Natural function and floodplain capacity will be restored to Pinole Creek, which was straightened in the 1960s as part of a conventional, single-purpose flood control project.
Earth Team students complete a mural on Pinole Creek in El Sobrante, May 2010.
El Camino Green Street concept sketch. (AFTER) by Kevin Robert Perry with Nevue Ngan, Portland, OR.
Green Infill – Clean Stormwater has four purposes: 1) to move several viable integrated flood control, stormwater pollution prevention projects towards completion and demonstrate their efficacy as regional models; 2) to offer incentives to local government to initiate innovative zoning and code modifications to promote green, stormwater-friendly infill development projects; 3) document the environmental and economic outcomes and benefits of a variety of green infill projects; and 4) publicize the project successes to the local governments, and regional and subregional agencies of the 101-city, nine-county Bay Area.
Green Infill – Clean Stormwater links the goals and objectives of the CCMP and FOCUS, a regional incentive-based development and conservation strategy for the Bay Area. FOCUS unites the efforts of four regional agencies—ABAG, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission—into a single program that encourages future growth in areas near transit and within the communities that surround San Francisco Bay.
DOWNLOAD INFORMATION ON THE JUNE 9, 2010 EMERYVILLE LID TOUR
Green Infill Creeks & Wetlands Restoration, Monitoring, and Outreach. The cities of Hercules and Pinole are restoring Chelsea Wetlands and reaches of Pinole Creek (which empties into Chelsea Wetlands). Both cities' efforts are based upon comprehensive stakeholder-based watershed plans, and a variety of committed funding sources. The Chelsea Wetlands abut the Hercules business district, and Pinole Creek flows through downtown Pinole. Program funds will be used to restore natural creek functions to a flood control channel, expand marsh plain habitat, create a sustainable creek profile, improve recreational access, and enhance flood protection, improvements called out in the local watershed plan. Aqua Team (a program of Earth Team, www.earthteam.net, a non-profit organization that trains urban high school students to become watershed stewards) will enhance creek and shoreline habitat by planting native vegetation, weeding invasive plants, building low impact trails, picking up trash, and monitoring restoration projects. Aqua Team members will also provide public outreach on stormwater pollution prevention and water conservation in urban Contra Costa County, primarily Richmond.
The Watershed Project, the recipient of the Estuary Partnership’s green infill mini-grant, is creating a bioswale along the Richmond Greenway in collaboration with the city of Richmond and EarthTeam. The greenway was built on the site of a former railroad and is contaminated with many toxic chemicals, including PCBs and mercury. The bioswale is designed to slow the absorption of these chemicals and to create a beautiful open space that will benefit the community in many ways. Evaluating the costs and effectiveness of the bioswale will determine its replicability as an alternative to conventional stormwater practices in Richmond and elsewhere in the Bay Area.
Green Infill Monitoring. The Estuary Partnership will collaborate 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 the streets and parking lots prior to retrofitting them with green stormwater solutions. This will enable the County to use at least one green street and green parking lot to conduct long-term monitoring of runoff reduction, and to 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. 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.
Campaign for Local Governments In the Green Infill Campaign for Local Governments, ABAG, The Estuary Partnership, and the San Francisco Estuary Institute will collaborate to sponsor four subregional conferences for local government officials and staff to disseminate the results of the Green Infill – Clean Stormwater demonstration projects. The results will also be disseminated on ABAG's FOCUS web site. http://www.bayareavision.org/ | Bay-Friendly Landscaping - Bay-Friendly is a holistic approach to gardening and landscaping that works in harmony with the natural conditions of the San Francisco Bay Watershed. Bay-Friendly practices foster soil health and conserve water and other valuable resources while reducing waste and preventing pollution. The Bay-Friendly Gardening Program offers the home gardener tools for creating a beautiful and healthy Bay-Friendly garden. Likewise, the Bay-Friendly Landscaping Program provides resources for the professional landscaper to design, construct, and maintain Bay-Friendly landscapes for clients.
Better Streets San Francisco - The Better Streets Plan creates a unified set of standards, guidelines, and implementation strategies to govern how San Francisco designs, builds, and maintains its pedestrian environment. It brings together staff of multiple city agencies to comprehensively plan for streets. The plan seeks to balance the needs of all street users, with a particular focus on pedestrians and how streets can be used as public space. The plan reflects the understanding that the pedestrian environment is about much more than just transportation—that streets serve a multitude of social, recreational, and ecological needs.
Blue Green Building - This website showcases “blue-green” building—low-impact development aimed at sustaining water and watersheds, so that nature can flourish even in cities. The projects shown here are all east of San Francisco Bay, in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. They include office buildings, schools, homes, parklands, and even a cemetery.
Build It Green Site and Landscaping Fact Sheets - Downloadable factsheets on greywater, permeable paving, rainwater harvesting, landscaping, pesticide use, etc.
San Francisco Stormwater Design Guidelines - The guidelines describe an engineering, planning, and regulatory framework for designing new infrastructure in a manner that reduces or eliminates pollutants commonly found in urban runoff. The guidelines are designed to work within the context of existing San Francisco regulations and policies, and are consistent with the city’s and port’s building code and planning code requirements.
San Mateo Green Streets and Parking Lots Design Guidebook provides designers, builders, municipal staff, and other interested groups with practical and state-of-the-art information on creating green streets: low-impact development roadways and parking lots within San Mateo County. The guidebook won the 2009 Outstanding Planning Award: Innovation in Green Community Planning, American Planning Association, California Chapter Northern Section.
Center for Water and Land Use - UC Davis - The Center for Water and Land Use's mission is to increase awareness and understanding of the relationships between water resources and land use policies and practices through education, training, applied research, collaboration, and dissemination of information. |
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