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El Camino Green Street concept sketch (BEFORE) by Kevin Robert Perry, Nevue Ngan, Portland, Oregon.
El Camino Green Street concept sketch (AFTER).
The Estuary Partnership is collaborating with the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program's Sustainable Green Streets and Parking Lots Project to design effective monitoring and performance assessment features into streets and parking lots prior to retrofitting them with green stormwater solutions. The County will conduct long-term monitoring of runoff reduction at least one green street and green parking lot, and model the anticipated environmental benefits of retrofitting whole city neighborhoods. The County has currently allocated funds totaling approximately $2 million to project management, developing a sustainable, green streets and parking lots technical guidance document, and offering grants to San Mateo County local governments to install green street and parking lot demonstration projects. Successful examples of green streets outside the Bay Area include the City of Portland, which has evaluated their green streets program for reduction in peak flow and infiltration rates. See http://www.portlandonline.com/BES/index.cfm?c=44407 and http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=195995.
The T.R.E.E.S Program in Southern California also demonstrated the hydrologic and pollution reduction benefits of non-traditional site retrofits that reduce roof runoff from the site, minimize pollutant transport into storm drains and natural stream channels, and enhance water supply reliability via runoff harvesting features. The San Mateo green street and parking lot will be evaluated to see how well they reduce pollutant loads under climatic conditions prevalent in the Bay Area. The budget includes monitoring equipment, site design to accommodate vandal-proof equipment placement, field work, sample analysis, reporting, modeling expected performance of green streets and parking lots on larger spatial scales (20%, 50%, 100% of city-scapes), and developing effective communication tools to convey key findings.
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This project is funded by the U.S. EPA's West Coast Estuaries Initiative. |
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