oEPA United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA Office of Research and Development Green Infrastructure Research Alice Gilliland, Ph.D. Assistant Laboratory Director for Water National Risk Management Research Laboratory Office of Research and Development 2012 AridLID Conference Green Infrastructure and Low Impact Development in Arid Environments March 27-29, 2012 Office of Research and Development i «,,, ^ ------- Green Infrastructure Research Agency Green Infrastructure Agenda . £ . i . t i . . -' April 2011 Green infrastructure (Gl) Agenda announced, EPA activities to encourage communities to adopt Gl solutions for stormwater management: - Community partnerships; - Clarifying green infrastructure within the regulatory and enforcement contexts; - Outreach and information exchange; - Financing; and - Tool development and capacity building. April 2011 OW-OECA Joint Memo supporting and encouraging use of Gl for wet-weather control and provided MS4 and Enforcement Action Gl examples www.epa.gov/greeninfrastructure ------- Green Infrastructure Research EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) research to further EPA's Green Infrastructure Agenda 1. Modeling Tools for Gl and Stormwater Planning 2. Technical Guidance in Adaptive Management for Gl in enforcement 3. Generating and Collecting Data on Gl Performance, O&M, Costs, Socio-Economic benefits in the field Field study locations influenced by the geographic location of ORD facilities These research activities, explicitly designed to support the Gl Agenda, are housed within ORD's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research program ------- Green Infrastructure Research EPA Office of Research and Development Locations Rl Grosse lie, Ml Narragansett, Edison, NJ Washington, DC Research Triangle Park, NC Athens, GA Newport, OR Corvallis, OR Duluth, MN Cincinnati, OH Las Vegas, NV ------- Cincinnati Ongoing Green Infrastructure Studies at EPA Office of Research and Development Location Corvallis, OR ield Study Facilities OH Edison, NJ Athens, GA Ada, OK Some facilities serve as a field study sites (Cincinnati, Edison, Athens) Other field studies are often in near vicinity of EPA ORD facilities ------- Green Infrastructure Research EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) research to further EPA's Green Infrastructure Agenda - Modeling Tools 1. Modeling Tools for Gl and Stormwater Planning 2. Technical Guidance in Adaptive Management for Gl in enforcement 3. Generating and Collecting Data on Gl Performance, O&M, Costs, Socio-Economic benefits in the field Field study locations influenced by the geographic location of ORD facilities These research activities, explicitly designed to support the Gl Agenda, are housed within ORD's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research program ------- Green Infrastructure Research 1. Modeling Tools Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) v.5 with Low Impact Development: Planning, analysis and design related to stormwater runoff, combined sewers, sanitary sewers, and other drainage systems in urban areas File Edit View Project Report Window Help Blilill Data Map Subcatch View Subcatch Runoff 03-31 2003 19:45:00 Runoff 200.00 Node View 400.00 Invert 600.00 800.00 Link View CFS None o-o Date Time 19:45:00 - Jj Auto-Length Off 100% CFS 03-31-201 » O Study Area Map & EPA SWMM 5 - Swmm5_Runoff.inp How would Gl BMPs in an urban environment impact stormwater and contaminant runoff and reduce CSO events? ------- Green Infrastructure Research 1. Modeling Tools Stormwater Calculator (note: SWMM v5 engine) National Stormwater Calculator Introduction Welcome to the EPA National Stormwater Calculator. This calculator estimates the amount of stormwater runoff produced and retained on site under different development and control scenarios over a long-term record of historical rainfall. The analysis takes into account local soil conditions, slope, land cover and meteorology. Different types of green low impact development (LID) practices can be employed to help capture and retain runoff on-site. The calculator is most appropriate for small footprint sites up to several dozen acres in size. This program was produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with assistance from Aqua Terra Inc. It uses the EPA Storm Water Management Model (SWMM 5) as its computational engine. National Stormwater Calculator Runoff Results Runoff results are current Save results to file Analyze another site The Rainfall Capture Calculator is used to compute the fraction of rainfall that is retained on site for all storms up to a given size or frequency of occurrence. Enter a threshold rainfall amount; either as a depth or as a percentile of all daily rainfall events, to be analyzed. Then click the Compute % Capture button to determine the fraction of rainfall and storm events that will be retained on site for all storms at or below the threshold. The Rainfall Capture plot summarizes the amount of rainfall captured on-site for a select set of storm frequencies and their corresponding depths. Summary Statistics Runoff Frequency Capture Frequency Target Rainfall Threshold: O [85 C percentile () |0.82 Z inches Find Capture Frequency % of Rainfall Captured |61.37 % of Storms Captured HO-84 Depth of Daily Rainfall Event (inches) 0.20 0.28 0.37 0.52 0.71 0.82 ro 0 7 A 6 = 0.6 J