Leading the Way to Cleaner Water Through Innovative Financing

Publication Date: February 15, 2012

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has identified Philadelphia as a national leader in innovative stormwater management practices, and a new WPF-funded report by NRDC -- Financing Stormwater Retrofits in Philadelphia and Beyond -- highlights Philadelphia as a case study.

Stormwater runoff is one of the main causes of urban waterway pollution. The Clean Water Act requires cities to take measures to mitigate runoff, but most of the traditional solutions are expensive and do not address the root cause of the problem: impervious urban infrastructure, such as concrete and pavement. Many cities, including Philadelphia, are turning to green infrastructure solutions, which are a far more effective and less costly way to meet their obligations under the Clean Water Act.

NRDC’s new report examines how governments can create incentives for property owners to install green solutions by establishing a parcel-based stormwater billing structure, as Philadelphia has. Parcel-based billing provides “a very significant credit (up to nearly 100 percent) for non-residential owners who can demonstrate onsite management of the first inch of rainfall over their entire parcel.”

Parcel-based billing has led to an uptick in green infrastructure projects. At the same time, the city of Philadelphia has pioneered a variety of public policy solutions that lower project risks, making investment attractive to commercial lenders while reducing the capital costs for property owners.

The NRDC report details these solutions and documents three financing models that hold promise for other cities seeking to follow Philadelphia’s lead in meeting its Clean Water Act obligations at much lower cost while leveraging private capital.

Download Financing Stormwater Retrofits in Philadelphia and Beyond here.

Op-ed from the Philadelphia Inquirer by David Beckman of NRDC.