Greenroofs in the news

Three interesting articles today:

1. NPR outlines the benefits of green- and cool roofs.

2. Another rooftop farm in NYC, started by one of the people that developed the one in Greenpoint.

3. Systems for making sure your greenroof doesn't leak.

Sustainable roofs and EPA news

First, a couple of great ideas for rooftops from some smart high school students...

Second, last week we approved New York's 2010 303(d) list of impaired waters and released information to generate public interest and involvement.

Galactic gardening in NYC

No need to consider soil fertility with these hydroponic greenhouse pods. Very interesting... but they presumably offer no water retention or insulation...

Inspiration on a rainy city day

Some green roof eye candy, from NYC...

Green roofs and walls

I've made a couple of cool discoveries over the past couple of days and wanted to share them.

First, in our quest to find the perfect wedding venue, my fiancee and I took to Durham, NC. While we didn't find a spot for vows, we did find a new parking garage at Duke -- complete with greenroofs and walls. A couple of photos, and a couple of links:

Here's some information and a few graphics that picture areas that I couldn't capture.

The garage follows tenets outlined in the New Campus Master Plan (essentially, the redevelopment of the old Central Campus).

Second, I got a note from a client yesterday with images of a greenroof we installed at the end of last summer (see below). So far, so good! The sedum should fill in the gaps this summer.



Last, but not least: Columbia and Con Ed have teamed to assess the insulating and cooling capacities of cool roofs (white roofs and greenroofs) vs. conventional black roofs (tar beaches!). In a very interesting study released last week, the group found that green and white roofs perform roughly equally in preventing heat island effect (through evapotranspiration and albedo, respectively) and that each limited temperature variability enough to produce modest energy savings. There is concern, however, that the performance of older white roofs may suffer since the reflectance of these roofs declines as they age. White roofs also lack the ability to moderate water flow, improve air and water quality, provide habitat and recreation space, and improve aesthetics for nearby neighbors, six of the primary motivators for greenroof installation. A very interesting study and I look forward to reading future research findings...

Fragile Waterways

In honor of Earth Day, New York's PBS station just ran a good overview of some of the most pressing water resource issues in New York State. The piece includes investigations of the Gowanus Canal, the Great Lakes, hydrofracking, and Peconic Bay. A decent soundtrack too: Radiohead, Explosions in the Sky (?), Phish, etc. Check it out:

Hydrofracking for dummies

I found an informative, easy to read USGS primer on hydrofracking today. A great, quick read that explains the very contentious practice from an unbiased, scientific perspective and even provides a spoonful of geology to those of us that somehow escaped undergrad without taking any...

Check it out here.

Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming, post-hydrofracking (walkeastwood.org)

The Bronx River Lives!

Alewife are back for a second year in a row.

Water quality impacts of hydrofracking

While doing some research on hydrofracking, I turned up this great article from ProPublica. As it turns out, the site has an entire section devoted to the environmental impacts of gas drilling.

More recently, Yale's Environment 360 published an enlightening piece on hydrofracking in the NYC watershed and the Philadelphia City Council requested that the Delaware River Basin Commission deny a permit to drill until an environmental impact statement can be completed.

In Brooklyn, Lettuce, Not Steel, Scrapes the Sky

Today the Atlantic published an inspiring piece by Annie Novak of Rooftop Farms. Check it out: In Brooklyn, Lettuce, Not Steel, Scrapes the Sky.

EPA will study hydrofracking again

Today, EPA confirmed that its Office of Research and Development will investigate hydrofracking again.

I was asked yesterday to be involved in the study design effort, so I'm researching to get up to speed. Here's some of the background material I've unearthed thus far:

EPA conducted a study in 2004 on the impact that hydrofracking coalbed methane (CBM) wells has on underground sources of drinking water (USDW) and found that "the injection of hydraulic fracturing fluids into CBM wells poses little or no threat to USDWs." That report can be found here. EPA also entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with BJ Services Company, Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., and Schlumberger Technology Corporation regarding the elimination of the use of diesel fuel in hydrofracking fluids. The MOA can be found here.

Recently, there has been interest in using hydrofracking to get to gas buried beneath other types of geology. For example, there is considerable interest in hydrofracking gas wells to crack the the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and southwestern New York State. (Check out the NY Times archive if you're curious.) The NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation released a draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding proposed hydrofracking in the Marcellus on September 30, 2009. EPA submitted comments on the EIS on December 30, 2009.

More to come...

A couple of interesting notes

One far away, the other in my very own sewershed:

1. Perhaps dust storms are a concern in Orange, CA? I don't know. Otherwise the City of Orange seems to be shooting itself in the foot by prosecuting this couple for replacing front-yard turf with drought-tolerant plantings and woodchips.

2. The Gowanus Canal, an eery, post-industrial beauty has been designated for Superfund cleanup. Check out some depressing/interesting/beautiful images here and an article here.

Please comment!

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation released its draft 2010 303(d) list of impaired waterbodies and its draft Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodologies here. Comments will be accepted through February 26, 2010. Please provide data and/or information -- public comment is one of the most powerful ways to raise the profile of waters that need management attention!

