September 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 48

SPECIAL REPORT: CONSERVATION

Continued from page 44
MMSD is working toward a vision of 100 percent of stormwater captured and cleaned for the
entire district.

stormwater and how they both had
strong partnerships with their respective parks and water agencies.
Ott Lovell notes that Philadelphia's 25-year goal of its Green
City, Clean Waters plan is to reduce its stormwater inputs by 85
percent. Since parks cover 11 percent of the surface area of the city,
they have an extraordinary opportunity to do green infrastructure
(GI) projects in parks. They are
working with nonprofit partners
and have completed 29 green infrastructure projects in parks and
have achieved 90 " greened acres "
to date. " However, it's not always
puppies and rainbows, " she says
about the many obstacles that can
delay or derail projects. For example, an interminably long design
process of more than two years for
some projects can frustrate communities that are supportive but
want results. " And, they want more
than just the stormwater improvement, too, " Ott Lovell adds, noting
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Parks & Recreation

the desires of the community for
recreational benefits along with
green infrastructure improvements.
The Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District has been a pioneer in developing green infrastructure projects in parks and on public lands. Shafer says that MMSD
has made exceptional progress in
achieving its stormwater management program goals. He notes that
even though Milwaukee is a legacy
Midwest city, MMSD has eliminated its entire aging, combined sewer
overflow system (CSO), replacing
it with deep-tunnel stormwater
storage that holds and treats stormwater before releasing it in a controlled flow. He says even though
MMSD has met its stormwater
targets, it continues to innovate
and apply new green infrastructure
solutions. When asked why it continues to do green infrastructure if
it has met its required stormwater
targets, Shafer replies simply: " It
is the right thing to do. " He says

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A Larger Future Role for
Green Infrastructure
The enthusiasm of the workshop
participants bodes well for future
cooperation between parks and
water utilities. According to Kevin
O'Hara, NRPA's VP of urban and
government affairs: " Participating
in this high-level gathering confirmed what a lot of us suspected,
that there is a huge opportunity for
parks to play a larger role in providing not only green infrastructure for managing stormwater, but
also in developing models for community engagement, equity-based
programming and environmental
education. "
NRPA pledged to work with the
U.S. Water Alliance and the many
partners who attended this catalytic gathering to promote implementation of One Water strategies in
their communities. New initiatives
include a partnership with the Water Environment Federation on
adapting and delivering the National Green Infrastructure Certification Program to a park and recreation audience, the development of
a new NRPA certificate program
in how to design, construct and inspect green infrastructure projects
in parks that maximize benefits to
communities, and the creation of
a matrix for evaluating the many
benefits of GSI projects.
To learn more about the vision and
principles for a One Water future, visit: http://uswateralliance.org/.
Rich Dolesh is NRPA's VP of Strategic
Initiatives (rdolesh@nrpa.org).

September 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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