The Point Community Development Corp. will be able to plant a green roof to trap rainwater and cool its building on Garrison Avenue, and the Bronx River Alliance will begin a pilot program to cut down on the amount of storm water contaminating the Bronx River, thanks to funds from polluters in Westchester.
The money is part of a $7 million settlement won by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that ended the illegal discharge of raw sewage into the Bronx River.
Cuomo announced on Aug. 27 that his office was allocating $1.8 million to seven organizations and government agencies for programs that capture storm water before it reaches the river.
When it rains or when snow melts, New York City’s sewers are unable to handle all the water, so cigarette butts, antifreeze, pesticides and everything else that accumulates on streets and in parks, along with what is flushed from toilets and washed down sinks runs into the city’s streams, rivers and bays.
The Point, which will get $149,793 to install a green roof that will absorb rainwater, will also use the roof as a demonstration project and outdoor classroom.
The Bronx River Alliance plans to test the idea of capturing rainwater, storing it and using it later to water gardens and lawns. The $117,500 grant will allow it to “harvest” rainwater from the roofs of five Bronx buildings, “from a playground parkhouse to a private home,” said Linda Cox, the Alliance’s executing director.
The organization also plans to “begin to correct the damage that excessive water from a pipe causes by eroding the riverbank,” Cox said.
The other recipients of funds from the settlement include the New York Botanical Garden, which will use a variety of methods to reduce and treat water flowing from four existing storm water discharge pipes on its grounds, and the Parks Department, which will create living catchbasins of plantings in Shoelace Park as part of the Bronx River Greenway project.
The balance of the funds will go be spent upstream to protect the river in Westchester.
The attorney general reached settlements in 2007 with the city of Yonkers, Yonkers Raceway, White Plains, the Village of Scarsdale, and the Town of Greenburgh, all of which had been polluting the river with raw sewage.
The remaining settlement funds will be allocated in future years to projects that will further reduce pollution discharges to the river, according to the attorney general’s office.
A version of this story appeared in the September edition of the Hunts Point Express.