“Switchboard,” the National Resource Defense Council staff blog, recently posted an insightful piece on a Columbia University study released this month on the Con Edison Long Island City green roof. The findings are stunning, and might be considered a game-changer as the City of New York looks to boost its green infrastructure.
The study showed that the cost of managing water on the Con Ed site with a simple extensive green roof was a mere 2 cents (that’s 2 cents!) per gallon of water managed. According to the NRDC’s post:
“The new study suggests the city may be over-estimating the per-gallon cost of using green roofs to control stormwater runoff by a factor of 22 to 166 times. Comparing their findings to those in a 2008 city report, the Columbia researchers concluded that, even on the higher-end of their cost estimates, their result ‘changes the ranking of green roofs from least cost-effective in the PlaNYC report to most cost-effective of the stormwater interventions considered in that report.’ ”
If, as a recent analyst suggested, the “issue” of clean water will “result in wars being fought over the next 20 years,” then our leaders should be taking action to conserve, clean, and manage stormwater sooner rather than later.
Read the original NRDC “Switchboard” post and let us know what you think about these important findings, right here!
