When the newly elected Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney took office on January 1, 2008, she was under pressure to award the construction contracts for the Downtown Sewage Regional Treatment Facility (RTF), the third swirler-chlorination plant out the proposed five. Instead, she asked for a moratorium from the regulating authorities so the county could evaluate how a cheaper, green-gray technology mix might replace the chlorine-based RTF. After an initial three-month study, the regulators awarded the county the opportunity to create a newer approach to Syracuse’s Downtown CSO problem.
Building on the example of other cities, the county began to explore how green infrastructure, such as green roofs, trees, rain barrels, rain gardens, curbside extensions and porous pavement, would complement gray sewage facilities. To study these methods and create a new plan, the county put together a taskforce with the following committees: Policy, Green Infrastructure, Gray Infrastructure, and Outreach. POC members were invited to be all the committees except for Policy. Besides wanting a greener alternative to the proposed RTFs, the POC pushed for a greener and fairer alternative to Midland Phase III or the mile-long storage pipeline. With the completion of the down-sized Midland RTF, the POC wants to ensure that this same community is not further impacted by the construction of the Midland Phase III conveyance. Anything less would continue the history of unequal treatment, stigma and disruption that this community has suffered over the past four decades.
To further Green Infrastructure solutions to CSO problems, the POC presented an alternative to the Midland Phase III pipeline (see presentations, under resources tab) and helped conduct a survey given door-to-door to Syracuse residents in three CSO sewersheds (see research, under resources tab)