Gennaro's Stormwater Mgt. Plan Hailed By Environmentalists
BY JOHN TOSCANO

From l. to r.: Dr. Paul Mankiewicz, Executive Director of the Gaia Institute; Councilmember Gennaro; Barbara Brown, Chair of the Eastern Queens Alliance and Mortimer Lawrence, chief of staff for State Senator Malcolm A. Smith.

Environmentalists and Queens community leaders hailed the passage last week of City Councilmember James Gennaro's stormwater management plan, aimed at ending basement floodings following heavy rain- and snow falls in various parts of the city, including Queens.

When signed into law, the Gennaro legislation will require the city to draft a sustainable stormwater management plan by October 1 of this year.

Following unanimous approval of the bill, Gennaro (D- Fresh Meadows), chair of the Environmental Protection Committee said: "For too long, the city's local streets and water bodies have been flooded with billions of gallons of overflowing rainwater and sewage after heavy storms. This bill commits the city to implementing the most progressive, natural and cost-effective methods in the country to control storm water and combined sewer overflows at their source.

"These strategies will have a profound effect on our city's streets and waterways for which our residents and successive generations of New Yorkers will be grateful."

Currently, heavy rains flood local streets, creating small lakes which render streets and highways impassable. Overflow runs into nearby homes, causing often irremediable damage.

Gennaro said another byproduct of the huge floods is the causing of 27 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water to be discharged into the city's waters in a typical year.

One result of these combined sewer overflows is the dumping of hazardous pathogens into the city's water bodies, posing a danger to public health, harming ecology and making local water bodies unsuitable for recreational activities.

The stormwater management plan, as outlined in Gennaro's legislation, relies heavily upon source control measures- capturing, storing and diverting stormwater before it reaches streets and sewers in the first place, Gennaro said.

Some of the progressive techniques of collecting the water include water barrels on "blue roofs" and underground cisterns to capture and store rainwater, encouraging green roofs, green streets and green walls, all of which use soil and vegetation to absorb rainwater, and installing high-level storm sewers that separate stormwater from sanitary waste.

This plan, said Gennaro, complements the city's comprehensive PlaNYC by going into specifics of how flooding can be reduced and local waters made cleaner.

Among those present in the Jamaica Bay marshes where Gennaro announced passage of his bill was Barbara Brown, chair of the Eastern Queens Alliance. She said not only will Gennaro's bill lead to improved water quality and the ecological health of local water bodies, thereby increasing recreational possibilities, but the implementation of measures called for in the Stormwater Management Plan should help to provide some of the greatly needed flood relief in many flood prone areas, particularly in Southeast Queens.

Springfield Gardens, Laurelton and Cambria Heights are regularly flooded following heavy rainstorms.

Marcia Bystryn, League of Conservation Voters executive director, commented: "This bill commits the city to studying the sort of innovative and cost-effective solutions that are our best hope of addressing the ongoing pollution of our waterways."

Dr. Paul Mankiewicz, Gaia Institute executive director, described Gennaro's bill as "a major step to making storms that hit the city into contributions to environmental quality".

Lawrence Levine, Natural Resources Defense Counsel attorney, stated: "The adoption of this local law means cleaner rivers and bays in all five boroughs- and, literally, a greener New York City."