] Legislature took a significant step toward statewide sustainable water policy by passing the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act, SB 1489. The bill sets the state on a path toward more effective and sustainable urban stormwater [...]