Tips for Green Living

Last week over 100 conservationists joined together in Washington DC for Great Lakes Lobby Day – an event designed to call for increased Great Lakes restoration funding, protection against invasive species, stopping sewage overflows and advocating for Farm Bill conservation programs.  Representatives of organizations from throughout the Great Lakes Basin, including several from Western New York, met with elected officials and their staffers on Capitol hill to advocate for our region.

The Great Lakes are an amazing natural resource that is essential to the economic and cultural identity of upstate New York and the entire Great Lakes region. Over four million New Yorkers, and forty-two million people nationwide, depend on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, their recreation, their health and overall quality of life.  Recreational boating, shipping, fishing, hydropower production, and ecotourism on bring in billions of dollars to the regional economy each year.  In addition, more than 300 different bird species call the Great Lakes their home, but due to a host of factors, the populations of many of these species are in serious decline.

The health of our Great Lakes is central to the prosperity of our upstate New York communities, and is vital for the long term economic revitalization of the upstate economy.  Yet the longer we wait to make these investments, the problems only get worse and more costly to fix.

Throughout the Great Lakes region, states and municipalities have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to foster public-private partnerships to restore the water quality and protect the coastal resources of this national treasure.  We need the federal government to continue to be an active player in the restoration of this vital resource.  Through the first three installment of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) over $30 million has been directly invested in New York projects to keep people working to restore this amazing freshwater resource.  While this major federal reinvestment is beginning to yield dividends in New York and throughout the region, there is still a great demand for projects and Congress must maintain this critical funding at $300 million in the FY 13 budget.  In New York alone, project requests have far exceeded available funds highlighting the large amount of work that still remains to improve the Great Lakes.

Although local representatives from the Buffalo Audubon Society and Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER were unable to attend due to the storm dubbed the ‘snowquester’, others from across the state and the Great Lakes were able to carry this important message.  You can do your part too by reaching out to your elected officials to ensure that they are aware of the importance of these issues and this GLRI funding!

Environmental issues are constantly being discussed. Whether in daily conversation or media coverage, the discussions expose us to a lot of technical jargon. Yet, it is because of the technical terms accompanying such stories that it can be difficult to properly analyze these reports and therefore form an educated opinion around the subject. The GrowWNY team, the WNY Environmental Alliance members, and other community experts are sharing their knowledge to help decode environmental terminology for any of those who may still be confused when reading headlines.

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The term “Green Infrastructure” seems like it would be an easy one to define: infrastructure that is green or environmentally friendly. However, the definition is much more specific. The term “Green Infrastructure” refers to technology and infrastructure that focuses on maintaining the health and sanitation of a community’s waterways.

While at the Western New York Green Infrastructure Forum, hosted last week by the University at Buffalo and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), I heard a couple of great explanations of this term. One definition in Maureen Krudner’s presentation stuck out to me. Krudner is the Green Infrastructure Coordinator, EPA Region 2. She showed this slide, defining green infrastructure, right before she went through some of the other great resources available on the EPA website.

Her slide reads:

“Green infrastructure” refers to an array of technologies, approaches, and practices that protect and use natural systems or systems engineered to mimic natural processes, to manage rain water as a resources, to solve combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), enhance environmental quality and achieve other economic and community benefits.

Green infrastructure storm water management approaches and technologies are characterized by infiltration, evapo-transpiration, and capture& use of storm water.

Green Infrastructure refers to a wide array of methods and technologies. Some of these include permeable pavement, green roofs, rain gardens and more! To learn more about green infrastructure, check out the EPA website!

Yesterday, March 14, 2013, was the Western New York Green Infrastructure Forum sponsored by the EPA and University at Buffalo. I had the pleasure of going and hearing from a variety of speakers, learning about many different projects and efforts in our community, and was sent home with a couple of great case studies to research. Here were some of the key takeaway points that I walked away with yesterday:

• Green Infrastructure is about approaching storm water—keeping it out of our sewers and keeping sewage out of our waterways. This definition is kind of broad, but I thought it was helpful when this was discussed at the beginning of the forum to give a very general overview of a topic that was going to be talked about for the rest of the day.
• There are many green infrastructure methods, many of which are being utilized in our region already (permeable pavement, rain barrels, rain gardens, green roofs, etc.)
• Onondaga County and the Save the Rain Program are great case studies. One lesson from their team was that in thinking about green infrastructure projects from a community standpoint, the number one question that seems to come up is about maintenance. Make sure you plan for this question!
• EPA Regional Administrator, Judith Enck, made a great argument for the importance of green infrastructure by reminding us that it’s cheaper to prevent pollution than to clean it up!

Here is what one of our partner organizations, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, had to say about the event in a news article on their website:

(Buffalo, N.Y. – March 14, 2013) Directors from Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper joined regional and state leaders to showcase efforts to advance green infrastructure in WNY at the Environmental Protection Agency and the University at Buffalo’s Green Infrastructure Forum.

“Riverkeeper is restoring natural water systems and implementing cutting edge techniques, including rain gardens, pervious pavement, and wide scale application of rain barrels to address a multitude of water quality problems” noted Jill Jedlicka, Executive Director, in her Rust to Blue presentation.

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper’s Rust to Blue initiative is leveraging Western New York’s Blue Economy through the investment in the restoration and revitalization of our watershed. Restoration of the Buffalo River has delivered over $70 million dollars to this community and set the foundation for developments like Canalside.

“The health and integrity of our fresh water system reflects the health and well being of our community, notes Jedlicka.” We are standing at a pivotal moment in time where we can create jobs and promote innovation while restoring this community’s most important natural asset, fresh water.”

Jessie Fisher, Riverkeeper’s Director of Planning co-presented with the Buffalo Sewer Authority (BSA) on the public-private partnership that has allowed the BSA to secure resources to implement state of the art green infrastructure in pilot projects within the region.

“Through our partnership with the Buffalo Sewer Authority, we are not only implementing solutions that will improve water quality, but we are also improving aesthetics of our urban core communities with new rain gardens and habitat restoration,” Fisher noted in her presentation.

Green infrastructure and the potential of the Blue Economy is leveraging innovative economic development opportunities for our community. Water quality and restoration projects including the restoration of the Buffalo River, the Lake to Lake connection along the Niagara River Greenway, brownfield remediation, commercial navigation, regional sewer improvements, and eco-tourism combine to create over a billion dollars of investment in our local blue economy.

At Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz’s first “state of the county” address, he noted “his economic development strategy also would focus on creating a “blue economy” to leverage the region’s geographic location and natural water resources, committing to “smart growth and sustainability” through land-use planning, ensuring brownfield redevelopment and farmland protection, and making “conscientious investments” in infrastructure, the workforce and quality of life.“

For more information on Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper’s Green Infrastructure, please our website at bnriverkeeper.org/green-infrastructure and our Green Infrastructure Solutions report at bnriverkeeper.org/solutions report