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Andy Lipkis started a nationally renowned organization called TREEPEOPLE
to
deal with rain in Los Angeles. Initially, his fame spread because he
raised funds to pay disadvantaged City youth to plant thousands of
trees, recognizing the benefit of the endeavor to the youth and to the
City. But Andy has taken the project much farther. He has started
an
offshoot: T.R.E.E.S. or Transagency Resources for Economic and
Environmental Sustainability to encourage interagency planning that
proves the enormous economic, environmental and social benefits of
coooperative design that makes urban landscapes function as mini-watersheds.
His aim is to create 50,000 jobs, reduce pollution into Santa Monica
and San Pedro Bays, reduce water imports by 50%, remove the 100 year
flood threat on the L.A. River, improve air quality, and eliminate
"greenwaste" thereby reducing landfill content by 30 percent. And as
if by magic, Lipkis has found funds to support his work. What he has
done is - for instance - persuade one agency that it will not need to
spend $40,000 constructing a storm drain to deal with flooding because
by using that money to infiltrate stormwater in decentralized
locations, the large control mechanism will not be necessary.
T.R.E.E.S. has created a demonstration site, a redesign of a small
family garden. The front and back yards have been reshaped and bermed
to hold and infiltrate stormwater. Yard 'waste' is composted and used
on site. There is a double cistern connected to the downspouts to hold
a supply of water that will be used to irrigate the garden in dry
spells. The cisterns are made with recycled plastic and can double as
a flood control device. In small lots, the cistern can be constructed
as a fence two feet wide and buried six feet in the ground. The
driveway runoff is cleaned in a reservoir of sand and crushed rock
before being released into the stormdrain. The retention grading is
capable of handling a ten inch flash flood that could occur during a
100-year storm event. Trees planted on site complete the picture by
absorbing stormwater in their leaves and roots and cleaning the air.
Lipkis plans to create jobs by installing these home retrofits all over
the City.
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