Thanks The Nature Conservancy in Maryland and DC for featuring our work and the success of the stormwater retention credit marker that just turned 10 years old 🎉
Ten years ago, Washington D.C. established the Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) market, a program that allows developers to meet a portion of their stormwater retention requirements by purchasing credits generated from green infrastructure projects built elsewhere in D.C. This model has distributed green infrastructure throughout the District, increasing the amount of stormwater-capturing green space in historically under-resourced areas and improving local water-quality. To date, more than 1.7 million credits have been sold, representing over 40 million gallons of runoff captured and cleaned annually. The SRC market incentivizes voluntary stormwater projects to be built where development is unlikely to occur, such as cemeteries and churches. Here are some green infrastructure project highlights that TNC and local partners have worked on since the SRC Market’s inception: 💧 Faith United Church of Christ and Northeastern Presbyterian Church: Magnolia and its project partners completed the construction of these two rain gardens in the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) in Northeast DC. These projects generated over 44,500 stormwater retention credits. (Photos: Magnolia Mitigation) 💧 Mount Olivet Cemetery: The Nature Conservancy and the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington collaborated on the very first voluntary credit-generating project at Mount Olivet Cemetery, where raingardens were installed at various locations to capture runoff. (Photo: TNC) 💧 St. Luke Catholic Church: Green Compass installed a rain garden at the church, planting 39 trees and retaining 950,000 gallons of stormwater in the area. (Photo: Green Compass) Learn more about the SRC Market’s 10-year anniversary here: https://nature.ly/3xOSL8h Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE) #greencities #stormwater