Detroit Tests Blue Infrastructure

The city is trying a new approach to dealing with runoff.

(Photo by Robert Lawton)

This is your first of three free stories this month. Become a free or sustaining member to read unlimited articles, webinars and ebooks.

Become A Member

Detroit is going to pilot “blue infrastructure” in one neighborhood to keep stormwater runoff out of the sewer system and direct it into ponds, fields and other natural settings. This could mean saving for city businesses. Currently in Detroit, runoff from rainwater and snowmelt is so problematic that the city charges commercial landowners to deal with the impact. According to the Detroit Free Press:

The city’s Water & Sewerage Department began charging commercial landowners a monthly drainage fee in 2013 to cover the cost of cleaning up water than runs off impervious roofs, parking lots, and other hard surfaces into the city’s sewers where it mixes with sanitary waste and must be cleaned before discharge into the river.

If the diversion of rainwater to a nearby man-made wetlands is successful, that would eliminate that charge, making … business[es] more profitable. Written citywide, blue infrastructure could save business owners millions each year and make doing business in the city that much more likely.

Last month, Detroit’s Economic Development Corp. approved spending $162,000 to hire the Detroit-based Giffels Webster Engineers to come up with innovative solutions for the city’s runoff problem. The Free Press reports that dealing with the runoff will most likely “mean funneling the water off the parking lot into a nearby vacant field where the water would pass through a natural filtration system as in a wetlands and eventually be discharged to the Detroit River.”

There’s no estimate yet on cost or how long constructing the test system will take.

Like what you’re reading? Get a browser notification whenever we post a new story. You’re signed-up for browser notifications of new stories. No longer want to be notified? Unsubscribe.

Jenn Stanley is a freelance journalist, essayist and independent producer living in Chicago. She has an M.S. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Follow Jenn .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Tags: detroitstormwater management

×
Next City App Never Miss A StoryDownload our app ×
×

You've reached your monthly limit of three free stories.

This is not a paywall. Become a free or sustaining member to continue reading.

  • Read unlimited stories each month
  • Our email newsletter
  • Webinars and ebooks in one click
  • Our Solutions of the Year magazine
  • Support solutions journalism and preserve access to all readers who work to liberate cities

Join 1096 other sustainers such as:

  • Gabby at $5/Month
  • Abigail at $10/Month
  • Gloria at $5/Month

Already a member? Log in here. U.S. donations are tax-deductible minus the value of thank-you gifts. Questions? Learn more about our membership options.

or pay by credit card:

All members are automatically signed-up to our email newsletter. You can unsubscribe with one-click at any time.

  • Donate $20 or $5/Month

    20th Anniversary Solutions of the Year magazine

has donated ! Thank you 🎉
Donate
×