DEP Grants Funds Improvements
City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Carter Strickland and Queens College President James L. Muyskens unveiled last Thursday, Oct. 25, the college’s newly installed green infrastructure.
Queens College, the recipient of a $386,000 DEP grant, has rebuilt three different areas of their campus in order to direct stormwater to newly installed permeable pavers and rain gardens that will capture the stormwater and allow it to be naturally absorbed into the ground. The green infrastructure will keep nearly 900,000 gallons of stormwater out of the combined sewer system each year and thereby reduce sewer overflows into Flushing Creek.
Queens College provided more than $150,000 in matching funds for the project. Commissioner Strickland also announced that applications are now being accepted for the 2013 Green Infrastructure Grant Program cycle, which will make $6 million available for green infrastructure projects in combined sewer areas.
“The rain gardens and permeable pavers installed at Queens College are terrific examples of the type of green infrastructure that we aim to build in targeted areas around the city in order to keep stormwater out of the sewer system and further improve harbor water quality,” said Strickland. “Further, by installing the green infrastructure at three central points on campus, the Colleges’ 20,000 students will come to have a better understanding of the importance of handling stormwater and how it ultimately affects New York harbor water quality.”
Through the first two years of the DEP’s Grant Program more than $7.5 million has been allocated to 22 different partners, who contributed an additional $4.1 million in matching funds, to install green infrastructure that will manage stormwater runoff before it ever enters the sewer system. Queens College is the second project to be completed following the opening of the Brooklyn Grange’s Rooftop Farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this past summer.
Green infrastructure employs vegetation, soils, and other structural elements to absorb and evaporate water and to mimic natural hydrologic cycles.
All private property owners in combined sewer areas of New York City are eligible to apply for a 2013 Green Infrastructure Grant for projects that will reduce or manage stormwater on their property. The application deadline is Feb. 4, 2013.
Preference for grants will be given to projects that are built in priority watersheds, are cost effective, provide matching funds or other contributions, and include other environmental and community benefits such as green jobs development. Examples of green infrastructure include green and blue roofs, rain gardens, permeable pavers and rainwater harvesting cisterns. One million dollars of the $6 million in grant funding will be awarded through the New York State Environmental Benefits Program.
The DEP will host three workshops that explain the eligibility requirements and guide users through the online application. A fourth technical workshop will be held at DEP headquarters in December to provide support in computing the stormwater calculations.
The Brooklyn workshop will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 5, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Brooklyn Public Library located at 280 Cadman Plaza West, Ground Floor Auditorium. The Queens grant workshop will be held on Thursday, Dec. 6, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the third floor cafeteria of the DEP’s office located at 59-17 Junction Blvd. in Corona.
A Stormwater Calculations Workshop will be held before the grant workshop in Corona on Dec. 6 from 3 to 4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/dep or call 311.
