ATLANTA, June 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Geosyntec Consultants (Geosyntec) announced today it received funding for the design, installation, measurement, and analysis of two projects incorporating actively controlled, distributed green infrastructure (“high-performance green infrastructure”) approaches for urban stormwater control under a New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Green Infrastructure Grant Program. Both projects focus on leveraging advanced technology in mitigating combined sewer overflows (CSOs), a particularly expensive and environmentally challenging issue for many urban areas. Geosyntec’s project partners are HDR/HydroQual of Mahwah, NJ, Bart Chezar of Brooklyn, NY, Staples, Inc. of Framingham, MA, and Blue Sea Development Company, LLC of New York City.

“We believe that decentralized, small-scale control strategies can have a significant, positive impact on the performance of large-scale stormwater infrastructure systems. Our projects will demonstrate those positive impacts and bring future water quality improvements to the City’s waterways,” said Philip Reidy, Geosyntec’s project director and an Associate in the firm’s Water Resources Management practice.

One project, to be implemented at a residential townhouse and a commercial building in Brooklyn will demonstrate the effectiveness of real-time controls in managing small-scale stormwater detention systems (“intelligent distributed detention”) to reduce peak flows to combined sewer systems. The second project, implemented at an eight-story housing complex in the Bronx, will demonstrate the effectiveness of incorporating predictive weather information and real-time controls in managing an integrated rainwater harvesting and stormwater control system designed for overall stormwater runoff/CSO reduction and water conservation. Built on Geosyntec’s OptiRTC computing platform, these innovative control systems represent the integration of currently available, flexible, and inexpensive hardware and software architectures that can enable sewer and stormwater utility operators to optimize investments in green infrastructure. The results of these efforts are anticipated to provide the New York City DEP with a new set of cost-effective and flexible tools for meeting water quality goals associated with long-term CSO control plans and other U.S. Clean Water Act requirements.

About Geosyntec

Geosyntec, founded in 1983, provides consulting engineering and science services throughout the United States and internationally. With more than 50 offices in the U.S. and select international locations, Geosyntec engineers and scientists are known for their technology leadership and practice innovation in the areas of urban stormwater management, water and natural resources management, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, contaminated site assessment and remediation, groundwater assessment and remediation, risk assessment and toxicology, solid waste disposal facility permitting and design, and environmental biotechnology. www.geosyntec.com

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