SSE/303(d)

This summer an EPA colleague and I undertook a fact-finding roadshow, traveling to government, nonprofit, and academic organizations on Long Island to understand and document the causes of declines in specific shellfish fisheries and general ecological condition within the South Shore Estuary. As a result, a number of the organizations we met with submitted data and information to the New York State Department of Environmental Protection for consideration in the development of the 2010 CWA 303(d) list of impaired waterbodies. Yesterday, the DEC announced that it would include the Estuary on its list, paving the way to federal money to deal with the problems. Very cool.

Building a cold frame

Perhaps not strictly water-related, but very well done and awesome for us gardeners mourning summer. I'm embarking on my cold frame adventure tomorrow.


How to Build a Cold Frame - Funny video clips are a click away

Rooftop Farms

So, I finally made it to Rooftop Farms in Greenpoint yesterday to scope out what they're up to and how they've managed to grow vegetables and fruits atop the City That Never Sleeps. I must say, it's a great space albeit smaller than I had envisioned.

They had what looked to be a decent year despite the bad weather. Lots of healthy looking tomatoes, chard, kale, cilantro, lettuce, winter squash, beans, eggplants, peppers, etc.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get details on the technical considerations, since apparently Goode Green did the design and installation of the greenroof without involving the farmers themselves.

Nevertheless, I got some cool shots on my phone and will return (next week, assuming I get all my fall seeds planted on Friday or Saturday) to help and -- hopefully -- learn something about composting sans worms.

An unassuming building topped by a very cool roof.

Brooklyn's Alps

An interesting story in yesterday's NY Times about rehabilitating a couple of dump sites in Brooklyn.

As someone who's done research on the problems that roots can pose in terms of maintaining a waterproof layer, I wonder what kind of reconnaisance the City has planned to make sure that the plastic sheeting isn't breached by roots...

Park Slope green roof pt. 2

I would be remiss if I didn't add some imagery from the tail end of the Park Slope green roof install I worked on with EcoBrooklyn last week.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the end result since I had friends in town and couldn't help on the planting and last-minute touches. In any case, I've got some photos of drainage, soil, plants, personalities, and improv. supplies.

Hopefully at some point I'll get back on the roof and see how it all turned out. Come to think of it, though, I chatted with the neighbor while we were hoisting soil and she was very interested in having her roof greened. I'm going to head back on behalf of EcoBrooklyn next week and try to make her an offer she can't refuse, so perhaps I'll see the roof soon...

We had four 1.5 cu. yd. bags of Gaia Soil delievered and didn't have a crane, so Nash and I spent a full day bagging and lifting the soil onto the roof. It went off without a hitch, if you don't count my near-decapitation when the plywood/2x4 structure we used to protect the roof membrane fell three stories and landed next to my head.


Gennaro found some old drink racks and thought that they could double for these, to hold soil and plants in place on the sloped portion of the roof.

The perimeter and skylight boxes installed, ready for greenroof add-ons.


Drainage layer/water retention mat installed and ready for Gaia Soil. The layer we used is made by Colbond and incorporates a pretty impressive water retention mat. We dumped half of a 12 oz. bottle of seltzer on a 2-in. square sample and lost virtually none of it. Its drainage mesh is made from 40% post-industrial recycled polypropylene, to boot.

Nash is excited to plant. We got 20 lbs. of sedum clippings from Motherplants to encourage a mixture of species, rather than a monoculture plug-farm look.

Future Green Brownstone

I was poking around the net yesterday, searching for info. on greenroofs in NYC and Brooklyn and happened upon a series of posts on Brownstoner that I found totally fascinating. They're by a landscape architect/greenroofer named David Seiter who's got a firm in Brooklyn called Future Green Studio.

Apparently, Mr. Seiter was tapped to work on a greenroof for his co-op building in Park Slope, Brooklyn and decided to offer a glimpse into the development of the roof to the general public on Brownstoner. Check the site for some images of the Park Slope roof and some pretty neat images of other ideas/projects.

Park Slope green roof

We started the green roof that I spoke about in my last post this weekend. We decided to use EPDM, a Colbond drainage product (recycled polypropylene mesh topped with a highly absorbant water retention textile), Gaia soil, and 20 lbs. of mixed sedum clippings. We're also planning to experiment on a steeper (30 degrees-ish) portion of the roof that we had previously thought about leaving bare, to see if we can put together a system that could be implemented on a larger scale in future work. I took some pics of the work this weekend with my phone:

The old roof(s) -- gravel overlaid with asphalt

A roll of EPDM roofing. This stuff is heavy

Cutting the EPDM, being taunted for taking photos

A truckload of dumpster-salvaged EPS insulation



The remnants of a tin roof from the turn of the 20th c.(?)

Insulation on the roof, and the front of the roof where we may try the green roof on a slope

After laying the insulation



Jack laying the EPDM adhesive

The Gaia soil should arrive tomorrow, and the drainage and sedum on Wednesday. Should be installed by next weekend. More to come...