New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation Grant Funds New Green Parking Lot at Bard College

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. – In an effort to improve and protect regional water quality, Bard College recently completed work on a green parking lot with a new stormwater management system. Funded by a $732,738 grant from New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation’s (EFC) Green Innovation Grant Program (GIGP), the Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project retrofits a heavily used parking lot near Olin Hall by using green infrastructure practices to mimic a natural ecosystem. Bioretention areas, a constructed wetland and permeable pavement were installed at the site to capture, treat, and infiltrate stormwater before it enters local waterways or the existing stormwater drainage system. Runoff from the existing lot at the main instructional building on campus currently enters a small tributary of the Saw Kill Creek, which supplies the drinking water for the College before flowing into the Hudson River.

“This project turns a problem area into an asset,” said Laurie B. Husted, sustainability manager at Bard. “Eliminating an impervious area and transforming it into a permeable one in the most heavily trafficked sections of the campus will provide both environmental and educational benefits.”

“EFC’s award-winning Green Innovation Grant Program has been the catalyst for dozens of unique, eco-friendly projects across the state and this regional demonstration project at Bard College is no exception,” said EFC Executive Vice President Sabrina M. Ty. “This project not only protects and improves the water quality of the Saw Kill Creek but serves as a model for the entire Mid-Hudson Region, as communities seek to leverage the multiple benefits of green infrastructure.”

The project’s goal is to create a linked series of green stormwater infrastructure practices, which will be monitored and studied to demonstrate performance. Bioretention practices help slow the speed of stormwater runoff and treats it, while porous asphalt allows water to drain through the pavement surface into a stone recharge bed, which facilitates infiltration. Working as a system, these practices will help recharge groundwater and improve and protect regional water quality. The project, completed on budget and ahead of schedule will help improve water quality and biodiversity while promoting a healthier, more resilient watershed.

As part of EFC’s Green Infrastructure Summit 2015 at Bard earlier this month, Dutchess County Executive Marcus J. Molinaro, Dutchess County Tourism President & CEO Mary Kay Vrba, and Dutchess County Legislator Micki Strawinski and other local community leaders joined representatives from municipalities across New York and Bard officials at the parking lot for a demonstration and dedication of the project.

EFC’s award-winning GIGP will have $14.8 million in grants available this year for green stormwater projects through Governor Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Council and New York State’s Consolidated Funding Application. For more information, visit www.efc.ny.gov/GIGP.

To view a video of the demonstration and dedication of the Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation’s Green Infrastructure at Bard, please visit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9tqdtvyua09p2r/NYS%20Green%20Infrastructure%20Summit.mov?dl=0

TO DOWNLOAD a high-resolution photo, go to: bard.edu/news/pressphotos/.

CAPTION INFO: Local community leaders joined Bard College officials and project developers for a demonstration and dedication of the Bard Regional Green Infrastructure Demonstration Project.

From left to right:

Amy Parrella, Horticulture Supervisor, Bard College

Rod Morrison, Principal, LRC Group (project engineer)

Barbara Restaino, Restaino Design Landscape Architecture, PC, (project landscape architect)

John Knudsen, Horticulturist, Bard College

Randy Clum, Director Buildings & Grounds, Bard College

Laurie Husted, Sustainability Manager, Bard College (project manager)

Tom O'Dowd, Executive Administrator, Environmental & Urban Studies Program, Bard College

Micki Strawinski, County Legislator

Matthew Deady, Bard Professor of Physics, Bard College

Dan Smith, Energy Efficiency Coordinator, Bard College

Brent Kovalchik, Deputy Mayor, Village of Red Hook    

Karen Unger, Director of Institutional Support, Bard College

Marc Molinaro, Dutchess County Executive

Suzanna Randall, Green Program Manager , Environmental Facilities Corporation

Mary Kaye Vrba, President, DutchessTourism.com

Brian Gyory, Green Infrastructure Analyst, Environmental Facilities Corporation

PHOTO CREDIT: Karl Rabe

The New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) is a public benefit corporation dedicated to promoting environmental quality through a wide range of funding and technical assistance programs focused on protecting, improving, and restoring New York’s precious natural resources. New York State administers the largest and most active revolving loan funds for local wastewater and drinking water systems in the nation. EFC has refinanced $3.1 billion in municipal debt payments for sewer and drinking water infrastructure in the past four years, saving local ratepayers more than $447 million in interest payments across New York State. During that same period, more than $6.7 billion in subsidized loans, grants and loan refinancings have been approved by EFC—the largest four-year investment in clean-water infrastructure in New York since the revolving loan funds were created more than 25 years ago. Earlier this year, EFC modified its hardship loan program, making it easier for smaller communities to obtain interest-free loans. For more information, visit www.efc.ny.gov.

Founded in 1860, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, is an independent, nonsectarian, residential, coeducational college offering a four-year B.A. program in the liberal arts and sciences and a five-year B.A./B.S. degree in economics and finance. The Bard College Conservatory of Music offers a five-year program in which students pursue a dual degree—a B.Music and a B.A. in a field other than music—and offers an M.Music in vocal arts and in conducting. Bard also bestows an M.Music degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bard and its affiliated institutions also grant the following degrees: A.A. at Bard High School Early College, a public school with campuses in New York City, Cleveland, and Newark, New Jersey; A.A. and B.A. at Bard College at Simon’s Rock: The Early College, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and through the Bard Prison Initiative at six correctional institutions in New York State; M.A. in curatorial studies, M.S. in economic theory and policy, and M.S. in environmental policy and in climate science and policy at the Annandale campus; M.F.A. and M.A.T. at multiple campuses; M.B.A. in sustainability in New York City; and M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in the decorative arts, design history, and material culture at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan. Internationally, Bard confers dual B.A. degrees at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Russia (Smolny College); American University of Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan; and Bard College Berlin: A Liberal Arts University; as well as dual B.A. and M.A.T. degrees at Al-Quds University in the West Bank.

Bard offers nearly 50 academic programs in four divisions. Total enrollment for Bard College and its affiliates is approximately 5,000 students. The undergraduate College has an enrollment of more than 1,900 and a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1. For more information about Bard College, visit www.bard.edu.

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(6/24/15)

This event was last updated on 10-30-2019

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