Freshkills Park Talks: Sustainable Urban Stormwater Management: The Bluebelt and Beyond

The continued progress of PlaNYC 2030-based policy and design initiatives, as well as growing concern about climate change, street flooding and sewage outflow into waterways, has helped to bring issues of urban stormwater management further into public conversation in the past several years. Dana Gumb, Director of the Staten Island Bluebelt at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, will address a host of issues in that conversation through the lens of the Bluebelt, one of the most ambitious stormwater management efforts in the northeastern United States.

The Bluebelt is an award-winning program that retains and treats stormwater runoff for approximately one third of Staten Island’s 58 square-mile land area while preserving ecological systems and saving millions of dollars in infrastructure costs. The innovative approach combines enhancement of natural drainage corridors like streams and ponds, construction of wetlands and stream stabilization facilities at the end-points of storm sewers and provision of diverse wildlife habitat and community open space. The Bluebelt represents a pioneering effort to make New York City’s drainage and sewage infrastructure sustainable.

Dana will discuss the lessons learned from the Bluebelt, how they are currently being applied to other DEP projects in Queens and the Bronx, and what they mean for the future of the City.

Freshkills Park Talks is a lecture series on topics related to the reclamation and development of Freshkills Park. The series is organized by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation in conjunction with a variety of citywide partners.