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Final Report: Engineered Stormwater Management for Low-Income Urban Communities

EPA Grant Number: SU831830
Title: Engineered Stormwater Management for Low-Income Urban Communities
Investigators: Obropta, Christopher , Avery, Mike , Berry, David , Bhandari, Karan , Donnelly, John , O'Neill, Karen , Rusciano, Gregory , Villere, Medea , Yates, Kristine
Institution: Rutgers University
EPA Project Officer: Nolt-Helms, Cynthia
Project Period: September 30, 2004 through May 30, 2005
Project Amount: $10,000
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet (2004)
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development

Description:

Objective:

This project focuses on improving the urban landscape through the creation of socially beneficial green spaces, while simultaneously improving environmental quality. The success of this project depends on promoting environmental awareness throughout the community. This pilot project is designed for the Weequahic Park neighborhood of the City of Newark, New Jersey, but its concepts are to act as a reference guide for stormwater management in urban areas throughout the world.

The design team has identified Dayton Street Elementary School and the Seth Boyden Public Housing Complex (Newark Housing Authority) as candidate sites that will benefit greatly from stormwater management. These sites were selected because they possess attributes shared by many urban communities: large areas of impervious surfaces, few green spaces, nonexistent stormwater management, and a lack of funds to ameliorate these problems. These sites are also contributors of non- point source (NPS) pollution; they discharge into a combined sewer system that regularly overflows due to high volumes, spilling effluent into the streets of Newark.

Outcomes of the proposed designs include a better quality of life for the students and employees of Dayton Street School, as well as the local residents of the Seth Boyden Complex and the surrounding community. The students and employees will benefit through the creation of a recreational area that will serve as a biofilter, as well as an educational tool to teach students about hydrologic processes, impacts of stormwater, and potential careers in the field of natural resources and environmental studies. Residents will be able to take greater pride in their community through the beautification of their surroundings and the job training opportunities that will be created for community members through the project implementation process.

Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):

Several non-point pollution sources have been identified including street, roof, and parking lot runoff, as well as large open areas of compacted soil. Modifying these impervious surfaces will allow for stormwater treatment, infiltration, and groundwater replenishment, while reducing the load stresses of the local combined sewer systems.

Designs for engineered best management practices (13MPs) were developed with the guidance of community members through outreach and meetings. The resulting designs prevent pollutants from entering the existing stormwater system (and ultimately, nearby water bodies), increase groundwater infiltration, and improve local air quality.

In New Jersey, BMPs are designed to control runoff from the water quality storm, which is defined as 1.25 inches of rain over two hours. By designing for the water quality storm, a BMP will treat approximately 90% of New Jersey's annual storms. Stormwater BMPs that are designed for quantity control are used to reduce the peak stormwater runoff for the 2-, 10- and 100-year design storms, which are defined as 24-hour rainfall events of 3.3 inches, 5.3 inches, and 8.7 inches, respectively. Taking these storm events into consideration, the team decided to use the following BMPs for implementation at the Newark site:

These are site-appropriate BMPs that will be utilized to improve water quality and water quantity issues, as well as to provide rain-harvested water for landscape maintenance and garden irrigation.

The community is enthusiastically supportive of this project. As a result of contacts through Dayton School. science teacher Jeanette Seabrooks and principal Susan Kandell, the design team received an endorsement from William S. Parrish, Jr., Director, Design & Construction of the Facilities Management Department for the Newark Public Schools. According to Mr. Parrish, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 2.0 accredited professional, 'Having the Environmental Sciences and Landscape Architecture students of Rutgers developing strategies and best management practices to aid our environment and school district is extremely beneficial, especially when there is a learning opportunity attached for students of our community."

The Weequahic Park Association (WPA), a principle project partner, is non-governmental community group in Newark. Wilbur McNeil, WPA President, and Kevin Moore, Project Director, readily assisted the P3 design team by providing guidance and allowing the team to speak at a WPA weekly open meeting to reach the community. The project as currently conceived would have been impossible without the WPAs loyal core group of volunteer/members, who have earned the trust and respect of neighborhood residents and Dayton School educators.

