USEPA Guide Illustrates How Green Infrastructure Can Reduce Capital Costs

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has developed a resource guide to help communities fund green stormwater infrastructure. USEPA’s “Community Based Public-Private Partnerships (CBP3) and Alternative Market-Based Tools for Integrated Green Stormwater Infrastructure: A Guide for Local Governments” identifies funding tools to address water quality challenges through faster, less expensive, and greener methods.

The guide covers several topics, including public infrastructure financing and green infrastructure design and delivery. It also outlines the Community Based Public Private Partnership (CBP3) funding approach that communities may be interested in pursuing to meet stormwater regulatory commitments and community stormwater management needs.

USEPA says pollution represents the biggest challenge to the United States’ water quality in this century. According to the USEPA’s 2010 National Water Quality Inventory: Report to Congress, nonpoint source pollution from agriculture and urban runoff is the primary reason that more than 40 percent of surveyed rivers, lakes, and estuaries are not clean enough to meet basic uses such as fishing or swimming.