Planning Improvements to Stormwater Infrastructure

The City of El Cerrito has developed a Green Infrastructure Plan to identify and prioritize green infrastructure projects that can be built to reach pollution reduction targets for PCBs and mercury by 2020, 2030, and 2040. “Green Infrastructure” refers to projects that utilize natural processes to slow water down, thereby reducing flood risk and improving water quality. Examples of green infrastructure include rain gardens and “living roofs”, such as the one located at El Cerrito’s Korematsu Middle School. The benefits of Green Infrastructure include: improvements to water quality, the recharging of groundwater supplies, flood mitigation, habitat creation, creek or wetland restoration, and other community benefits, such as urban greening, and traffic calming.

The City has already built a number of rain gardens including those at the Recycling + Environmental Resource Center, the City Hall and Public Safety Building, on the Ohlone Greenway at Fairmount Avenue, on San Pablo Avenue at Eureka Avenue, and on San Pablo Avenue at Madison Avenue.

The Green Infrastructure Plan is focused on integrating green infrastructure into projects identified in the Storm Drain Master Plan update, which is currently in development, and other planning documents. The Plan prioritizes projects for implementation and sets targets for the City to implement through 2040.

The Green Infrastructure Plan is available online (Click here to view). The Plan was approved by the El Cerrito City Council on September 17, 2019.

For more information about the Green Infrastructure Plan, please contact the City’s Clean Water Program Coordinator, Will Provost, at (510) 525-7622 or wprovost@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us.