ECA Program Manager Zach Popkin gives the scoop on Philly's new Rain Check residential stormwater initiative.
Most people don’t often think about sewers, rainwater, and where
water goes after a flush of the loo, but the folks at the water department
sure do. It’s a big problem for cities because water is a limited
resource and when sewers become overburdened, it can make for a troublesome mix with
drinking water, which ultimately takes energy and money to clean.
To mitigate
stormwater overflow issues, cities have increasingly relied on public
green infrastructure
tools such as bump-outs, planters, rain gardens, green roofs, bioswales and tree trenches (such as the one pictured here in Philadelphia's Columbus Square, which can hold up to 7100 gallons of rainwater per incident).
Philadelphia, in particular, has now begun taking this approach to people's homes with a new innovative residential program called Rain Check, which involves an initiative from the
Philadelphia Water Department, training and implementation from the
Energy Coordinating Agency, and engagement with the city's homeowners and residents.
Thus, Home Science caught up with the ECA's Program Manager for Rain Check, Zachary Popkin, to get the word on how it's all going to work:
What's the main purpose of the Rain Check program?
Here in the city of Philadelphia, because the city is so old, we have
somewhat of an antiquated sewer system. Two-thirds of the city has what
we call a combined sewer system. And what that means is that the sewer
pipes in our streets have a combination of stormwater from rain events
combined with our waste water from our homes. And what happens is that
when it rains and they reach their capacity, we have these overflows.
These stormwater overflows are flowing into our waterways, and it
creates pollution, it creates erosion and flooding, and basically
degrades the quality of our water in terms of the cleanliness of the
water as well as habitats for ecosystems, and making our waterfronts
liveable and enjoyable. Through this program we hope to address the
issues of both stormwater quantity and quality management and we hope to make a
happier city and more friendly waterfronts.
More specifically, since this effects all Philadelphians, what sort of
role can homeowners and tenants play to help? How does Rain
Check allow them to participate?
The goal of Rain Check is to treat the first inch of rain from storm
events on the resident's site. So we have five green tools from Rain
Check. We have a downspout planter box, we have a rain garden, we have
the depaving of impervious surface - so if you have asphalt or concrete
we can remove that to encourage the water to naturally infiltrate back
into the ground - and we have porous paving options, which is basically still
hard surfaces but allows the water to penetrate into the ground. And
lastly we have just your average yard tree, which helps capture stormwater but also the root systems help to filter the water.
Homeowners who are participating in the program can receive one of the tools I mentioned, plus a yard
tree. So say they can get a planter and a yard tree, or they can get a
rain garden and a yard tree. The way the funding works is that the homeowner will be responsible for just a small copay, and the water
department will provide funding for the remaining 80-90 percent. So it's
a drastically reduced cost that the homeowner will pay to get their
green tool.
Since this blog is also concerned with green jobs and building a
sustainable workforce, in every sense, describe the type of jobs
you'll be creating and the backgrounds of people being trained for this
new career field of green infrastructure.
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| Green tool training at the ECA |
Sure. We're managing our stormwater management process similar to the
same way we do our
energy audit process, where we have the energy audit
up front, then we have the weatherization work. At the ECA in the
EnergyWorks program we do a quality assurance inspection at the end of
that process. You have a three process program with the inspection, the
remodeling work, and the quality assurance assessment.
With the Rain Check program we've modeled that process similarly. We've
trained assessors to go out and do stormwater assessments. We're
requiring that stormwater assessors have their Building
Performance Institute Analyst (BPI) accreditation - that basically helps them better
determine stormwater issues or opportunities as it applies to the
properties and homes.
For our installers, we've trained a greater variety of
installers because there's a little bit more in the variety of green
tools. So the types of installers are going to be general contractors and landscapers. And we have masonry contractors for the depaving portions of the
program.
Do you see this kind of work as a growth field in the future, and if so, what are the indications of that?
Absolutely. Philadelphia has become a leader in the method that it has
come to address its stormwater problems. Some other cities are choosing
to address the issue in the back end by increasing the capacity of
pipes and at the water treatment plants. What Philadelphia is choosing
to do is a little bit more innovative, by treating the problem at the
source, by treating it on site. So not only are we treating the
stormwater through these practices, but we're helping to beautify our
city, because the planter boxes and rain gardens and trees add an
aesthetic value - not only are we resolving stormwater problems but we
are able to green and beautify our city through these programs.
And since Philadelphia has acted as a leader in this method for managing
stormwater, we're hoping that Rain Check, and Philadelphia's stormwater program overall, which is called Green City, Clean Waters, can serve as a model for cities throughout
the nation as they address their stormwater issues.
And in a cost effective way.
Exactly, particularly in Philadelphia because of the scope of our sewer
system. It's prohibitive cost-wise to rehabilitate all of our sewer
systems and by completely trying to address the issue of stormwater by
increasing the capacity of our plants. What Philadelphia needs to do to
address its type of water problems is a more comprehensive approach. While we can do some of the other things such as increasing capacity of sewer
systems and treatment plants, doing things like stream restoration and
public outreach, we're also going to be doing things like green
infrastructure and low impact development, such as the green tools we
talked about.
Sounds like a win win solution. Thanks for your time.
Thank you.
Blogger's note: The Rain Check program is in pilot phase, and currently not registering additional residents. Further opportunities to join will be forthcoming. For more on this and other programs from the Philadelphia Water Department visit www.phillywatersheds.org
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