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7/30/2014

$394K Grant Funds Innovative Sustainable Green Tech at Suffolk's Grant and Ammerman Campuses.

Rain gardens and cisterns will be installed on two campuses of Suffolk County Community College, at the Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood and Ammerman Campus in Selden, to help manage stormwater flow thanks to a $393,043 Green Innovation Grant Program award from the New York State Environment Facilities Corporation that was approved by the Suffolk County Legislature Tuesday. Construction is expected to begin in November.

“Since 2000, our College has implemented more than 50 green initiatives and this latest grant will enable that work to expand. Combining these varied initiatives with grant resources and our recent decision to establish an Office of Sustainability Programs, we are leading and promoting the importance of emerging renewable technologies,” said Suffolk County Community College President Dr. Shaun McKay.  

President McKay said the project will serve as an innovative teaching tool that can be embedded into various College curricula. Students in courses such as construction technology, geology, and engineering, will have an opportunity to study and monitor the effectiveness of the project model. Additionally, the project offers unique opportunities for the community at large to learn about these innovative technologies and how they can protect and sustain our environment.

The system works by capturing unfiltered and untreated stormwater that is intercepted and redirected into the new rain gardens. The rain gardens absorb and filter a large portion of the stormwater. The water is then captured and stored in cisterns for later use to irrigate the immediate property and filling irrigation trucks as needed.  Overall, the project is expected reduce stormwater runoff by 3,821 cubic feet per year, along with corresponding reductions in sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen.  It will also save more than 276,000 gallons of potable water per year, by reducing water consumption required for irrigating College property. 
 
This is the fourth major grant Suffolk County Community College has received to improve its environmental sustainability.  Previous awards were: the College-wide Water and Energy Conservation Initiative ($675,000 in 2009), the High-Efficiency Condensing Boilers Initiative ($244,000 in 2010), and the Campus-wide Energy Efficiency Project ($306,368 in 2010).