The Environmental Protection Agency's offices of water and enforcement are working with states to incorporate "green infrastructure" projects into settlement agreements and long-term compliance strategies, water office head Ben Grumbles told attendees at a March 11 meeting of EPA's Environmental Financial Advisory Board.

He said that such agreements and strategies must be "flexible" and that sufficient time must be provided to implement the green infrastructure projects. "We don't want to use a cookie-cutter approach," he said. "Let's get these projects right and have them be sustainable."

Agency spokeswoman Shakeba Carter-Jenkins told BNA that EPA reached a settlement with Massey Energy Co. in January that incorporates green infrastructure. Among other things, the settlement requires stream restoration projects on the Big Coal River in West Virginia, as well as conservation of riverfront land (12 DEN A-6, 01/18/08)  .

Other settlements that might incorporate green infrastructure are being negotiated and cannot be disclosed, she said.

EPA defines "green infrastructure" as the strategic use of soil, plants, permeable pavements, and other elements to help absorb, infiltrate, evaporate, or reuse excess stormwater and associated pollutants. Traditionally, pipes, pumps, storage tunnels, and other "hard infrastructure" are used to collect, store, and transport water through large buried sewer systems. However, these systems often cannot handle deluges of stormwater and wastewater when it rains heavily.

Carter-Jenkins said the use of green infrastructure is a "logical progression in advancement of pollution control technology" that can capture and reuse stormwater, thereby reducing the volume of water that needs to be treated. Green infrastructure also can protect surface waters and drinking water supplies, reduce energy demands, protect natural habitats, and accomplish other environmental goals, she said.

As a result, Carter-Jenkins said EPA had begun to consider using green infrastructure as a water pollution control technology in its enforcement activities. She said the agency was working on more specific guidance in this area, such as model permit and consent decree language.

In January, EPA released a strategy to implement green infrastructure practices. The strategy also explains how states, municipalities, permitting authorities, and nongovernmental organizations can use such practices to meet water quality goals while reducing the burden on the existing wastewater infrastructure (12 DEN A-2, 01/18/08) .

EPA and state, environmental, and wastewater utility groups reached an agreement on April 19, 2007, that formalized the use of green infrastructure to capture stormwater and minimize the threat of sewer overflows. The agreement directs EPA and state permitting agencies to explore ways to incorporate the use of green infrastructure into the requirements of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits (77 DEN A-10, 04/23/07)  .

Initiative 'Important Step Forward.'

Linda Eichmiller, executive director of the Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control Agencies, told BNA that the idea of incorporating green infrastructure projects into settlements is an "important step forward."

"It's significant that EPA would consider that [approach] to be consistent with where they want to go with negotiations--that it's okay to put this sort of work into the settlement," she said.

Nathan Gardner-Andrews, counsel for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, said EPA's goal should be to encourage communities to "explore the option" of green infrastructure projects. Making those projects "an acceptable part of an enforcement action" would help achieve that goal, he said.

"NACWA has been encouraging EPA for over a year to ensure that green infrastructure receives regulatory acknowledgment," Gardner-Andrews said. "We look forward to working with EPA and local communities on these projects." 


By Jeff Kinney