{"id":4402,"date":"2009-11-24T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2009-11-24T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blitransfer.wpengine.com\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2017-06-21T14:22:18","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T19:22:18","slug":"epa-testing-permeable-surfaces-green-parking-lots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/2009\/11\/24\/epa-testing-permeable-surfaces-green-parking-lots\/","title":{"rendered":"EPA Testing Permeable Surfaces for Green Parking Lots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing makes a city\/suburb look like a concrete jungle more than acres and acres of asphalt parking lots.\u00a0 Not only are parking lots an eyesore, they also are a source of water pollution due to urban runoff<\/a> containing oil, grease, pesticides, bacteria, salts, animal waste, trash, heavy metals, etc.\u00a0 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)<\/a> is testing out a new permeable surface material to make parking lots greener and ease the problem of urban runoff. <\/p>\n

Photo by kangsoon<\/a>\"EPA<\/a>
EPA testing out greener parking lot surfaces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to the Guardian<\/a><\/em>, “Scientists estimate that up to 10% of land in US cities is now devoted to car parks…”\u00a0 That’s almost 350,000 acres<\/a> of parking lots!<\/p>\n

Stormwater run-off from roads, drains and parking dumps the equivalent of more than a dozen Exxon Valdez tankers of oil directly into US rivers each year, in addition to dangerous levels of heavy metals, pesticides, bacteria and industrial pollutants. Traditional car parks also encourage sprawl, contribute to urban heat islands and offer little biodiversity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the EPA’s Edison, New Jersey<\/a> facility, scientists are testing “a variety of different permeable pavement materials and rain gardens<\/a>.”\u00a0 The study includes ten years of data collection focusing on each surface’s effectiveness at removing pollutants and filtering water back into the ground.\u00a0 The parking lots will be in use during the study “to accurately evaluate how the different types of pavement handle traffic and vehicle-related pollution like leaking oil.”\u00a0 EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou<\/a> explains, “By evaluating different designs and materials, this study will help us develop strategies to lessen the environmental impacts of parking lots across the country and make our communities more sustainable.”<\/p>\n

Do we really have ten years to spare for the study of the effects of the new parking lot surfaces?\u00a0 As the Guardian<\/em> points out, it doesn’t really matter if you are driving hybrid or a Humvee when we are all parking on the same surfaces.\u00a0 It would seem that only a couple of years of data would be sufficient to make recommendations for new parking lots surfaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing makes a city\/suburb look like a concrete jungle more than acres and acres of asphalt parking lots.\u00a0 Not only are parking lots an eyesore, they also are a source of water pollution due to urban runoff containing oil, grease, pesticides, bacteria, salts, animal waste, trash, heavy metals, etc.\u00a0 The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[167,2854,676,1625,1698,1861,2272],"yst_prominent_words":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/parkinglot.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4402"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelivingideas.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}