City Green Grants Help Community Fight Sewer Overflows

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On Thursday, the city agency announced 15 projects that have won the coveted green infrastructure grants. Two are based in Park Slope, with two others in South Brooklyn.

The winners projects, selected from 52 applications, will reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and improve water quality in New York Harbor.

“The 15 winning projects are shining examples of the creativity and innovation of New Yorkers who care about their neighborhoods and the environment,” said DEP Commissioner Caswell Holloway.

During heavy storms, the sewer system, which some call antiquated, often reaches capacity. When this happens, a mix of stormwater and wastewater, CSO, enters the city’s waterways.

This happens often in the Gowanus Canal. A particularly bad overflow last fall was caught on camera and has become something of a YouTube hit.

The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, long known as the organization that is building the bike lane between Long Island City and Sunset Park, was awarded a large grant of nearly $500,000.

The Greenway plans to install "infiltration planters" and "porous concrete" in the sidewalk along an entire block of Columbia Street in Red Hook. The project will "remove street runoff from the combined sewer system by directing the water into the planters and will reduce CSOs to the East River," according to the release. The Greenway plans to partner with local organizations in order to get the community involved.

"It's a whole new game!" said Brian McCormick, a founder of Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. "It puts the 'green' front and center in the Greenway. We've been saying all along that we are much more than bike lanes - and now it's official."

The winners also included the Fourth Avenue-based organization Intelligent Distributed Detention Systems — Gowanus Canal Watershed and New York Restoration Project — Carroll Street Community Garden. Both of these projects will help to decrease the number of CSOs entering the Gowanus Canal.

IDDS was awarded over $100,000 for its proposal to build “an intelligent distributed cistern system” that will manage nearly 80,000 gallons of stormwater to help control storm flow into the canal during wet weather.

“We see the performance assessment of cost-effective advanced stormwater control systems as a key step in New York City’s efforts to leverage green infrastructure to improve the water quality of the City’s waterways,” Philip C. Reidy, P.E., Geosyntec Consultants, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, NYRP-Carroll Street Community Garden plans to install a bioswale that will divert stormwater flow from the street into a rain garden that features native plants and trees. The project will manage approximately 130,000 gallons of stormwater per year.

“Stormwater capture features at our Carroll Street Community Garden will not only keep tens of thousands of gallons of polluted runoff out of the Gowanus Canal,” said NYRP Executive Director Amy Freitag in a statement,” but will also direct filtered stormwater to the garden’s beds, which grow vegetables and herbs for the local neighborhood.