Note to Reader:
New York City will double the size of its green infrastructure program by building more than 5,000 curbside rain gardens, adding to the more-than 4,000 that have already been installed around the city. The curbside rain gardens soak up stormwater to mitigate local flooding and combined sewer overflows, improving the health of the city’s waterways.
The city’s expansion of curbside rain gardens is part of a broad push to fight climate change, which has included bold actions like a citywide Green New Deal, the sweeping Climate Mobilization Act and a plan to improve the resilience.
Construction of 200 curbside rain gardens underway in Queens, New York
Construction is under way to add nearly 200 specially designed curbside rain gardens to the southeast Queens neighborhoods of Cambria Heights and Queens Village, New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection announced in November 2019.
Rain gardens are built into city sidewalks with curb cuts that let stormwater flow into them. Each garden is approximately five feet deep, with spaces within the stone and soil that can store stormwater. Hardy plants in the garden promotes increased water capacity.
Each rain garden has the capacity to collect and absorb up to 2,500 US gallons of stormwater each time it rains, thereby reducing the volume of stormwater runoff draining into Jamaica Bay.
It is estimated that the 200 rain gardens will capture more than 20 million gallons of stormwater runoff volume annually. Over the last several years, more than 4,000 rain gardens have been built across the city