Conclusions:

Almost half of the world's population currently lives in urban areas, and this number is growing. The designs rendered for the City of Newark are easily transferable to other densely populated regions of the world. Understandably, neighborhood residents and leaders wish to ensure the safety, attractiveness, and ecological functions of their community. We have made the Dayton Street School the focus of the design project to demonstrate how BMPs can achieve all of these goals. At present. the children's playground is a paved parking lot that looks out onto another lot containing an abandoned tractor trailer. One way to enhance the day-to-day lives of children in this neighborhood is by engaging them in creating an attractive, stimulating, and fun learning environment. The second portion of the project, which includes designs for the Seth Boyden Public Housing Complex, targets the problems of impacted soils and foreboding public space that are all too characteristic of dwellings in low-income city neighborhoods. In addition to improving ecosystem functions, these designs enhance community safety and attractiveness while providing an educational experience for all.

Project implementation will provide specialized training in stormwater management landscape maintenance for 20 of the local residents. This number will increase as the team continues to raise more finding. The 20 trainees will be paid $20/hour for a total of 17 hours. At the end of their 17 hours, they shall receive a certificate from Rutgers University verifying their participation in the training program.

Proposed Phase II Objectives and Strategies:

The Newark design will incorporate BMPs to treat stormwater runoff that will encourage education and community involvement. The design team intends to use innovative BMPs for Dayton Street School with the hope that the children there will become excited about environmental designs for stormwater management. For example, the stormwater harvested from the school roof will initially be directed to a cistern with a holding capacity of 5,000 gallons. The cistern shall be painted to resemble a child's crayon, and the water that remains within it will be used to supply irrigation to the adjacent raised-bed gardens. The overflow will be treated in the vegetative filter strip and bioretention system.

The rainfall from the lower school roof will be routed over a colorful wall built from rocks and bricks of various sizes. This water will then be directed through the open court yard, where it will run through textured paving bands that will help the water remain as sheet flow as it continues into the bioretention system. This design meets the school's needs to retain a portion of the lot for parking during certain times of the school week.

An outdoor classroom shall be built for environmental education and observation and to promote the children's interaction with nature. Rain draining from the roof adjacent to the outdoor classroom will also be collected in another 5,000-gallon cistern to be used in the irrigation of student-maintained rain gardens. The excess water from the cistern will follow through the drainage nh of the sidewalk area and eventually be collected in the bioretention system.

The overall concept is to demonstrate water falling from the northern-most region of the school and flowing southward via the vegetative filter strip and bioswale to be treated ultimately in the bioretention system. Strategically placed interpretive placards will highlight the historical and environmental reasons for choosing specific site details.

Although BMPs have been designed for both the Dayton Street School and the Seth Boyden Public Housing Complex, P3 competition award funds will be used only for the Dayton Street School portion of this project. Funding for the Seth Boyden Apartment Complex designs is being solicited from other sources. Team members feel that it is most effective to present designs for both work and home spaces as a model for Newark and other urbanized areas.

Supplemental Keywords:

Water, groundwater, land, sediments, precipitation, ecological effects, pollution prevention, treatment, effluent, discharge, bioremediation, public policy, public good, sustainable development,socioeconomic, engineering, social science, ecology, monitoring, surveys, ecosystems, environmental engineering, urban and regional planning, watersheds, best management practices, low income urban communities, stormwater drainage, stormwater treatment, , Water, Sustainable Industry/Business, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Environment, Water & Watershed, Environmental Engineering, Watersheds, Urban and Regional Planning, total maximum daily loads, stormwater drainage, low income urban communities, engineering, TMDL, total maximum daily load, stormwater management, urbanizing watersheds, watershed assessment, stormwater treatment
Relevant Websites:

http://www.nps.k12.nj.us/dayton_st/index.htm exit EPA
http://www.pvsc.com/ exit EPA
http://www.water.rutgers.edu exit EPA

Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract

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The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.

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