California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE)

The EcoBlock Water Improvement project leverages the existing California Energy Commission-funded Oakland EcoBlock project (https://ecoblock.berkeley.edu/). Led by UC Berkeley, EcoBlock assessed the issues (social, legal, financial, technical) associated with, and the potential of neighborhood-scale retrofitting to increase resilience and rapidly, equitably, and affordably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The pilot involves renovation of an urban block with energy efficiency, electrification, and shared ownership of rooftop solar. Since the block abuts Sausal Creek, this EPA-funded project adds stormwater mitigation.

The EPA program’s goal is to protect and restore waterbodies, such as Sausal Creek, which flows into the San Francisco Bay. In cooperation with the City of Oakland, this water resilience element to the Oakland EcoBlock project provided a pilot case of reducing flow and contaminants entering Sausal Creek, and thus the Bay.

The objective of the EcoBlock Water Improvement project was to retard flows and runoff, increase permeable surface, reduce the mass of contaminants entering the Sausal Creek, improve water quality, and provide shading. The team developed a stormwater mitigation plan, installed a bioretention swale, increased permeability in the sidewalk planting strips, monitored the mitigation work, and analyzed stormwater flow. In addition, the team met with the community to discuss the sidewalk plantings, developed outreach material on the website, conducted asurvey to assess residents on their satisfaction with the stormwater mitigation work, and worked with local community groups and the city of Oakland to document best practices and disseminate findings.