EPA is committed to helping local communities. EPA conducted a series of technical assistance projects focused on green infrastructure implementation. These projects will help other communities by sharing lessons learned.

Greening CSO Plans: Planning and Modeling Green Infrastructure for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control (PDF) (38 pp, 1.9 MB, About PDF)

This technical resource assists communities in developing and evaluating CSO control alternatives that include green infrastructure.

Monitoring Green Infrastructure

Permeable pavers and treeboxes in Louisville, KY

In Cincinnati, Ohio, EPA scientists with the city and local USGS monitor green infrastructure pilot projects. Among the green infrastructure installations under the study are:

• rain gardens at the St. Francis Court Apartments and
• permeable parking lots at Cincinnati State 

Researchers are tracking water quality and flow patterns. This will give them a better understanding of the efficiency of each practice.

The Metropolitan Sewer District of Louisville, Kentucky is working with EPA scientists to develop a monitoring plan. It will demonstrate the performance of individual green infrastructure controls and the joint effectiveness of combined sewer flow control.

Science Matters: Tapping Green Infrastructure to Curb Sewer Overflows

Guiding Green Infrastructure in Omaha

Like many older cities across the country, Omaha, Nebraska, has a combined sewer system. During heavy rains, this sewage can overflow untreated into nearby water bodies, threatening human health and the environment.

With the City of Omaha and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, EPA scientists are analyzing soils and preparing monitoring equipment to help the city add in green infrastructure to prevent overflows.

Once locations are chosen for green infrastructure installations, EPA will work with the local USGS to monitor water flow before and after installation. They will determine how well the green infrastructure performs.

Science Matters: Helping Cities Benefit from Green Infrastructure

Transforming Cleveland’s Vacant Lots

Based on technical guidance from EPA experts, Cleveland, Ohio has added a green infrastructure pilot program to their CSO control plan. This program uses the city’s excess vacant land. The land is turned into green spaces that can soak up stormwater and keep excess water out of the sewer system.

The transformations of urban vacant lots into park-like gardens that catch stormwater runoff not only help remedy the CSO problem, but also improve the social and economic fabric of neighborhoods lacking green spaces.

• Science Matters: Straightening the Road to Reuse - Connections between Demolition and Green Infrastructure 
• Around the Water Cooler: Helping Cleveland Communities
• On the Road to Reuse: Residential Demolition Bid Specification Development Tool - September 2013 (PDF) (81 pp, 4 Mb, About PDF)
• Fact Sheet: On the Road to Reuse - September 2013 (PDF) (2 pp, 435 K, About PDF)

Daylighting Streams to Improve Water Quality

Researchers are comparing the effectiveness of buried streams versus daylighted streams for removing harmful nitrogen. Buried streams are streams rerouted into underground pipes during urban development. Daylighted streams are open-air streams. Early research results show that buried streams are less effective than daylighted streams. This suggests that turning buried streams into daylighted streams could prove a sustainable method for nitrogen removal and improved water quality.

EPA researchers will use the outcomes of this study and further research to make a modeling tool that will help urban managers determine where daylighting streams would be most effective.

Around the Water Cooler: Showing Buried Streams the Daylight