The Ottawa branch of an environmental initiative that aims to bring community members together to replace unused paved areas with green, leafy spaces has been awarded $10,000 to contribute to the project. Organizers say the project will improve the city’s water absorption and help to create a cleaner Ottawa River.
Green Communities Canada, which runs the nationwide “Depave Paradise” project, made the donation to Ecology Ottawa, which is spearheading the local campaign, called Depave Ottawa.
The program plans to use community “working bees” to remove pavement, asphalt or concrete from privately owned areas, replacing the space with native grass, shrubs and trees. Participants will work with community groups in Centretown, Sandy Hill, Hintonburg, Kitchissippi, Nepean and Beechwood-Vanier to kickstart the project.
This month, Ecology Ottawa will be reviewing 18 possible projects in Ottawa that were submitted online, says Karen Hawley, community network co-ordinator at Ecology Ottawa.
According to the Depave Paradise website, the paving that makes up parking lots, driveways and parts of building complexes interrupts the natural water cycle.
This applies especially in Ottawa, because of Ottawa’s combined sewer-storm water system. Currently, during excessive rain, storm water is diverted into Ottawa’s sewerage system, parts of which then can flow into the Ottawa River.
“When we have heavy rainfall, the sewage is mixed with the storm water and flushed into the river before it gets treated, because it reaches overcapacity. That’s called a combined sewer overflow system and creates a terrible problem that goes into the river,” Hawley says.
“To fix that we need to absorb more of it, and stop it from going into the storm sewers when we have downpour.”
Beth Jones, associate director of Peterborough, Ont.-based Green Communities Canada, says the effects of over-paving are common issues for cities.
“What we’re really trying to talk about is the proliferation of hard surfaces in our cities that means that rainwater has nowhere to go,” she says. “It can’t infiltrate into the soil anymore and that means it picks up all kinds of pollutants when it finds its way into the storm sewers and local streams without being filtered.”
These concerns have prompted several campaigns by Green Communities, including “Depave Paradise” and “Slow Rain,” both of which encourage community engagement and education about an ecological approach to storm water management.
Jones says the depave project around Canada has been liberating for different community groups with aspirations for greener spaces but no clear idea about how to implement the ideas.
Hawley says Depave Ottawa will follow the same process other Depave projects around Canada have used. When first considering a new space, the group will contact the property owner and attempt to secure permission to depave. If permitted by the owner, soil and hydrology tests will then be performed by experts and consultations with paving companies will ensure that the area is safe to work on.
The costs of the contractors and the vegetation will be covered by the grant, while Ecology Ottawa will organize volunteers for the day, and a group to maintain the space in the long run.
“Part of the proposal process is to get a group that is keen to take care of it during the future. We don’t want to depave something and have it be weeds and just a mess,” she says.
Hawley says the aim is to start depaving projects around June, and she’s hoping the idea can be replicated by environmental groups, community associations, schools and churches.
“This hopefully will be kind of a demonstration project where other groups start to see that this is completely possible – we can put a tree here instead of pavement, or grass here instead of pavement or something that is much more absorbent, instead of pavement,” Hawley says.
Depave Paradise has so far depaved 5,412 square feet of surface across Canada, according to its website.