Graves aren’t the only things underground at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Also buried: a new system for storing water to prevent flooding when it rains.
Massive tanks lie underneath a storage yard for trucks and lawn equipment — waiting to hold rainfall to avoid stressing area sewers, which become inundated during downpours.
Elsewhere, the cemetery has two other projects to keep flooding at bay, newly installed this summer: roadway pavers that absorb rain, and a pond that now drains into the city sewer system before storms to make room to hold more water.
Green-Wood’s government-funded $2.6 million in stormwater-management projects are part of a wave of efforts by private property owners around the five boroughs to manage increasingly frequent and intense rainstorms by turning their land into a sponge.
‘Shifting the Time’
The projects at Green-Wood — five years in the making — have yet to be tested by a downpour, but together promise to handle as much as 60 million gallons of rainwater a year, according to Matt Rea, director of strategic partnerships at the Nature Conservancy, a global non-profit that assisted with the efforts.
“This was the first project on private property that the state and city ever co-funded,” Rea said. “It’s a huge site, and it’s unique in that it has a lot of siting ability to capture water.”
New Pond Technology
Water rushing down the slopes of the hilly cemetery has led to flooding and erosion, necessitating costly fixes. The deluge last September ruined two vehicles in the service yard, which is located in a relatively low-lying area. Charap said he hopes to avoid such losses now that the underground retention tanks should mean there’s less flooding.
During heavy rainstorms, water routinely overtops the banks of Sylvan Pond, flowing all the way to a bench several feet away. Now the pond is outfitted with technology that predicts when heavy rain will fall and releases water into the city sewer system before then so the pond area can fill back up during the rain event instead of stressing the sewers.
Porous Pavers
Not too far from the pond, cars drive directly over porous pavers, installed in a zig-zag pattern over four large areas on the roadway. At first, Green-Wood staff considered rain gardens, absorbent patches of plantings alongside roadbeds, but opted for the pavers instead.
“We moved away from the rain gardens because the cost to build them and the ability to match the aesthetic of a rain garden in a historic landscape just became too difficult to really navigate,” Charap said. The pavers “allowed us to capture more storm water and also not change the historic feel of the landscape.”
A New Role for Green-Wood
Already a national historic landmark in recognition of its landscape design, architecture and famous deceased residents, from artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to conductor Leonard Bernstein, Green-Wood Cemetery is now taking on yet another role that points to the future.
“Everyone has a role to play: private property, government property, nonprofit property, academic property. Everyone that has a footprint in New York City needs to do their part either to convey or collect water,” said Amy Chester, director of Rebuild by Design, which in 2022 issued a report mapping out how to make the concrete jungle more absorbent.
“In the case of trying to channel rain to safer places, it’s really a life or death situation.”
Conclusion
The new stormwater-management projects at Green-Wood Cemetery serve as a model for private property owners around the city to take action in preventing flooding and mitigating the effects of intense rainstorms. By turning their land into a sponge, private property owners can play a crucial role in making New York City more resilient in the face of climate change.
FAQs
Q: What is the cost of the stormwater-management projects at Green-Wood Cemetery?
A: The projects were government-funded at a total cost of $2.6 million.
Q: How much rainwater can the projects handle per year?
A: The projects can handle as much as 60 million gallons of rainwater per year.
Q: What is the purpose of the underground retention tanks?
A: The tanks are designed to hold rainfall and avoid stressing area sewers during downpours.
Q: How do the porous pavers work?
A: The pavers allow water to pass through and be absorbed, reducing runoff and preventing flooding.
