Using green and gray infrastructure to manage stormwater

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Waterfront Toronto

Sherbourne Common is the first park in Canada to integrate a sto… Read More Sherbourne Common is the first park in Canada to integrate a stormwater treatment facility into its design. Runoff is disinfected in the pavilion’s basement using ultraviolet light.

Waterfront Toronto

Designed by artist Jill Anholt, Sherbourne Common’s “Light S… Read More Designed by artist Jill Anholt, Sherbourne Common’s “Light Showers” are actually part of the park’s stormwater treatment system.

Black & Veatch

Omaha’s oldest neighborhood is integrating traditional infrast… Read More Omaha’s oldest neighborhood is integrating traditional infrastructure with green streets, bioswales, and a regional detention basin. Improvements to 108-acre Fontenelle Park include recreational opportunities.

An integrated solution

Although gray solutions are not as hip as their green counterparts, Nebraska’s largest city is using them in concert with green solutions to meet health and water management goals.

Located just north of downtown, North Omaha is one of Omaha’s oldest neighborhoods. Its combined sewer system has bedeviled residents for more than 60 years. Some sections can’t even handle a one-year storm of 2.4 inches in 24 hours without basement backups.

Although strategically placed green solutions are being deployed, new storm and conveyance sewers will add much-needed high-flow capacity to the basin and help alleviate ongoing backups. Significant investments in green infrastructure could provide similar results, but would have required significant property acquisition and resident relocations. Also, operating and maintaining such an expansive green system would cost more than for pipe counterparts and displace more residents.

After careful evaluation by multiple engineering consultants as well as public works, the city is investing in significant gray solutions while incorporating strategically placed green projects. Omaha leaders simply chose the technologies best-suited to fixing specific challenges while also providing multiple benefits.

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