Climate Ready: Bluebelt program helps save NYC communities from flooding
We've seen prolific moisture with Hurricane Helene and Milton. If a storm were to hit our area are we ready to take on all of that water?
A project in development since the 1990s on Staten Island is a great opportunity and a possible answer to get rid of stormwater.
As severe rain events become more frequent and more intense, New York City officials have a plan, which is more water to keep communities from drowning.
It sounds counterintuitive, but Bluebelt Technology is a proven system that keeps communities from drowning.
"The Bluebelt System is a way to move water, rainfall that comes into our neighborhoods off the streets and into the bay," Sangu Iyer Chief, Bluebelts & Urban Stormwater, DEP said.
An homage to Staten Island's "Greenbelt" of connected open green space, runoff storm water drains into these bluebelts away from homes and streets.
They all use natural drainage corridors including streams, ponds and wetlands which are extremely effective.
"It's everywhere we've built a Bluebelt over the years, none of them have flooded," Iyer said.
"We haven't had a single flooding incident of a home or street or intersection since the inception of the Bluebelt," Rob Brauman Deputy Chief, Bluebelt Operations & Maintenance, DEP said.
They're designed to handle a five-year storm event without a second thought.
That's 4.5 to 5 inches of rain in any 24 hour period.
As climate change helps to supercharge storms, bringing heavier rainfall and elevated flooding risks, these ecological innovations have the capability to capture and pass along even more water effectively future-proofing the systems.
"We have a whole series of different pipes, different sizes and different valves where if we find in ten years, in twenty years, thirty years that we have a bigger storm, we can come and finely adjust those things to hold back more water, release more water so we don't have to build a whole new system," Brauman said.
The DEP has already built nearly 100 Bluebelts on Staten Island to help effectively drain stormwater with more projects currently in the works all over New York City.
The City is investing more than $14 Million on the newest Bluebelt site in Midland Beach.
The three-acre site will be capable of draining more than 111 acres of nearby land. That'll include hundreds of homes nearby that won't get flooded.
This is scheduled to be operational by the summer of 2025 and that's not the end.
There are 20 to 30 years of Bluebelt construction planned.
"We've done a ton of work on the South shore of Staten Island. We're looking at some sites on the North shore of Staten Island, but we're also looking to expand beyond Staten Island and we have some sites in Queens and Brooklyn that are in the early stages of feasibility," Iyer said.
This plan is effectively proven, but the only problem is the land on Staten Island was purchased with great forethought in the 90s, and the amount of land needed to put Bluebelts everywhere is not as available throughout the Tri-State.
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