City outlines EPA‑funded green stormwater infrastructure project for Juana Briones Park
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Summary
The committee heard details of an EPA Water Quality Improvement Fund grant that will fund design of a green stormwater infrastructure 'stormwater park' at Juana Briones Park, with monitoring by the San Francisco Estuary Institute, workforce training, and planned public meetings; construction funding remains to be secured.
Pam, project lead on the EPA grant work, briefed the committee on a multi‑partner Water Quality Improvement Fund project focused on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).
She said the grant supports design and construction of partner projects in Santa Clara and a design project in Palo Alto, with the Palo Alto portion proposed for Juana Briones Park. The city’s design contract for the park is currently estimated at about $800,000; roughly half is paid by the EPA grant and half by city funds allocated from the green infrastructure CIP. Construction funding has not yet been secured.
Pam said the project will partner with the San Francisco Estuary Institute to run pre‑ and post‑construction water‑quality monitoring and will include workforce development and maintenance training (in partnership with grassroots ecology and the San Jose Conservation Corps). The project team plans community engagement with at least two public meetings (the first tentatively in June) and additional presentations to the Parks & Recreation Commission before any parks improvement ordinance request would be forwarded to council.
Committee members asked technical questions about capturing drainage from the storm drain pipe (rather than only surface capture). Pam and engineering staff explained that diverting pipe flow into a designed infiltration area allows treatment of the broader drainage area, engineered subsurface materials to increase infiltration capacity, and better pollutant capture than small surface devices would alone.
