Photo by Steve SandbergUnfortunately, the storm incidents are starting to add up.

Earlier this week, a powerful category F2 tornado and localized storms hit parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. It looks like Mother Nature is sending us a message: storm incidents are on the rise, probably due to global warming. And with that comes flooding, often extreme. And, once again, runoff from our streets contributed heavily to that flooding. Even Mayor Bloomberg, in yesterday's press conference about the storm, couldn't avoid speaking about the runoff problems.

Storm runoff floods streets, picking up debris and other contaminants before heading into the sewer system. Once these large volumes enter the sewers, they mix with untreated sewage and cause discharges of this toxic mix into our surface waters. This happens largely because we don't capture enough of our storm water BEFORE it flows into our waterways through the CSOs (combined sewer outlets).

Did you know that less than 1/10 of an inch of hard rain is all it takes for sewage to enter New York City's waterways?

S.W.I.M. has developed a platform, that includes many great measures that can help mitigate the street runoff problem. The City's PlaNYC 2030 does include many helpful measures, but parts of the plan aren't quite expansive enough. For example, the plan calls for only planting and observing the impact of five storm water capture street trees while tens of thousands of others are being planted, potentially missing broad opportunities for storm water capture.

The City needs to take a closer look at the S.W.I.M . platform and to make its implementation an URGENT priority.