Sustainability certainly has its value. New Kensington property values have risen 10 to 20 percent since 2009, according to a Wharton study, cited in a recent 19125 Case Study prepared for the New Kensington Community Development Corporation by Community Development Consulting. All since the launch of urban sustainability initiative Sustainable 19125. Coincidence? Maybe not.

Big Green Block

Part of that initiative (the goal of which is to establish the locale as the most sustainable zip code in the nation) included the creation of a Big Green Block, a 20-acre site bordered by Front Street, Frankford Avenue, Palmer and Norris Streets. Elements of the equation designed to reach said goal included the construction of the $43M LEED-platinum Kensington School for the Creative and Performing Arts (KCAPA), and stormwater management infrastructure that included rain gardens, water basins and more at the…

To reduce water impairments caused by stormwater runoff, the EPA developed the Clean Water Act: Stormwater Strategy Summary of 2008 – 2010.

To comply with these regulations, the Philadelphia Water Department has drafted Green City, Clean Waters. It’s a 25-year plan with a goal aimed at reducing the amount of pollutants in our combined sewer system caused by combined sewer overflows by 85%, and to capture the first one-inch of stormwater runoff. Combined water systems are sewers designed to collect rainwater runoff, sewage and industrial water in the same pipe. Sixty percent of Philly’s 3,000 miles of sewers are constructed in this manner.

“Dilution was the solution,” said PWD spokesperson Joanne Dahme about meeting the standards presented in said act.

The program will be implemented through various types of projects across the city. The projects are engineered to capture rainwater, at residents’ homes perhaps via…