Green Infrastructure Task Force

According to the EPA, green infrastructure is an approach to wet weather management that is cost-effective, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Green Infrastructure management approaches and technologies infiltrate, evapotranspire, capture and reuse stormwater to maintain or restore natural hydrologies.

At the largest scale, the preservation and restoration of natural landscape features (such as forests, floodplains and wetlands) are critical components of green stormwater infrastructure. By protecting these ecologically sensitive areas, communities can improve water quality while providing wildlife habitat and opportunities for outdoor recreation.

On a smaller scale, green infrastructure practices include rain gardens, porous pavements, green roofs, infiltration planters, trees and tree boxes, and rainwater harvesting for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and landscape irrigation.

The Alliance’s Green Infrastructure Task Force (GITF), led by Howard Neukrug, the Director of the Office of Watersheds for the Philadelphia Water Department, is a network of green infrastructure practitioners, urban water, wastewater and/or stormwater utilities, other city agencies and urban sustainability offices currently implementing green infrastructure. The Clean Water America Alliance created the GITF in order to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and innovation among the country's leaders in green infrastructure technology.

Members of the GITF include green infrastructure practitioners, urban water, wastewater and/or stormwater utilities, other city agencies and urban sustainability offices currently implementing green infrastructure. Task Force members hail from different geographical regions and experience vastly different water quality and water supply challenges. The Alliance has developed an interactive website where Task Force members can communicate their ideas with one another and provide a means for communities to adapt ideas from other regions to their own situations.

If you have any questions regarding the Green Infrastructure Task Force or want to get involved please contact Kristyn Abhold at kabhold@cleanwateramericaalliance.org or 202-533-1821.