[Watersheds] Vacant lots as green infrastructure

[Panciera, Ernie (DEM)]

From:  EPA Science Matters posting July 2, 2019
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Vacant Lots as Green Infrastructure in Buffalo, NY
Published July 30, 2018
Rainfall replenishes water supplies and keeps our urban landscapes looking green, but even small storms can cause localized flooding and inundate sewer systems. It's a problem that the City of Buffalo, New York, knows all too well. Buffalo has a combined sewer system that is designed to collect both wastewater and stormwater in a single pipe and send this combined flow to a treatment plant. As in many cities, stormwater reduces the capacity of the sewer system, and this often causes what's called a combined sewer overflow (CSO). These overflows introduce pathogens, like bacteria, and a host of chemical pollutants to receiving waters. These pollutants impair water quality throughout lakes, rivers, streams, and groundwater resources, where fish and other aquatic organisms are impacted by, for example, anoxic conditions (i.e., depleted oxygen levels) that can be caused by the high demand for oxygen that is due to the makeup of  CSO pollutants.
EPA researchers are working with the Buffalo Sewer Authority, the University of Buffalo SUNY, and EPA's Office of Water to tackle the problem with the help of an unlikely resource: vacant lots. The team is helping determine the extent to which vacant lots around the city can function as green infrastructure by absorbing and filtering stormwater. Every vacant lot can play a role in soaking up stormwater, but the question is, just what is this role? When combined, these thousands of vacant lots will reduce the amount of stormwater that otherwise rushes into sewers during storms and contributes to triggering these overflow events.
Read more at:  https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.epa.gov_sciencematters_evaluating-2Deffectiveness-2Dvacant-2Dlots-2Dgreen-2Dinfrastructure-2Dbuffalo-2Dny&d=DwIFAg&c=tSLbvWYfvulPN3G_n48TUw&r=PNPCCLvWGdSuU1Tdn5Dnfma8bA9iLrs91avOnZ4uMV0&m=lNhl8n1oY8DPLsAPaiZ-cS5Kfir2-6H8hC9_iizG238&s=wumiDgHOVjli-ZzsLGp7bwUl2RS9LWuSizfF1SFSQuw&e= 


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