SFEP tagline - Celebrating 20 years of protecting and restoring the San Francisco Estuary

Home
About the Estuary
Press Page
Program Areas
Estuary Plan (CCMP)
Take Action
Events
Projects
Committee (IC)
Friends of the Estuary
Estuary Newsletter

Green Infill — Clean Stormwater Project

Project Partners include:

For more information:
Presentation: Green Infill - Clean Stormwater

Green Infill – Clean Stormwater is a new program at SFEP scheduled to begin in late 2008. The program is funded by USEPA’s West Coast Estuaries Initiative. The program has four purposes: to 1) move several viable integrated flood control, stormwater pollution prevention projects towards completion and demonstrate their efficacy as regional models, 2) offer incentives to local government to initiate innovative zoning and code modifications to promote green, stormwater friendly infill, 3) document the environmental and economic outcomes and benefits of a variety of green infill projects, and 4) publicize the project successes to the local governments, regional, and subregional agencies of the 101-city, nine-county Bay Area.

Green Infill – Clean Stormwater links two important regional programs: San Francisco Estuary Project’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and FOCUS, a regional incentive-based development and conservation strategy for the Bay Area. FOCUS unites the efforts of four regional agencies—ABAG, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission—into a single program that encourages future growth in areas near transit and within the communities that surround the San Francisco Bay. Concentrating housing in these areas offers housing and transportation choices for all residents, while helping to reduce traffic, protect the environment, and enhance existing neighborhoods. Because local elected officials, city managers, city planning directors and public works directors are beginning to collaborate on strategizing for FOCUS, Green Infill – Clean Stormwater is reaching the primary audiences needed to cause real programmatic changes in land use/development patterns.

The program components are:

Green Infill Creeks & Wetlands Restoration, Monitoring, and Outreach Project encompasses three creek/wetlands restoration projects in Contra Costa County. The cities of Hercules and Pinole are restoring Chelsea Wetlands and reaches of Pinole Creek (which empties into Chelsea Wetlands). Both cities’ efforts are based upon comprehensive stakeholder-based watershed plans, and a variety of committed funding sources. The Chelsea Wetlands abuts the Hercules business district and Pinole Creek flows through downtown Pinole. Program funds will be used to restore natural creek functions to a flood control channel, expand marsh plain habitat, create a sustainable creek profile, improve recreational access, and enhance flood protection. These improvements are called out in the local watershed plan. The third entity in this program component is Earth Team, a non-profit organization that trains urban high school students to become watershed stewards. Aqua Team (a program of Earth Team) members will enhance creek and shoreline habitat by planting native vegetation, weeding invasive plants, building low impact trails, picking up trash, and monitoring restoration projects. Aqua Team members will also provide public outreach on stormwater pollution prevention and water conservation in urban Contra Costa County, primarily Richmond.

The Green Infill Monitoring Project will collaborate with the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program (SMCWPPP)'s Sustainable, Green Streets and Parking Lots Project to design effective monitoring and performance assessment features into the streets and parking lots prior to retrofitting. This will enable the County to use at least one green street and green parking lot project to conduct long-term monitoring of runoff reduction, and model anticipated environmental benefits of retrofitting whole city neighborhoods. The County has currently allocated funds totaling approximately $2 million to project management, developing a sustainable, green streets and parking lots technical guidance document, and offering grants to San Mateo County local governments to install green street and parking lot demonstration projects. Successful examples of green streets outside the Bay Area include the City of Portland, which has evaluated their green streets program for reduction in peak flow and infiltration rates. The T.R.E.E.S Program in Southern California also demonstrated the hydrologic and pollution reduction benefits of non-traditional site retrofits that reduce roof runoff from the site, minimize pollutant transport into storm drains and natural stream channels, and enhance water supply reliability via runoff harvesting features. The Green Infill Monitoring Project will evaluate the San Mateo program for pollutant load reduction potential under climatic conditions prevalent in the Bay Area. The budget includes monitoring equipment, site design to accommodate vandal-proof equipment placement, field work, sample analysis, reporting, modeling expected performance of green streets and parking lots on larger spatial scales (20%, 50%, 100% of city-scapes), and developing effective communication tools to convey key findings.

Local Government Green Infill Minigrant Program Under this program, Project staff will offer funds to one or two local governments to 1) Identify current institutional, policy, or programmatic roadblocks to "green" development and re-development and develop tools to overcome identified roadblocks. Such tools include protocols and guidance documents that incorporate integrated water management features into neighborhood, site, and project design (this can complement existing plans for transit-oriented development, off-site mitigation credits for hydromodification, etc.). 2) Use existing capital improvement and maintenance plans for storm drain, street, parks and parkway, and public building infrastructure to identify cost-effective "green" retrofit opportunities that may have added benefits of (a) producing new revenue streams for water treatment and/or floodway maintenance, restoration, and enhancements; and (b) reducing ongoing maintenance and future storm water infrastructure expansion costs. 3) Work with planning commissioners, elected officials, and private developers to develop appropriate incentive mechanisms, such as "green zoning" overlays with tax incentives and other long-term cost avoidance benefits. These mini-grants are intended to "go to the source" and develop the institutional capacity at the local level to identify change agents, diffuse proven technology, and create the appropriate decision framework that stretches from updating land use zoning to building code revisions, and training/oversight on the building inspection teams.

Green Infill Campaign for Local Governments In the Green Infill Campaign for Local Governments, ABAG, SFEP and SFEI will collaborate to sponsor four subregional conferences for local government officials and staff to disseminate the results of the Green Infill – Clean Stormwater demonstration projects. The presentations and highlights of the discussions of the Green Infill – Clean Stormwater workshops will be posted on the FOCUS website as well as on the project website with links to SFEP and ABAG. A feature of the website and workshops will be showing pictures of the retrofitted San Mateo County Green Streets and Parking Lots, as well as clips from the public access television shows about creek/wetlands restoration in Contra Costa County. ABAG/SFEP staff will write articles for publications as well as provide speakers for various water and land use forums. SFEI staff will evaluate the project outcomes and include hard data in articles.