Greening the Capitol
Last week Governor McDonnell and other state officials broke ground on a set of projects to make green renovations to the state capitol’s landscape.. Craig Carper reports.
The projects are designed to let storm water slowly infiltrate, rather than flood into the ground and the James River. These include rain gardens and porous pavers, which will filter water before it enters the James, as well as a system to collect storm water runoff and redirect it into the irrigation system on Capitol grounds.
Governor McDonnell discussed some of the key goals of the initiative.
McDonnell: A reduction of phosphorus of 69 percent, a reduction in nitrogen into the river of 70 percent, overall a 64 percent reduction in the stormwater nutrients going in to the James River. It will reduce polluted runoff from entering the James River and the Chesapeake Bay.
The projects are some of the first parts of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a federal program which renovates public sites to make them greener.
The entire program should be complete by spring of 2011. For more information about these projects and its partners, you can visit www.greenvacapitol.org.
Craig Carper, WCVE News, Capitol Square
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