At the 2017 Great Lakes Commission annual meeting, the GLC awarded five grants to promote green infrastructure in communities across the Great Lakes region. The grants will help bring resources and expertise to small- and medium-sized cities who have not yet tried or struggle to advance green infrastructure initiatives.
In a green infrastructure workshop conducted in 2015, Jeff Edstrom of Environmental Consulting and Technology, Inc provided staggering calculations. Assuming a one inch rain event, approximately 400 million gallons of water runs off from impervious surfaces in one Michigan county alone. With the ever-expanding urban environment, these 400 million gallons of water sweep nutrients and pollutants straight into the fresh waters of the Great Lakes without any natural filtration. This lack of multi-layer bio-filtration paired with 2017’s unprecedented waterfall is causing a chemical cocktail in the Great Lakes that could lead to even more severe algae blooms and drinking water advisories.
“At its core, bio-filtration is harnessing the natural ability of the plants and soil to filter impurities out of our water,” says horticulturist Nathan Marcusen, hailing from the water-conscious Pacific Northwest. “Wetlands - both large and small - are basically the liver of freshwater systems. They catch the water long enough to filter it and allow it to seep into the ground water for further filtration. Alternately, the micro-wetlands along river banks and lake shores pass run-off through enough plant material to provide multiple layers of filtration before it reaches the larger body of freshwater.”
The GLC grants for green infrastructure seek to install new or bolster existing micro-wetlands or bioswales in and around urban environments. Green infrastructure takes many forms, but the most useful are swaths of carefully chosen and often native plants positioned alongside sidewalks, streets, and waterfront developments. As stormwater prefers to settle at the lowest point, green infrastructure encourages the water into low spots or bioswales before dumping into the Great Lakes.
“These measures not only help prevent flooding,” GLC Associate Commissioner and Assistant Deputy Minister of Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change Robert Fleming, says, “but they also help improve water quality in urbanized landscapes by avoiding nutrient runoff into sewer systems and lakes. Innovative stormwater management solutions are a key component in Ontario’s commitment to restore the health of the Great Lakes.”
Paired with a significant sum of grant money comes a peer-to-peer mentorship program, facilitating communication between cities who’ve succeeded at implementing green infrastructure and the grant recipient.
The Green Infrastructure Champions Pilot Program is supported with funding from the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation. The pilot program, including the mentoring network, will continue through August 2018.
Stretching the Almighty Dollar
- In Ohio, the Chagrin River Watershed Partners will receive $12,000 to review local ordinances in two municipalities to identify barriers to green infrastructure and ways to overcome them.
- In Indiana, the Sanitary District of Michigan City will receive $12,000 to adapt an existing Rainwater Rewards stormwater calculator and apply it to calculate the costs and benefits of green infrastructure and associated ecosystem services specific to Michigan City.
- In Wisconsin, the City of Oshkosh will receive $15,000 to install a prairie treatment system as a pilot demonstration in a community center. The pilot will address an important technology barrier: the overwhelming reliance one or two technologies to address stormwater issues.
- In Michigan, the City of Dearborn will receive $6,000 to establish a cost share program that reimburses residents half the cost of for removing hard landscaping and replacing it with rain gardens and rain barrels. Single-family residential is the largest zoning area in Dearborn.
- The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority will receive $15,000 to install rain gardens and a bioswale at two schools in London, Ontario. The pilot installations will also be used for educational purposes at the schools.
For More Infomation:
Great Lakes Commission
www.glc.org/work/champions
