Managing Stormwater Runoff - Essay Example

Cost Projection To The Director, New York Department of Environmental Protection Agency From Deputy Director Subject Proposed Pilot Project for Managing Storm Water Runoff Date November 12, 2014 Purpose: The memo proposes a pilot project for managing stormwater runoffs in the city of New York. It highlights the details of the pilot project and proposes a financial plan for consideration by New York City Department of Environmental Protection Agency. Description of the project The proposed pilot project is for managing a feet stormwater runoff from impervious regions. The pilot project seeks funding from the Department of Environmental Protection of New York City. The project is part of the green infrastructure system that the environmental agency commenced at the beginning of the year. The pilot project is eligible for scrutiny and financial consideration as it falls among the green infrastructures programs in the city. In addition, the pilot project is part of the environmental program that the agency showed interest in supporting. The project involves constructing green roofs and blue roofs within NY City as a measure of reducing stormwater runoff. Blue roofs retain stormwater. However, they are not vegetated. The pilot project involves the construction of small-scale weirs at the rooftops that drain inlets and create temporary ponds for gradual release of stormwater. On the other hand, green roofs comprise a vegetative layer in a designed soil that rests on top of the drainage layer. The green roofs are relatively costly than the blue roofs, but they can absorb large amounts of water. The pilot project will scale down the full-scale project into smaller projects that will run for a given duration. The management will then access the benefits and compare the cost of sustaining the water management approach to other approaches under the same conditions of the environment. Installing source controls on the rooftops of the houses in NY City is a vital strategy that the agency needs to consider to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff from entering the sewers. A third of New York City consists of impervious regions. The massive surface of the rooftops in NY City is a characteristic that necessitates the construction of an effective green infrastructure. The pilot project is worth considering due to precision and high level of accuracy in representing the full-scale project. The actual project is big, and the compilation of data involving costs is complex. Additionally, the magnitude of the errors derived from the full-scale projects could be massive. The pilot project is necessary to ensure the reduction in the magnitude of the errors when implementing the actual projects (Mancuso, 2009). In addition, the efficiency of the projects as depicted by the pilot project will give an assurance for venturing into a sustainable green infrastructure project. Proposed Budget Proposed Budget for Pilot Project I Direct Costs A. Salaries and Wages Amount Subtotal Salaries $ 1000 Hourly Wages (Time and Rate) $ 2000 Salary and Wages Subtotal $ 3000 $ 3000 B Operation and Maintenance 1 Supplies $ 500 2 Travel $ 500 3 Communication $ 400 4 Other $ 100 Operation and Maintenance Sub-total $ 1500 $ 1500 C Equipment $ 5000 $5000 D Total Direct Costs $ 9500 II Overheads and Indirect Costs $ 500 TOTAL COST OF THE PILOT PROJECT $10,000 Justification for the Allocations The total allocation of the projects will be $ 10000. The total figure is a tenth of the total cost of the full-scale project. The cost of the pilot project settled on is suitable, as it will not cause large errors when translating or converting the costs of a small project to the cost of the full-scale project. Overall, the cost of labor amounts to thirty percent. The labor cost has to be lower than the total equipment cost. However, the cost will cater for the personnel who will be monitoring and collecting information about how effective the pilot project is working. There will be employees working on a permanent basis, and others will work on shift basis. The shift workers monitoring the program will earn an hourly rate which will be two-thirds of the total wage bill. It is because there will be a few full-time workers employed in the system. The operation and maintenance cost of the pilot projects is relatively low. It takes only 15% of the total cost of the project. It is because, after the construction of the project, there will be fewer activities carried out to keep it running. The project is a self-sustaining system and requires less attention to run. However, a 1% of the cost of the project will be reserved for emergencies. The cost of the pieces of equipment will take half of the total allocation. It is because the allocation includes purchasing the materials for constructing the vegetated roof systems, including the rain gardens, vegetated swales, and the porous paving. Additionally, the cost will cater for the purchase of materials for constructing detentions systems including, cisterns, and reuse systems. The outcome during the time of running a pilot project determines the success of the projects. The evaluation of the results from the pilot project including cost data and efficiency data will indicate whether the project is successful (Cohen, Eimicke & Heikkila, 2013). The evaluators will gauge the performances against the set scale of the pilot project of the blue and the green rooftops in managing the water. If the technicians realize that, it works effectively in comparison to other related approaches, they may regard it as successful. The potential scale of the project if the pilot goes well exceeds the capacity of the stormwater. The estimated 1” of storm water in the impervious area is around 14000 liters. However, the full scale of the project stretches to 15000 liters. It means that the volume that the system can manage exceeds the volume of the stormwater available. Hence, the project is suitable for use in managing stormwater in NYC. The technicians in the project can bring the project to scale by working with the proportionality ratios. The measurements of the materials, costs used in the pilot plant must apply during integration. The dimensions and specifications of the pilot system are significant as it ensures that the constructors gain confidence while scaling-up the project (Wiseman, 2010). Therefore, the pilot project depicts positive performance and can assure the agency of high levels of success if considered. References Cohen, S., Eimicke, W., & Heikkila, T. (2013). The effective public manager (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Mancuso, R. (2009). Environmental cost management. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Wiseman, B. (2010). Budgeting. New York, NY: Weigl Publishers. Read More