Percentile of Daily Rainfall Events Package modeling solutions (e.g., SWMM-LID) into usable tools for engineers and planners Collaboration between ORD and OW- potential technical support tool for Stormwater Rule ------- Green Infrastructure Research EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) research to further EPA's Green Infrastructure Agenda - Technical Guidance 1. Modeling Tools for Gl and Stormwater Planning 2. Technical Guidance in Adaptive Management for Gl in enforcement 3. Generating and Collecting Data on Gl Performance, O&M, Costs, Socio-Economic benefits in the field Field study locations influenced by the geographic location of ORD facilities These research activities, explicitly designed to support the Gl Agenda, are housed within ORD's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research program ------- 2. Technical Guidance for Integrating Gl into Enforcement Adaptive Management Gl Agenda (2a) "Demonstrate how green infrastructure can be incorporated into combined sewer overflow (CSO) control plans." Gl Agenda (4d) "Address the green infrastructure implementation obstacle of real or perceived risk, and investigate ways to help insulate communities from perceived risk related to choosing green infrastructure technologies." Cleveland case study: ORD and Region 5 "Green Team" proposal (adopted) for an integrated green-gray approach for Cleveland consent decree Approach to integrate Gl that would share risk and employs adaptive management for green-gray options that evolves based on actual conditions and outcomes Performance measurement offers opportunity to adapt green-gray approach and take advantage of additional Gl opportunities or co-benefits ------- Green Infrastructure Research ORD products coming from Cleveland Case Study Developed R&D in Cleveland to address Gl part of CD process: Developed protocol for assessing soils potential for storm water detention in vacant lots Characterized impact of residential demolition on future land use options Design an experiment to study an adaptive management approach for Gl in Slavic Village neighborhood, evaluate social capital via public participation and hydrologic, ecosystem service benefits Develop and beta-test vacant land re-use decision support tool Evaluate and assess utility of a candidate environmental justice metric Site-scale monitoring and assessment of effectiveness and performance (water volume, water quality) for Gl practices ------- Green Infrastructure Research EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) research to further EPA's Green Infrastructure Agenda - Field 1. Modeling Tools for Gl and Stormwater Planning 2. Technical Guidance in Adaptive Management for Gl in enforcement 3. Generating and Collecting Data on Gl Performance, O&M, Costs, Socio-Economic benefits in the field Field study locations influenced by the geographic location of ORD facilities These research activities, explicitly designed to support the Gl Agenda, are housed within ORD's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources research program ------- Green Infrastructure Research 3. Data on Gl Performance, O&M, Costs, Socio- Economic benefits Monitoring of Gl BMPs such as permeable parking lots and rain gardens (O&M, long term performance) Field sites are located primarily in the Northeast and Midwest - Combined Sewer Systems (CSS), Green Infrastructure primarily implemented for keeping stormwater out of CSS New research also underway related to water reuse and exposure issues /12/2009 ------- New water reuse efforts (5) EPA 0RD Overall Perspective Water reuse offers sustainable, alternative water supply which can be appropriately matched to quality of water required for particular application (nonpotable, potable, etc.). Federal regulations/guidelines needed to provide uniform minimum standards of health protection Rigorous risk assessment methodology needed to determine and manage potential water reuse risks Research gaps/needs Determine chemical and biological composition of captured rain water, storm water, and urban runoff: untreated, minimally treated, and fully treated recycled water Determine risks associated with intended use of reused water (inside or outside of building, drinking, etc.) New USEPA-ORD Project (2012 Region 6 RARE Project (ORD-Cincinnati, University of Texas) Microorganisms Associated with Rainwater Collection Systems Providing Non-potable or Potable Water > Identify best management practices for harvesting rainwater that result in minimum microbial growth and pathogen persistence. > Disseminate results among project collaborators (EPA Region 6, ORD, Region 6 State Health Departments, and state primacy agencies) > Recommend methods for rainwater harvesting and storage with greatest public health benefit ------- Green Infrastructure Research 3. Data on Gl Performance, O&M, Costs, Socio- Economic benefits (cont'd) Monitoring of Gl BMPs such as permeable parking lots and rain gardens (0&M; long term performance) Field sites are located primarily in the Northeast and Midwest - Combined Sewer Systems (CSS), Green Infrastructure primarily implemented for keeping stormwater out of CSS Next slides (Michelle Simon, EPA ORD) will share more detail on monitoring of Gl BMPs: Approaches and lessons learned and new effort re: Albuquerque stormwater modeling /12/2009 ------- Questions? «fia ; ^iKiiii I ------- |