Staten Island Bluebelt system garners White House attention

Dr. Alondra Nelson, right, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), toured Staten Island on Monday, June 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of OTSP)
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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Staten Island’s lauded Bluebelt system, an innovative network of green infrastructure that uses natural drainage corridors to take pressure off the city’s sewer system, received national attention this week when White House officials toured the borough.

Dr. Alondra Nelson, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), on Monday toured the borough’s New Creek Bluebelt, Living Breakwaters project and other locations centered on resilience.

The OSTP trip to the borough was one stop in a wider trip across New York City as the United States stares down daunting climate projections that require swift emission cuts and creative mitigation measures.

“We really wanted to learn about the innovation happening on Staten Island, in particular about the Bluebelt system, which for two decades now has really been leading in the space of using nature-based solutions for climate change,” Nelson told the Advance/SILive.com during a phone interview.

Dr. Alondra Nelson, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), toured Staten Island on Monday, June 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of OTSP)

The borough has more than a dozen Bluebelt systems that use spaces like ponds and creeks to direct stormwater away from homes before pushing that water out to sea.

The award-winning approach was pioneered by the city Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and has served as the standard for fusing natural areas and hardened infrastructure to reduce the increasingly worsening impacts of flooding on residents.

It has produced noticeable results along the East and South Shores, which have experienced both routine flooding and dramatic extreme weather events in recent decades, including the wrath of Superstorm Sandy.

Nelson noted the borough’s Bluebelt system was one of the first of its kind to effectively mitigate flooding at a large scale while simultaneously protecting the environment. Its effects, she said, have also stretched past simply keeping water off the streets.

“At the New Creek Bluebelt, you saw people doing construction work, we learned that property values were going up, in addition to an increase in natural habitat and wildlife in the area as well,” said Nelson. “So, the Bluebelt system not only is really confronting and helping us to tackle some of the worst impacts of climate change, it’s also a real example in how as we move to green infrastructure, we have all of these other benefits for society at the same time.”

Dr. Alondra Nelson, right, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), toured Staten Island on Monday, June 27, 2022. (Photo courtesy of OTSP)

President Joe Biden signed an executive order earlier this year that, among other measures, initiated the first National Nature Assessment — an undertaking that will create a holistic view of the country’s natural resources. Similar studies have recently been conducted in New York City.

Additionally, the declaration launched the Natural Capital Accounts initiative that seeks to connect nature and economic performance, which has become a more common practice for local governments. The Biden administration said it also planned to identify opportunities to accelerate the use of nature-based solutions, serving as a motivator for the recent borough visit.

“The Biden-Harris administration has made both historic investments and also historic commitments,” said Nelson, referencing promises to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. “There’s no time to lose, there’s a great sense of urgency and we simply cannot move quickly enough in this direction.”

Nelson said it was “deeply inspiring and gratifying to see the work that’s happening on Staten Island,” but she added, “What we need to do with more speed and at scale, it remains a major challenge.”

Experts recently recommended Staten Island expand its Bluebelt system to the North Shore. Recent storms, like Ida, shed a light on the widening dangers increased precipitation presents to the borough.

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