Hampton Closes on $12 Million Environmental Impact Bond for Flooding
Three projects will give Hampton, Virginia the ability to capture, store, redirect and filter approximately 8 million gallons of storm water. Hampton closed a deal on a $12 million environmental impact bond, according to the Daily Press.
This city is among a few nationally to use this type of funding to mitigate flooding caused by climate change.
The projects are in the design phase with a ground-breaking date set for fall 2021 and a construction timeline that will likely extend two to three years, reported the Daily Press. The projects will use the natural landscape with other enhancements, such as bioswales, rain gardens, constructed wetlands or green roofs.
“We’re really trying to start in the upper parts of the watershed and start flowing water where it falls, as rainfall and working through the different parts of our watershed within our project areas to capture that water and stored in ways that create community assets and reduce how much is ending up downstream...in sort of the neighborhoods that are traditionally flooded,” said Hampton’s environmental & sustainability manager David Imburgia.
The pilot projects are:
- Big Bethel Blueway, which will store and slow water through the redesign of existing waterways to reduce flooding upstream and downstream in Newmarket Creek
- North Armistead Avenue road raising and green infrastructure, which will raise the roadway to eliminate chronic flooding on a major thoroughfare and evacuation route and improve routes to Joint Base Langley-Eustis and other economic centers
- And Lake Hampton, which intends to transform a detention pond into a designed storm water park with additional storage capacity
“These three pilot projects represent only a starting point,” said Mayor Donnie Tuck. “(They) represent environmentally sensitive approaches to slowing and storing water. They also create neighborhood assets with multiple public benefits designed to enhance our quality of life.”
By using the bond, the city will monitor and measure results which may be replicated elsewhere.
The Hampton City Council approved the $12 million bond appropriation in its fiscal 2020 capital improvement plan in 2019. The bond will be paid off with fees drawn from the city’s residential storm water fund.
