A historic cemetery in Brooklyn is trying to combat climate change. Here's how.
NEW YORK - Green-Wood Cemetery, one of the largest contiguous pieces of privately-owned land in New York City, just completed a robust climate resiliency initiative to reduce storm water runoff.
"The city has its own responsibility, but private landowners like Green-Wood have an immense responsibility to impact their communities and to support the climate resilience of the communities they serve. And this type of intervention does just that. It allows Green-Wood to act as a role model for interventions that private institutions can take to benefit the greater good," said Joe Charap, Vice President of Horticulture at Green-Wood.
A $2.5 million project
Charap says a big component of the $2.5 million effort, which they are undertaking in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, is the installation of a smart mechanism at Sylvan Water, a glacial pond at the historic 478-acre green space in Brooklyn that has a history of flooding. The sensor monitors weather and automatically lowers the pond's water level in anticipation of a storm.
"That rain water ends up bringing up the level of the water body again, but preventing any water from rushing out," Charap said.
Water drained from the pond will be filtered through an underground system and used to irrigate the rest of the landscape, diverting it from the sewers and lowering the cemetery's water usage.
The smart sensor is just one of three initiatives funded by city and state environmental grants at the property. Another part of the puzzle is installing permeable pavers in flood-prone walkways.
"The majority of that water would be captured on site. And that's what we're trying to do, capture it before it ever leaves into the combined sewer," Charap said.
A 66,000 gallon swimming-pool sized hole
The last part of the project is a massive bioretention basin under a low-lying road for underground water storage. Charap said that under a layer of pavement is a 66,000 gallon swimming-pool sized hole.
"Dug in that hole was different crates. And those crates basically allow filtration and hold that water," he said.
Overall, the cemetery estimates the improvements will divert more than 50 million gallons of storm water from the sewers, allowing old city infrastructure to better handle the changing climate.
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