Within the next decade, an aqueduct that supplies half of New York City’s drinking water will be shut down for 6-15 months of repairs. Amazingly, almost no one knows about this.

The Delaware Aqueduct is the world’s longest tunnel and an engineering marvel, delivering water 85 miles to the city using only gravity. However, a portion of it travels through soft limestone and this has become a problem. A small stretch has been leaking water for decades – up to 35 million gallons per day, or more than 3% of the city’s water consumption.

From 2015-2019, NYC will be constructing an 8-mile bypass tunnel around these leaks. During most of this construction the Delaware Aqueduct will continue delivering water, but at some point it will need to close to make the connection to the bypass. Read the details from the Department of Environmental Protection here.

How will New York function with 50% of its water supply turned off? Thankfully, by the time the Delaware spigots close, those at the new Croton Filtration Plant will open. Right now, 10% of our water comes from Croton; when the plant is completed, it can supply 30%. The city has a few other tricks up its sleeve like moving water between various reservoirs and relying on groundwater supply in Queens. The challenge is also mitigated thanks to a 2010 law that increases water efficiency standards for new plumbing fixtures (a Green Codes Task Force recommendation). However, it seems probable that there will be some restrictions on water use that year, such as limits on water for landscaping. Without restrictions, NYC might be forced to “borrow” water from neighbors in New Jersey and Long Island.

From time to time I’ve heard the sentiment that thanks to climate change, we no longer need to worry so much about water efficiency in New York. This theory is that our region is getting wetter, which is why we haven’t had a drought in 10 years. That may be the case, but I wouldn’t want to bet my money – or my drinking water supply – on what the weather forecast predicts for next week, never mind years out. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that water efficiency ensures we aren’t needlessly wasting resources and enables us to operate our drinking water infrastructure below capacity, giving us critical breathing room at times like the closing of the Delaware Aqueduct.

Urban Green Council is a proud supporter of the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Eastern Conference being held in Philadelphia on April 3^rd and 4^th.

I will have the honor of moderating a panel discussion entitled Building Trade Unions Take a Leadership Role in Green Training. The speakers are part of the GPRO dream team – the union leaders who helped us develop and implement GPRO, our green professional building skills training program.  Included on the panel will be:

• Howard Styles, Training Director, I.U.O.E Local 94 Operating Engineers NYC
• Bob Muldoon, the Director of the Green Building Initiative for the Local 32BJ Training Fund, 1000 Supers program
• John Sullivan, U.A. Plumbers Local Union No.1 Trade Education Fund
• Michael Yee, Director of the Educational and Cultural Trust Fund of the Electrical Industry, Local 3 Electricians

The theory behind GPRO is that green buildings will only perform as designed if the people who build, renovate, operate and maintain those buildings have a thorough working knowledge of green practices.

We are gratified to work with the labor unions who are taking a leadership role in accelerating the construction industry’s transition to green building by providing trained workers and collaborating with environmental groups to create comprehensive green worker training.

This panel will address labor unions’ critical role in transforming the green building workforce and how labor unions and Urban Green Council successfully collaborated to create GPRO, a national green building certificate program for contractors, trades, operators and building service workers.

Please let us know if you will be attending the conference.  This will be a chance for all of us to meet with community leaders, union members, environmentalists, business leaders and elected officials together to discuss how our region is, city by city and block by block, building the foundation for a green economy.

Ellen Honigstock, a member of the Urban Green Council Chapter Task Force for LEED Regionalization 2012, shares their initial findings on recommendations for LEED RPC 2012:

The USGBC recognizes the importance of projects that address region-specific environmental issues in their design; these Regional Priority credits were first introduced in the LEED 2009 rating systems.

Urban Green Council, along with all the other chapters of the USGBC, is currently evaluating which credits to prioritize in LEED 2012 for the five boroughs in New York City and Rockland and Westchester Counties.

Starting in late summer 2011, the Urban Green Council Chapter Task Force for LEED Regionalization 2012 began to meet monthly.  Shortly thereafter, the Chapter Task Force (CTF) identified five general categories of regional priority issues: Water, Air, Energy, Ground and Resources.

Focusing first on what the important issues should be rather than where they might occur, the CTF compiled a comprehensive list of 17 possible priority issues. These priorities were compared with the ones identified in LEED 2009 Regionalization in order to maintain as much continuity as possible.  The list was also compared with the recommendations in the Urban Green Council Green Codes Task Force Report to identify which environmental issues would benefit most from green incentives, rather than from proposed legislation.

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The Joseph Story house in Salem, Massachusetts- a National Historic Landmark- has received LEED-Silver certification. The owners have just completed a two-year renovation of the 1811 home, proving once again that historic preservation and green building need not be adversaries.

They note that LED have not yet surpassed induction lights in efficiency or cost but appear poised to do so in the near future with expected technical advances.

University of Pittsburgh researchers have conducted the first cradle-to-grave assessment of light-emitting diode (LED) streetlights and determined that the increasingly popular lamps strike the best balance between brightness, affordability, and energy and environmental conservation when their life span-from production to disposal-is considered.

Here.

Preservation, the magazine of the National Trust for Historic Preservation has devoted their March/April issue to green building and there is some great stuff inside. My favorite quote is from Blair Kamin:

Choosing between preservation and conservation . . . is like choosing between a Volvo and a Saab. They have more similarities than differences.

Kamin’s piece is here.  You will also find a solid article on the retrofit of the Empire State building, a great case study of a Rhode Island Fire Station and a handy Green Guide to simple retrofit moves.

Alexandra Marks is singing our tune over at the Christian Science Monitor, noting the critical importance of ensuring a properly performing building envelope before considering expensive technologies like solar panels or geothermal wells. Follow her informative series on the greening of her 100 year old Connecticut home here.

Lloyd Alter at Treehugger has a great slideshow on the Passive House standard, with accompanying text. One of the projects is the “100K” house, shown above, just a short train ride away in Philadelphia.

Prefab homes, as the joke goes, are the next big thing . . . and always will be. On paper they make a lot of sense, both economically and environmentally. It’s great to see so many talented and bright designers tackling this problem. The solutions have enormous potential, but their acceptance requires a reversal of inertia for one of our largest industries- a far stronger force than logic.

Last month Bernd Heinrich from the University of Vermont provided a fantastic, and critically important, summary of the problems with current proposals to provide carbon credits in a cap and trade system for tree plantations, but not for existing forest ecosystems.  Among the more shocking items Heinrich notes:

After much political wrangling, the Kyoto delegates decided that there would be no carbon-reduction credits for saving existing forests. Since planting new trees does get one credits, Kyoto actually created a rationale for clear-cutting old growth.

If you care even a little about the future of our planet you should read this op-ed piece.