GREEN: Can green make a lot of difference? Parking improvements will manage stormwater in Slavic Village

Green infrastructure grant funds contribute to a more sustainable neighborhood design

Slavic Village Development commemorated the start of construction of a new parking lot along Fleet Avenue with a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, May 8. The parking lot, located at 6305 Fleet Avenue, directly east of Seven Roses Polish Delicatessen, includes a lot with permeable paver patio and bioretention features.

The lot will reduce impervious area in the neighborhood by 1,000 square feet: 300 square feet of bioretention features and a 600-square-foot patio will help infiltrate 30,000 gallons of stormwater into the ground each year.

In 2015, Slavic Village Development was awarded a Green Infrastructure Grant from the Sewer District to help fund this project. The $43,814 grant is approximately half of the entire project cost. The grants are available to communities and non-profit organizations in the Combined Sewer Area who are interested in implementing water resource projects that remove stormwater from the combined sewer system.

Green Infrastructure includes stormwater source control measures that store, filter, infiltrate or evapotranspirate stormwater to increase resiliency of infrastructure by reducing stress on wet-weather drainage and collection systems which increase co-benefits in support of healthy environments and strong communities.

The parking lot is expected to be complete by early July.

GREEN: Living wall breathes life into historic building in Ohio City

Flip a rain garden 90 degrees and what could you get? Something both striking and functional.

One beneficiary of the District’s Green Infrastructure Grant Program is the Striebinger Block building on West 29th Street in Ohio City.

The 1919 building boasts a “living wall” that is fed by rainwater collected from the roof and held in ground-level cisterns. During dry weather, the water is pumped up to plants mounted on the brick façade. Catch basins at the bottom of the wall also capture and recirculate water back to the cisterns.

The Living Wall joins other District-funded green infrastructure projects in Ohio City, including rain gardens at Transformer Station (also on W. 29th) and the nearly-completed West Side Market parking lot. Together, these projects are taking advantage of Ohio City’s redevelopment activity and great soils to promote on-site stormwater management and reduce stormwater in the combined sewer system.

Story by Yolanda Kelly and Michael Uva

RELATED NEWS:

• GREEN: 6 ways green infrastructure is taking root in Cleveland
• PROJECTS: 7 things to know about green infrastructure work in East Cleveland
• FUNDING: Funding opportunities for watershed groups and green infrastructure projects

WATCH | How it works: Permeable pavers at the Western Reserve Historical Society

It's not the first permeable-pavers project we've supported, but it's the first time we've had a truck dump a tank-load of water on one for a video.

The Cleveland History Center at the Western Reserve Historical Society recently completed a renovation of its parking lot with the support of a Green Infrastructure Grant from the Regional Sewer District. Green infrastructure components helped better manage stormwater runoff on-site and reduced the amount of stormwater entering the combined sewer system.

Stormwater Technical Specialist Dave Ritter and CHS Director of Operations Angie Lowrie tell us a little about the project as Dave explains how the pavers and gravel work together to filter and infiltrate runoff.

NEWS: Central neighborhood brownfields go green with Sewer District project

Sewer District awarded $400,000 in clean-up funds to help with Green Infrastructure project

Contaminated land like this between Woodland Ave. and
Kinsman Rd. will be remediated to make way for a green
infrastructure project.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has been awarded $400,000 from the US Environmental Protection Agency to clean up two brownfields in Cleveland's Central Neighborhood.

Two properties located between Woodland Avenue and Kinsman Road near E. 65th Street, polluted with thousands of cubic yards of industrial waste atop contaminated soils, will be remediated to make way for the Sewer District's Woodland Central Green Infrastructure Project.

The Sewer District applied for two Brownfields Cleanup Grants, each with a maximum award of $200,000. Awarded monies will help defray the total cost for site cleanup; estimated remediation costs are $1.2 million for these properties alone. Cleanup activities will include site preparation and restoration, removal and separation of solid waste, transportation and disposal of trash as well as backfilling of the site.

"We are extremely pleased about receiving these grants and grateful to our congressional delegation for supporting our applications," said Julius Ciaccia CEO of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

LOOK: See green infrastructure plans taking root in Cleveland neighborhoods

Visitors from across the country toured six green-infrastructure pilot projects across Cleveland this week as part of the second annual Green Infrastructure Summit held at Cleveland State University.

These sites featured a combination of small-scale demonstrations, green-infrastructure—components of Project Clean Lake to help reduce flow volumes in our combined-sewer area—and water resource restoration projects.

AWARDS: Cleveland Foundation grants will help advance job-development initiative, environmental improvements

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District was awarded three grants totaling $135,000 from The Cleveland Foundation to help further programs and green opportunities in the region.

The funds will be used to enhance the Sewer District’s Good Neighbor Ambassador Program and the Doan Brook Stream Restoration Project. The grants are for:

• Neighborhood Revitalization Projects, Good Neighbor Ambassador Program ($40,000)
• Case Study, Good Neighbor Ambassador Program ($20,000)
• Consultants, Doan Brook Stream Restoration Project ($75,000)

Good Neighbor Ambassador Program

Last May, the Sewer District launched the Good Neighbor Ambassador Program, a progressive one-of-a-kind job development initiative designed to provide outreach to customers who are impacted by Project Clean Lake construction. Project Clean Lake is the Sewer District’s $3 billion initiative to reduce combined sewer overflows from 4.5 billion gallons to 500 million gallons. The current construction activity is a series of projects located in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland.

The Ambassador program hires underemployed or unemployed individuals for 30 hours each week with benefits. Staffed by seven ambassadors and a supervisor, the part-time ambassadors are assigned community improvement tasks, such as cutting grass, passing out project notices and talking with residents about Project Clean Lake, while receiving extensive professional development training. This training includes soft skills, safety procedures, conflict resolution, wastewater overview, and an explanation of the Sewer District’s wide-ranging construction activities. The Sewer District assists with job placement within the organization, as well.

INTERACTIVE: 29 green projects helping neighborhoods slow the flow

When every drop counts, every solution matters.

Since 2009, businesses and organizations across Northeast Ohio have taken steps to manage stormwater on their properties with the help of a Small Scale Stormwater Demonstration Projects grants program.

The interactive map below shows you 29 such projects—from rain gardens to storage solutions to bioswales and more—and how they are alleviating local stormwater problems and reducing stormwater flows in local sewers.

You can also view the map at full size.

STORMWATER: Two things customers should know about the fee that starts Jan. 1, 2013

The Sewer District's Regional Stormwater Management Program is preparing to collect fees starting January 1, 2013.

In preparation for these billing changes for customers, there are two important things to keep in mind:

First, our stormwater-management efforts are not new; and second, we are dedicated to effectively communicating the details of this program, its fees, and related projects over the next three months.

STORMWATER MANAGEMENT:
 The fee is new, the work isn’t.

"This program is already happening," said Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District Executive Director Julius Ciaccia to Trustees at Thursday's Board meeting regarding stream maintenance, regional planning, and community outreach the District has been conducting for years. "What hasn't happened yet is the fee."