Why a New Water Plan May Make Phili One of the Greenest Cities Yet

Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet at 5:23 PM on September 29, 2009.

Finally, a city that really wants to work with nature and not against it. The Phili Inquirer reports:

Philadelphia has announced a $1.6 billion plan to transform the city over the next 20 years by embracing its storm water - instead of hustling it down sewers and into rivers as fast as possible.

The proposal, which several experts called the nation's most ambitious, reimagines the city as an oasis of rain gardens, green roofs, thousands of additional trees, porous pavement, and more.

Like most cities, Phili has an issue when it rains too much. Overflow "gushes from 164 pipes directly into the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and Tacony, Pennypack, and Cobbs Creeks. Bacteria levels skyrocket." So, in looking for solutions to having to pay to treat stormwater and to deal with overflows of toxic waste, the city has gone away from the typical route of building new tunnels and massive infrastructure and instead chosen an incredibly ambitious and incredibly green plan that will hopefully be followed through on. They've also projected some added benefits:

The Water Department says the city's greening would result in more jobs, higher property values, better air quality, less energy use, and even fewer deaths - from excess heat.

Here's how it would work:

The idea now is to "peel back" the city's concrete and asphalt and replace them with plants - with rain gardens, green roofs, heavily planted curb extensions, vegetated "swales" in parking lots, and mini-wetlands.

Everything from impervious streets to basketball courts would be replaced with paving made out of larger particles that let rainwater flow through and leave no puddles behind.

And what about commercial and residential properties?

As for commercial properties, the city now requires that large developments or redevelopments - ones that disturb 15,000 square feet of land or more - install systems to capture runoff.

For many projects, that means a green roof, which costs more but reduces heating and cooling costs and lasts longer. The one installed on the Philadelphia Museum of Art's parking garage - with one to five feet of soil - supports a sculpture garden.

In July, the Water Department will begin phasing in commercial rates based not on how much water a facility uses, but on how much impervious surface it has.

For a parking lot with, say, three acres of asphalt and two bathrooms, the rates will jump, giving owners incentive to repave.

As for residences, officials are hoping rain barrels on household downspouts become as common as the city's blue recycling buckets.

All this stuff in their plan has been done before and it's highly effective. But at a citywide level, this is super encouraging. Kudos to Phili, let's hope they become an example others cities will follow.

Tagged as: water, philadelphia, stormwater

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.