Geosyntec Consultants Awarded Grant Funding for Two New York City Green Infrastructure Projects

Geosyntec Consultants announced it received funding for the design, installation, measurement and analysis of two projects incorporating actively controlled, distributed green infrastructure ("high-performance green infrastructure") approaches for urban storm water control under a New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Green Infrastructure Grant Program. Both projects focus on leveraging advanced technology in mitigating combined sewer overflows (CSOs), a particularly expensive and environmentally challenging issue for many urban areas.

Geosyntec's project partners are HDR/HydroQual of Mahwah, N.J.; Bart Chezar of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Staples Inc. of Framingham, MA; and Blue Sea Development Co. LLC of New York City.

"We believe that decentralized, small-scale control strategies can have a significant, positive impact on the performance of large-scale storm water infrastructure systems. Our projects will demonstrate those positive impacts and bring future water quality improvements to the city's waterways," said Philip Reidy, Geosyntec's project director and an associate in the firm's Water Resources Management practice.

One project, to be implemented at a residential townhouse and commercial building in Brooklyn, will demonstrate the effectiveness of real-time controls in managing small-scale storm water detention systems ("intelligent distributed detention") to reduce peak flows to combined sewer systems. The second project, implemented at an eight-story housing complex in the Bronx, will demonstrate the effectiveness of incorporating predictive weather information and real-time controls in managing an integrated rainwater harvesting and storm water control system designed for overall storm water runoff/CSO reduction and water conservation.

The results of these efforts are anticipated to provide the New York City DEP with a new set of cost-effective and flexible tools for meeting water quality goals associated with long-term CSO control plans and other U.S. Clean Water Act requirements.

Source: Geosyntec Consultants